although the Pagans worshipped several deities, yet their doctors declared these to be but so many different names of their great god Jupiter, who was called in the air Juno, in the sea Neptune, in the earth Pluto, in hell Pro'serpina, in war Mars, in vineyards Bacchus, in the woods Diana; yea, all these other inferior gods and goddesses, as Opis, Lucina, Cunina, Fortuna, Rumina, and the rest of that 'numberless company, were "all of them but one and the same Jupiter," who, according to the diverse and various benefits that he bestowed upon mankind, was worshipped under different names, and appellations suitable thereunto; "which being so," as the said father continues there to write, "what would they lose, if in a more prudent compendium they did worship but one God? For, what part of him would be despised, when he himself is worshipped?" Homer and Hesiod were the first, as Athenagoras relates from Herodotus, "who invented the names, generations, titles, honors, arts, and shapes of the Grecian gods;" and yet Justin Martyr affirms, that not only Pythagoras and Plato, with the rest of the wise philosophers, but that even this blind, superstitious, and idolatrous Homer, in the golden chain of his gods and goddesses, doth at length place all the power and dominion in one supreme

God, declaring the other gods to be so far dis tant from the deity, that they were to be reckoned amongst men.

Lactantius in the first book of his institutions, both learnedly and largely proves from the Heathen poets and philosophers, that they believed but one supreme and self-existent God; the like he doth again, in his book of the anger of God, where he shews, that although Plato, Pythagoras, Hermes, Antisthenes, and several others, who were too many to be all mentioned, made use of several names, yet they all agreed, that there was but one power which governed the world.

There is a remarkable passage in Arnobius to this purpose, wherein an Heathen is represented, complaing, "that the Christians wrongfully accused those of his religion, to deny a supreme God; whereas," saith he, "he is by us called Jupiter, and is esteemed the greatest being, spacious temples, and august capitols being built and dedicated unto him.". Unto which Arnobius amongst other things pertinently replies, "let it be so as you say, that your Jupiter and the omnipotent God are one and the same: But why then do you unjustly persecute us? Why do you dread the very mentioning of our name, as the worst omen, if you worship the

same God with us? Or why, in the same cause should the inferior gods be kind to you, and enemies unto us?" But unto this the Heathen answers, "the gods are not enemies, to you be cause you adore the omnipotent God, but because you deify, and with your daily prayers worship a man that was born, and which is most infamous, one that was put to death with vile persons on a cross."

So that from these few quotations it is most evident, that the generality of the Heathens, or at least the wisest and best part of them, believed but one infinite, supreme and eternal God; from whence it follows by a natural consequence, that the unity of the godhead professed in the creed, could not principally be intended against them.

It remains therefore, that we search elsewhere; and that, since the occasion of this clause was chiefly taken neither from Jews nor Gentiles, we fix it on some false and heretical Christians: which we have the greater reason to do, seeing not long after the apostles days, and even in those days themselves, there were several sects and divisions of heretics who embraced tenets contrary hereunto, as also to what immediately follows concerning God, that he is the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth," and to several other arti

cles, which were all inserted in the creed, on purpose to oppose those heresies; from the consideration of the nature and particular points whereof, it necessarily follows, that the designed meaning of those articles is only to be fetched and brought: The books of Irenæus will be of great use to us herein, and afford us the greatest light into those parts of the creed of any book that I know, since therein we have the amplest and clearest relation of the ancient heresies of the Gnostics, Marcionites, and others; against which, a great part of the creed was levelled and intended; and in particular this clause of one God, which was inserted to require our belief, that there is but one infinite, supreme, beginningless and eternal God; and that this one God, and none other, was the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of all other beings whatsoever, "almighty, maker of heaven and earth:" so that this expression of one God is to be understood, either absolutely, without regard to any other article in the creed, and so it denotes our faith, that there is but one eternal, independent, selfexistent God; or relatively, as it hath reference to what immediately follows, and so it signifies, that one and the same God, and not a different or diverse being from him, is "the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”

As for the first of these, that hereby it is

professed, that there is but one infinite, om nipotent, eternal, and self-existent God, the very clause itself, "I believe in God;" but es pecially, as it is in all the most primitive creeds, whether Greek or Latin, "I believe in one God," puts it beyond doubt or ques tion. That which is farther incumbent on me, is, to shew the heresies that gave occasion for this profession in the creed, and to prove that they were the real causes thereof.

As for the heresies, I suppose them to have been those of the Valentinians, Cerdonians, Marcionites, and others, who, as Irenæus assures us, were all the disciples and successors of that first grand heretic Simon Magus:" As for the Valentinians, the most considerable branch of the Gnostics, there was an exact agreement betwixt them in the same Principles; but their opinions were various and inconstant, for which they are frequently reflected on by Irenæus. Some of them as serted two coeval and coexistent principles, God and Matter, as Droserius a disputant for this sect, in the dialogues of Origen, affirmed "matter to be coeternal with God;" and Hermogenes, who was living when Tertullian wrote against him, maintained, "that matter was coeternal with the Lord, that it was nei ther born nor made, but was without both be