suggested the idea of the Trimourti, however that tradition may have been disfigured and obscured'. 3 Plato and other Greek Philosophers, are generally considered as having expounded a doctrine, which bears some resemblance to the doctrine of the Gospels2. If it be so, we some like source Some think Plato may, probably enough, trace his sentiments to of patriarchal tradition or Jewish Creed. had it of Pherecydes of Syros, who may perhaps have learned it from an Eastern source. Others, that, according to the testimony of Numenius, Plato gained a knowledge of Hebrew doctrine during his thirteen years residence in Egypt3. But on the other hand, it has been argued that Plato's view of the Logos was utterly unlike the Christian belief in the Trinity. It is said, he never spoke of the Word or 'Reason of God as a distinctly existing person; it was only a mode or relation, in which the operations of the Deity might be contemplated1.' After the Christian Revelation indeed, philosophic Christians, and still more philosophic heretics, early used Platonic terms to express Christian doctrine. Hence the language of philosophy became tinged with the language of Christianity: hence too, at a very early period, the heretics, using the language of Platonism, corrupted Christianity with Platonic philosophy. Hence again, St. John, who wrote after the rise of such heretics, uses language, which they had introduced; yet not in their sense of such language, but with the very object of 1 On the Trinity of Zoroaster and the Magi, see Cudworth, Intell. Syst. B. 1. ch. rv. § 16, &c. On the appearance of a Trinity in the Egyptian Pantheism, see § 18. Vol. II. p. 194. 2 On Plato's Trinity, see Cudworth, B. 1. ch. IV. § 24. Vol. I. p. 300. $34. Vol. III. pp. 54, 82, &c. 3 On the statement of Numenius, who asks, What is Plato, but Moses in Greek?' see Lardner's Test. of Anc. Heathens, ch. xxxv. Allix's Judgment of the Jewish Church, ch. xx. p. 286, 4 See Burton, Bampton Lect., p. 213. * correcting their errors'. It is clear then that, in more ways than one, we may account for the fact, that St. John used terms, which had been used before the Christian Revelation; and the sneer of the infidel, which hints that he learned his doctrine from Plato, becomes harmless and unmeaning2. II. When once the mystery of the Trinity had been revealed in the Gospel, it became the fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. Yet we must not expect to find the first Christian writers using the same technical language to express their belief in it, which afterwards became necessary, when heresy sprang up and controversy gave rise to definite controversial terms. Unitarian writers have charged Justin Martyr (A.D. 150) with being the first to introduce "the Platonic doctrine of a second God" into Christianity; that is to say, they have admitted that Justin Martyr speaks of Christ as God, but deny that the Apostolic fathers held the doctrines of Trinitarianism. Such assertions, however unfounded, render the doctrines of the Apostolical fathers not a little important; as it could hardly fail to puzzle us, if we found the earliest Christians and their most famous pastors ignorant of what we have learned to esteem the ground-work of the faith. There is certainly nothing in the subjects treated of by any of the Apostolical fathers, to lead them naturally to set forth a distinct acknowledgment of the doctrine of the Trinity, or of the Divinity of Jesus Christ; and many expressions might occur of love to Christ and reverence for Him, without a distinct enunciation of the doctrine of His Godhead. It is therefore the more remarkable and satisfactory, when we find, as we do, in all the works ascribed to those fathers commonly called Apostolical, passages, which seem distinctly to assert the Deity of Jesus Christ, and so, at least by implication, the doctrine of 1 Burton, Bampton Lect., Lect. VII. and note 90. the Trinity. Ignatius, especially, is so clear on this point, that the only possible way of evading the force of his testimony is to deny the genuineness of his epistles. A majority of learned men are of opinion that this question has been well nigh set at rest by Bp. Pearson in his Vindiciæ Ignatianæ1. 1 The following passages exhibit some of the testimonies of the Apostolic fathers to the Divinity of Christ, and by implication, to the doctrine of the Trinity. Clemens Romanus. "The Sceptre of the Majesty of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came not in the shew of pride and arrogance, though He might have done so.' (1 Cor. xvi.) 'Being content with the portion GOD had dispensed to you; and hearkening diligently to His word, ye were enlarged in your bowels, having HIS SUFFERINGS always before your eyes.' (1 Cor. ii. See also chapters xxxii. xxxvi. xlv. &c.) Ignatius calls our Saviour 'Jesus Christ our God,' (in the Inscription to the Epistles to the Ephesians and Romans, also in Trall. 7. Rom. iii.) speaks of 'the Blood of God,' (Eph. i.) 'the passion of my God,' (Rom. vi.) says, 'I glorify God, even Jesus Christ. (Smyrn. 1.) 'When God was manifested in human form (ȧveрwπivшs) for newness of eternal life.' (Eph. xix.) There is one Physician, both fleshly and spiritual, made and not made, God incarnate; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first passible, then impassible; even Jesus Christ our Lord.' (Eph. vii.) 'Expect Him, who is above all time, eternal, invisible, though for our sakes made visible, who was intangible, impassible, yet for our sakes became subject to suffering, enduring all manner of ways for us.' (Ign. to Polyc. III.) 'God, who was manifested by his Son Jesus Christ, who is the Eternal Word, not coming forth from silence.' (Magn. vIII.) The Trinity of Persons in the Godhead is plainly referred to in such passages as these: 'Study that so.... ye may prosper in body and spirit, in faith and charity—in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit-in the beginning and in the end;' and again, ‘Be subject to your bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and as the Apostles both to Christ and the Father and the Holy Ghost.' (Magn. XIII.) Polycarp speaks most clearly in the doxology ascribed to him, as some of his last words, in the Circular Epistle of the Church of Smyrna on the Martyrdom of Polgcarp. 'For this, and for all things else, I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, by the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee and the Holy Ghost, be glory both now and to all succeeding ages, Amen.' Martyrdom of Polyc. XIV. On this passage see Waterland, Vol. 1. p. 232. Justin Martyr, A.D. 150, is the first early Christian writer, of whom we have any considerable remains. If he does not state the doctrine of the Trinity in the form of the Nicene or Athanasian Creeds, he yet clearly and constantly asserts that the Son is God, of one substance and nature with the Father, and yet numerically distinct from Him'. The word Trinity occurs in a treatise attributed to Justin Martyr (De Expositione A vindication of Clement of Rome and Polycarp from the imputation of Arianism may be found in Bull, F. D. 11. 3. 2. Barnabas, whose Epistle, though perhaps not the work of the Apostle of that name, is doubtless the work of one who lived nearly contemporaneously with the other Apostolical fathers, writes: "For this cause the Lord was content to suffer for our souls, although He be the Lord of the whole earth; to whom God said before the beginning of the world, “Let us make man in our Image". (Barnab. c. v.) Again, 'You have in this also the glory of Jesus, that by Him and for Him are all things.' ört év Avtậ πάντα καὶ εἰς Αὐτόν. (c. XII. See Bull, F. D. 1. 2. 2.) Hermas, who is reckoned an Apostolical father, and was certainly a writer not later than the middle of the second century, has the following: 'The Son is indeed more ancient than any creature, inasmuch as He was in counsel with the Father at the creation of all things.' (Simil. IX. 12.) "The Name of the Son of God is great, and without bounds, and the whole world is supported by it.' (Simil. Ix. 14.) Concerning the genuineness of the seven shorter Epistles of Ignatius, see Pearson's Vindiciae Ignat. in the second Volume of Cotelerii Patres Apostolici. A Synopsis of his Arguments is given in Dupin's Eccles. Hist. ; in the Life of Ignatius. See also Bp. Horsley's Works, Vol. iv. p. 133. Dr Burton (Testimonies of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 14) enumerates the following, as great names to be ranked on the same side with Bp. Pearson in holding that the genuineness of these Epistles has been fully proved. I. Vossius, Ussher, Hammond, Petavius, Grotius, Bull, Cave, Wake, Cotelerius, Grabe, Du Pin, Tillemont, Le Clerc, Lardner, Horsley, &c. On the opposite side he reckons Salmasius, Blondel, Dallæus, Priestley. 1 An example of his mode of speaking may be seen in the following short passage from Apol. I. c. 63: They, who say that the Son is the Father, are convicted of neither knowing the Father, nor of understanding that the God of the universe has a Son, who being the Firstborn Word of God, is also God.' Of Justin's sentiments on the Logos and the Trinity, see Bull, F. D. п. 4; Waterland, ш. pp. 157, 246; Burton's Testimonies of Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 30; Bp. Kaye's Just. Mart. ch. II, where also, in the Appendix, is an account of the opinions of Tatian, Athenagoras, and Theophilus of Antioch. Fidei); but this work is generally allowed to be spurious. The first use of this term is therefore commonly ascribed to Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, A. D. 181, who speaks of the three days of creation, which preceded the creation of the sun and moon, as types of the Trinity, viz. of God, His Word, and His Wisdom'.' Irenæus, A.D. 185, gives something like regular forms of creeds, greatly resembling the Apostles' Creed (See 1. 9, Iv. 33). His statements of the Deity of Christ are singularly clear, and he expressly tells us that the Scriptures would never have given to any one absolutely the name of God, unless he were truly God2. There is a well-known passage in a heathen author, somewhat earlier than Irenæus (the Philopatris of Lucian), which shews the received doctrine of the Church, at which he sneers, more plainly perhaps than if the words had been those of a Christian. There is a doubt whether the work is Lucian's or not, but its genuineness is not of much consequence if, as is generally admitted, it was either his writing, or that of some contemporary of his3. Tertullian, A.D. 200, both distinctly propounds the doctrine of the Trinity, and is the first Latin, who uses the term Trinitas. 1 Ad Autolychum, Lib. II. p. 106. τύποι Τρίαδος, τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τοῦ Λόγου αὐτοῦ, καὶ τῆς Σοφίας αὐτοῦ. On his doctrine, consult Bull, F. D. II. 4. 10. 2 Iren. III. c. VI. § 1; Burton, Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 68: where see the testimony of Irenæus at length; also in Bull, F. D. 11. 5, and Beaven's Account of Irenæus, ch. IV. 8 The passage is Κρι. Καὶ τινα ἐπωμόσωμαί γε. Τρι. Υψιμέδοντα Θεὸν, μέγαν, ἄμβροτον, οὐρανίωνα, υἱὸν πατρὸς, πνεῦμα ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, ἕν ἐκ τριῶν, καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς τρία. ↑ e. g. adv. Praxeam. c. III. Itaque duos et tres jam jactitant a nobis prædicari, se vero unius Dei cultores præsumunt, quasi non et unitas inrationabiliter collecta hæresin faciat, et Trinitas rationaliter expensa, veritatem constituat. Dr Hey, in his lectures on the first Article, observes that the charges which the heretics made against the Catholics, of holding three Gods, is to |