to the opinion of Marcion, he derived his body from the flesh of the Virgin, and did not bring it from heaven with him."

But the birth of Christ of the Virgin Mary, but not only employed by the composers of the creed to express the subject from whence he derived the matter and substance of his body, but also to assert the reality and certainty of his body; that it was not fantastical and imaginary, but substantial and real; under which notion, it may be considered in cortjunction with our Saviour's passion, Cru. cifixion, death and burial, which were all introduced to exclude those heresies, and the abettors of them, who maintained, That the incarnation of Christ was not true and real, but only in appearance and shew, a mere delusion and cheating impression on our senses which will not only appear from what shall be hereafter said under each of those particulars, but also from the various manner of express→ ing these acts of humiliation in the ancient creeds In both of the creeds of Irenæus, the passion is alone put to signify his sufferings, crucifixion, death and burial in two of Teftullian's, the crucifixion by itself, doth the same; and generally our Lord's crucifixion comprehended his passion, and his burial included his death; as it is in the creeds of Leo

Magnus, Ruffinus, Petrus Chrysologus, Maximus Taurinensis, and others and sometimes on the contrary, his passion contained his crucifixion, as in a creed of Origen's; and his death comprehended his burial, as in the creed of Ignatius: which variety of expression naturally leads us to this conclusion, that seeing these terms did mutually include or infer each other, and either of them were indifferently mentioned, that therefore they were primari ly intended for one and the same thing which, as it will be proved, was to declare, that the body of Christ was real, true and material:

The first creed, wherein they are expressed all four together, is a creed of St. Austin's, who mentions them according to our present form, "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried;" from whom, as it is probable the compilers of our creed received It, who judged not one of these particulars to be a superfluous opposition to this heresy, but all of them necessary, since they were each of them particularly impugned and denied, and were most fit and proper to confute and gainsay these sottish and blasphemous here, tics.

That this abominable tenet was subversive

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of the whole gospel, the primitive writers a» gainst those false doctors have abundantly shewn; sufficient whereof may be seen in the remaining works of Irenæus, Tertullian and Epiphanius, wherein it is clearly demonstra ted, that if Christ had been incarnated and suffered only in shew and appearance, he had been the greatest deceiver and liar that ever was in the world; his murderers would have been excused, and freed from that most hor rid and enormous crime; he could not possibly have been the Saviour of mankind, neither should we have been at all obliged to him, but should have been miserably cheated and deluded by him; and it would be our greatest folly to suffer for his sake, who only prètended to have so done for ours.

These being then the natural and tremen dous consequences of this horrid and porten. tous opinion, it seems almost incredible that any should ever have entertained or believed it but the primitive records contain too numerous spectacles of such unhappy and misguided souls, who even at the dawning and first appearance of the gospel-sun, endeavor. ed to obscure it by these black and sulphurous vapours; the incarnation of our Saviour was no sooner preached, but it was almost as quickly denied, and that not only by Heathens

and foreigners, but even by those who prea tended to be his disciples and followers: una to whom it is probable, St. John refers in his general epistle, where he writes, "that there were then in the world certain antichristian spirits, who would not confess that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh :" which ungod. ly spirits were without doubt the Gnostics, who, though crumbled amongst themselves into innumerable sects and divisions, yet uni versally agreed in denying the truth and real ity of our Saviour's body, affirming it to have been fantastical and imaginary, only in shew and appearance; from whence they were call ed Docete, and Phantasiaste, the father of all who was Simon Magus, who taught " that he was Christ; and that in the time of Tibe rius he appeared in shew, in the person of the son:" now that which Simon Magus asserted of himself, when he imagined himself to be the son, other succeeding heretics affirmed it of the son himself; as Menander, his imme diate follower and disciple, Cerdon, Marcion, with Saturninus, Basilides, and others, who all affirmed, "that Christ had no substantial flesh, but that his body was a mere phantasin and apparition, which was neither really born, nor truly suffered." I might add the names of several other heretics, who embraced this same unhappy opinion; but to endeavor the

enumeration of them all, would be too tedious and burdensome, seeing from the very first promulgation of the gospel, throughout an un, interrupted series of several generations, there ceased not to be some or others under the names of Simonians, Valentinians, Manichees, and the like, who did blasphemously deny and ridicule this necessary and fundamental point, that Jesus Christ is manifested in real and sub stantial flesh,

The unconstrained consequences therefore of this heresy being so hideous, and the abet tors thereof so numerous, and appearing un der such various shapes and divers forms, it is no wonder that the compilers of the creed introduced so many terms in opposition there unto.

Now that the birth of our Saviour was intended for this end, is evident from the creed of Ignatius, wherein, in contradiction to these fantastical heretics, he expressed this article, not simply by Christ's being born, but by his being truly born of the Virgin Mary; and in the beginning of his epistle to the Smyrna ans, he "glorifies God for their firmness in the immovable faith, that Christ was truly of the seed of David according to the flesh, and truly born of a Virgin," unto which may be sub