12 Petavius discredits the authority of the Primitive Fathers. INTROD. fathers of the first three centuries, to whom Reformed [13] Catholics are wont to make their chief appeal,-as being persons to whom the principal articles of the Christian faith 1 satis per- were not as yet sufficiently understood and developed'; 2. That œcumenical councils have the power of framing2, or, 2 condendi. as Petavius says, of settling and developing 3 new articles 3 constitu- of faith; by which principle it may seem that sufficient protefaciendi. vision is made for those additions, which the fathers of Trent specta et patefacta. endi et pa patched on to the rule of faith, and thrust upon the Christian world; though not even in this way will the Roman faith stand good; since the assembly at Trent is to be called any thing rather than a general council. But so it is the masters of that school have no scruples in building their pseudo-catholic faith on the ruins of the faith which is truly catholic. The divine oracles themselves, must, forsooth, be found guilty of too great obscurity, and the most holy doctors, bishops, and martyrs of the primitive Church be accused of heresy, in order that, by whatever means, the faith and authority of the degenerate Roman Church may be kept safe and sound. And yet these sophists (of all things) execrate us as if we were so many accursed Hams, and deriders and despisers ofthe venerable fathers of the Church; whilst they continually boast that they themselves religiously follow the faith of the ancient doctors, and reverence their writings to the utmost. That Petavius, however, wrote those passages with this wicked design, I would not venture to affirm for certain, leaving it to the judgment of that God who knoweth the hearts. At the same time, what the Jesuit has written, as it is most pleasing to modern Arians, (who on this account with one consent look up to and salute him as their patron,) so we confidently pronounce it to be manifestly repugnant to the truth, and most unjust and insulting to the holy fathers, whether those of the council of Nice, or those who preceded it. 9. For this is the plan of the work which I have undertaken, -to shew clearly that what the Nicene fathers laid down [14] concerning the divinity of the Son, in opposition to Arius and other heretics, was in substance (although sometimes perhaps in other words and in a different mode of expression) taught by all the approved fathers and doctors of the Church, without a single exception, who flourished before the period of the council of Nice down from the very age of § 8-10. the Apostles. And, O most holy Jesus, the co-eternal Word of the eternal Father, I, the chief of sinners, and the least of Thy servants, do humbly beseech Thee that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to bless this labour of mine, undertaken (as Thou, O searcher of hearts, dost know) for Thine honour and the good of Thy holy Church; and to succour and help mine infirmity in this most weighty work, for Thine infinite mercy and most ready favour towards them that love Thee. Amen! 10. The Nicene Creed, as it is quoted by Eusebius: in his epistle to his own diocese of Cæsarea, by Athanasius in his letter to Joviana De Fide, and by other writers, is as follows: Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα, παντοκράτορα, πάντων ὁρατῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτων ποιητήν· καὶ εἰς τὸν ἕνα Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, γεννηθέντα ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς μονογενῆ, τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ Πατρός Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ, φῶς ἐκ φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρὶ, δι ̓ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, τά τε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· τὸν δι ̓ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα, καὶ σαρκωθέντα, ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, παθόντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ̔́Αγιον. Τοὺς δὲ λέγοντας, Ην ποτε, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν, καὶ πρὶν γεννηθῆναι, οὐκ ἦν, καὶ ὅτι ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐγένετο, ἢ ἐξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας φάσκοντας εἶναι, ἢ κτιστὸν, ἢ τρεπτὸν, ἢ ἀλλοιωτόν [15] τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τούτους ἀναθεματίζει ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἀποστολικὴ ἐκκλησία. i. e., “ We believe in one God the Father, Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; who, for us men and for our salvation, came down, and was incarnate, and was made Man, and suffered, and rose again the third day, and ascended into 6 INTROD. the heavens, who cometh to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. But as for those who say, There was a time when He was not; and, Before He was begotten He was not, and, He was made out of what existed not; or who assert that the Son of God is of another hypostasis or essence, or that He was created, or is capable of change or alteration, them the Catholic and Apostolic Church doth anathematize." 11. The doctrine respecting the Son of God, contained in this Creed, so far as it concerns our present design, may be reduced to these heads. THE FIRST; Concerning the πpovπaptis, or Pre-existence, of the Son of God, before [His Incarnation of] the blessed Virgin Mary, nay, rather, before the foundation of the world; and concerning the creation of the universe through the Son. THE SECOND; concerning the oμoovolov ("of one substance") or Consubstantiality, of the Son; that He is not of any such essence as is created or subject to change; but of a nature altogether the same with His Father, that is, that He is very God. THE THIRD; concerning the ovvatdiov, the Co-eternity of the Son; that is, His existence co-eternal with His Father. THE FOURTH; concerning the subordination of the Son to sui aucto- the Father, as to Him who is His author and principle', which is expressed by the Nicene fathers in two ways, in that, first, they call the Father "One God ;" and then, in that they say that the Son is "God of God, Light of Light," &c. rem ac principium. [16] On all these points we shall make it manifest, that the faith of the ante-Nicene fathers is quite in harmony with the Nicene Creed; going through each particular in the order in which we have just proposed them. BOOK I. ON THE PRE-EXISTENCE OF THE SON OF GOD; BEFORE [HIS INCARNA- 7 [17] CHAPTER I. THE PROPOSITION STATED; AND THE FORMER PART OF IT, NAMELY, THE PRE- 1. WHAT the opinion of the Catholic fathers, who preceded the council of Nice, was concerning the Pre-existence of the Son of God, we will unfold in the following PROPOSITION. BOOK I. CHAP. I. § 1. The Catholic Doctors of the first three centuries all with one accord taught that Jesus Christ, that is, He who was afterwards called Jesus Christ, (before He was made man, that is, before His birth, according to the flesh, of the most blessed Virgin,) existed in another nature far surpassing the human; that He appeared to holy men, as a prelude to His Incarnation; that He always presided over and provided for that Church, which He was afterwards to redeem with His own blood; and that thus from the beginning the "whole order of the divine administration'" (as Tertullian' disposiexpresses ita) "had its course through Him;" and that moreover, before the foundations of the world were laid He was present with God His Father, and that through Him this universe was created. a [A primordio omnem ordinem divinæ dispositionis per ipsum decucurrisse. -Adv. Prax., c. 16. p. 510.] tionis. 1 ON THE PRE-EX OF THE SON. [18] 16 Appearances of the Son under the Old Testament. Though this was never denied by the Arians, it may stil ISTENCE perhaps be worth while to demonstrate it briefly against othe opposers of the catholic doctrine concerning our Saviour In this proposition we assert two things (in a kind of cli max') concerning the primitive fathers, namely, that they be quasi per incremen- lieved and taught, I. That Jesus Christ, before He becam tum quodman, existed, appeared to holy men, &c.: II. That He was present with God the Father before the foundations of the world were laid, and that through Him this universe was created. dam. [19] Λόγος. 2. As to the former part of the proposition, the fathers of the first centuries agree in teaching, that the Son of God frequently appeared to holy men under the Old Testament and further they expound of the same Son of God Himself all those appearances, in which the name of Jehovah and divine honours are attributed to Him who appears, although at other times perhaps He is called an angel. One who is ignorant of this, is a stranger to the writings of the fathers. For the sake, however, of students in divinity, who perhaps have no yet advanced to the reading of the fathers, (with which certainly next after the holy Scriptures, they ought to have commenced their theological studies,) I wish to produce here some testi monies out of the writings of those ancient authors. 3. Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho, shews at length that it was Christ who appeared to Abraham at the oak in Mamre; that He was that Lord, who received from the Lord in Heaven, è Пaтρòs Tŵv öλwv, that is, from the Father of all, to send down upon Sodom a shower of fire and brimstone; who appeared in dreams to Jacob, wrestled with him in the form of a man, comforted him in his exile; who lastly, appeared to Moses in the burning bush d. 4. Irenæus held the same opinion as Justin concerning Him who appeared to Moses and Abraham: for he thus writes"; "He, therefore, who was worshipped by the prophets as the living God, is the God of the living, and His Word2 b Page 275. [56. p. 150.] Page 277. [p. 152.] d Page 280-282. [58, 59. pp. 155, 156.] e Qui igitur a prophetis adorabatur Deus vivus, hic est vivorum Deus, et Verbum (Adyos) ejus, qui et locutus est Moysi, qui et Sadducæos redarguit qui et resurrectionem donavit.-Adv Hæres. iv. 11. ed. Paris. 1639. [c. 5 p. 232.] |