none save heretics, who, in parties of scattered individuals, had gone out from the great, and more ancient body of the Church Catholic.*

Mr. Faber quotes, in confirmation of this position, Ireneus, Tertullian, Hegesippus, and urges in confirmation, all the previous lines of proof, and the fact that it never was denied, by the ancient heretics,† "and hence, all heretics, says Ireneus, are much later than the Bishops, to whom the Apostles delivered the churches." "Whatever is first," says Tertullian, "is true; whatever is later, is spurious."

Now, when this argument was originally used, the fundamental fact, it will be observed, required no historical establishment. Without an effort, it was palpable and obvious to every individual throughout the entire world of christianity. Each person was himself an eyewitness. In the days of Ireneus and Tertullian, the fact of the universal Trinitarianism of the whole Catholic Church in all its mutually symbolizing and mutually communicating branches, no more demanded the formality of a grave historic demonstration, than the fact of the universal Trinitarianism of the entire reformed Church would now demand such a substantiation. Those two early Fathers appealed to what was then familiarly known to every christian; and upon the notorious fact, thus appealed to, they framed their celebrated argument, from universality and prescription.

A SEVENTH line of proof of the Trinitarianism of the early christians, is the certain connection which can be proved to subsist between that system of doctrine and the Apostles, as its first promulgators. Ireneus of Lyons, was born in the year 97; and he wrote or published his work against the Heresies of the Age, in the year 175. While a young man, as he himself teaches us, he was a pupil of Polycarp; which Polycarp was himself the disciple of the Apostles, and eminently so of their last survivor, the apostle St. John. Hence, though he actually wrote or published, not earlier than the year 175; yet his strictly proper evidence is, in truth, much more ancient; for, it may justly be deemed the personal evidence of his youth; that is to say, the personal evidence of a witness, who was living, and learning, and observing, about the year 120, or only about twenty years after St. John's departure. And hence, on the principle already laid down, the church of Lyons, over which

*See Iren. Adv. haer., lib. i., c. 2, pp. 34-36: lib. iii., c. 4, § 2, p. 172. Tertul. de praescript. ad. haer., § 4, Oper., p. 100.

†See vol. i., B. I., ch. x., pp. 245-271.

he presided as Bishop, stood, through his instrumentality, though toward the latter end of the second century, separated only by a single descent, from the Apostles themselves. Let us again consider one of the several statements of doctrine made by Ireneus. Speaking of this doctrine of the Trinity, and its kindred topics, he says: "The Church, though dispersed through the whole world to the ends of the earth, hath received this Faith from the Apostles and their disciples. She believes in one God, the Father Almighty; who hath made the heavens and the earth, and the seas, and all things in them: And in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God; who became incarnate for our salvation: And in the Holy Ghost; who, through the prophets, preached the dispensations, and the advents, and the birth from the virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the incarnate ascension to heaven of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ; and his coming from heaven in the glory of the Father, to recapitulate all things, and to raise up all flesh of all mankind, in order that to Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the good pleasure of the invisible Father, every knee may bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth and in order that he may in all things execute just judgment." "Having," he adds, "received this declaration and this faith, the church, though scattered throughout the whole world, diligently guards it, as if inhabiting only a single house; and, in like manner, she believes these matters, as having one soul and the same heart; and she harmoniously preaches and declares and believes them, as possessing only one mouth. For through the world, there are indeed dissimilar languages; but the force of this tradition is one and the same. And neither do the churches, which are founded in Germany, believe otherwise, or deliver otherwise; nor do those, which are founded in the Iberias, or among the Celts, or in the East, or in Egypt, or in Libya, or in the central regions of the earth. But as God's creatures, the sun is one and the same in the whole world; so, likewise the preaching of the truth everywhere shines, and enlightens all men who are willing to come to the knowledge of the truth." ""*

Such is the testimony of Ireneus: and that this was also taught by Polycarp, who formed the intervening link between Ireneus and the Apostles, Ireneus distinctly affirms. "Polycarp

*Iren. Adv. haer. lib. i., c. 2, 3, pp. 34-36.

also," he says, "who was not only instructed by the Apostles, and conversed with many of them, but who was likewise by the Apostles made Bishop of the Church of Smyrna, in Asia: this Polycarp always taught us those things which he had learned from the Apostles themselves, which he also delivered to the church, and which alone are true. All the churches in Asia, and they who succeeded Polycarp, down to the present day, give testimony to these things.*

Now, among the Asiatic churches thus appealed to, Polycarp had been a burning and a shining light, for the space of more than half a century; which period of more than half a century had expired only twenty-eight years previous to the making of the appeal on the part of Ireneus. Therefore, the churches of Asia, and the successors of Polycarp, could not possibly have then been ignorant as to the mere naked fact of what doctrines were really preached by Polycarp.

The justice of the appeal is however directly evinced by the testimony, both of Polycarp himself, and of the members of his church who witnessed his martyrdom, which has been already quoted, and by the testimony of Justin Martyr, whose conversion took place shortly after the year 130, or but little more than thirty years subsequent to the death of St. John. Hence, the doctrinal testimony contained in any of his writings, is, in fact, the doctrinal testimony of the year 130; for, about that time it was, that Justin was catechetically instructed in the principles of christianity. About the year 130, therefore, the whole christian church, in doctrine and in worship, was avowedly Trinitarian.

The testimony of Justin Martyr, be it also observed, vouches for the yet additional fact, that the christians of that day were ready to deliver their faith and their practice to all who should wish to learn them, even as they themselves had been previously taught the same faith, and the same practice, by the regularly appointed catechists, their own ecclesiastically authorized instructors and predecessors. The whole body of christians, in the year 130, therefore, both themselves held, and were ready to teach to others, the doctrine and adoration of God, even the Father, and the Son, and the prophetic Spirit.

The conclusion to which we have thus been regularly brought, perfectly agrees with the testimony of Ireneus; and so far as I can judge, the final result, on the legitimate principles of his

*Iren. Adv. haer., lib. iii., c. 3, p. 171.

†See Faber, vol. i., B. I., ch. xi. pp. 272-286.

torical evidence, is the positive Apostolical antiquity of the doctrine of the Trinity.

There are many works in which the opinions of the early fathers on this doctrine will be found collated. Of these, the principal one was, A Vindication of the worship of the Son and the Holy Ghost against the exceptions of Mr. Theophilus Lindsey, from Scripture and Antiquity: by Thomas Randolph, D. D., President of C. C. C.; and Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, Oxford, 1775. Bishop Bull's works: 1. Defence of the Licene Creed. 2. The Judgment of the Catholic Church of the three first centuries, concerning the necessity of believing that our Lord Jesus Christ is true God, asserted against M. Simon Episcopius and others. 3. The Primitive and Apostolical Tradition concerning the received doctrine in the Catholic Church of our Saviour Jesus Christ's Divinity, asserted and plainly proved against Daniel Zuicker, a Prussian, and his late disciples in England. Of these, Dr. Burton's Testimonies of the Ante-Nicene Fathers to the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, which is already very scare, is eminently full, candid and satisfactory.* From this I will quote the following declaration: "The first question for inquiry is, whether the writers of the first three centuries were unanimous; whether one uniform system of belief concerning the Son and the Holy Ghost can be expected from their writings, or whether they opposed and contradicted each other. Even if we should adopt the latter conclusion, it would by no means follow that they held the Socinian or Unitarian notions. Pains have been taken to rescue some of them from an inclination to Arianism; and the present work may shew whether the attempt has not been successful; but there is not even a shadow of proof, that any one of these writers approach to the Socinian or

*Dr. Burton's Testimonies of the Ante-Nicene Fathers to the Doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, published in Oxford, 1831. It contains the names of the following writers: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Lucian, Ircneus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, Hippolitus, Origen, Eppian, Novatian, Dionysius, Alexandrius, Romanus, Theognostus, Alexander, Athanasius, Eusebius, Council of Nice. In every case, also, he gives the original, as well as the translation. See also his Testimonies of the Ante-Nicene Fathers to the Divinity of the Son of God.

Besides these distinct works on the subject, are the works of Dr. Waterland, in ten vols. 8 vo. Oxford, 1833, chiefly occupied with voluminous and full discussions, including the testimony of the Fathers, on the subject of the Trinity. See also Cary's Testimonies of the Fathers of the first four centuries, to the doctrine of the XXXIX Articles, Art. 1. Welchman on the same subject. Smith's Testimony to the Messiah, Appendix. Suiceri Thesaurus. Eccl. sub. nom. Tρiae, &c. Hagenbach's Hist. of Christian Doctrine, vol. i., pp. 49, 50, 222, 123. And in a variety of other works.

Unitarian tenets. It will however be seen, that the Fathers of the first three centuries were perfectly unanimous. There are no signs of doubt, or dissension, in any of their writings. Some of them were engaged in controversy, while others merely illustrated Scripture, or applied themselves to practical theology. In all of them, we find that the same uniform mode of expression concerning the Son and the Holy Ghost. The testimony is collected with equal plainness from the casual and incidental remarks, as from the laboured conclusion of the apologist and the polemic."