viii P R E F AC E. u fd the outwardmeans or the prefervation and propagation of the faithof the church. And thefame means areHill foffecient unto the fame ends, were they attended unto with confeience and diligeriee. Thepretended defence of truth with arts and arms ofanother kind, bath been the bane ofreligion, and kfi the peace of chriftians beyond recovery. And it may be obferved, that whilfi this way alonefor the prefervationofthe truth was infifted onandper- fised; thataltho innumerable herefies arofe one after another, andfometimes many together, yet they never made anygreat progrefs, nor arrivedonto any Poch coni/tency, as to make a fated oppofition unto the truth, but the errors themfelves and their authors were as vagrant meteors, which appearedfor a little while, andvanifhed away. Afterwards it was not fo, when otherways and means for the fippreffon of herefies were judged convenient sod need- fail For in prace(s of time, when the power of the Roman empire gave coun- tenanceand proteílion untochriftian religion, another way wasfixed onfor this end, namely, theufe of fuch affembliesof bifhops and others as they called general councils, armed with a mixt power, partly civil, andpartly eceleft aftieal, with refpeél unto the authority of the empereurs, and thatjurifdilli- on in the churchwhich began then to be fie talkedof. This way was begun tin the council of Nice, wherein although there was a determination of the dotlrineconcerning the perfon of Chri then in agitation, and oppofed, as un- to his divine nature therein, according unto the truth, yetfundry evils and inconvenientiesen(ued thereon. For thenceforth the faith of chr/fans began eatly to be relayed into the authority of men, and as much, if not more, to be laid on what was decreed by the fathers there affembled, than on wha s clearly taught in the fcriptures. Befides, being neceffitated as they than et, to explain their conceptions of the divine nature of Chi-ill, in words oit"' n<tufé i the feripture, or wholefignifrcation unto that pupofe Was not de i mined therein, occefion was given unto endlefs contentions a- bout them. The Grecians themfelves could not fora long feafon agree among thernflees whether dux and úmtçumt were ofthefame fTnifitation or no, both o f theirs denoting offence andfubJtance ; or whether-they differed in theirfigni cation or if they did, wherein that difference lay. Athanafius at firfi affirmed them to be the fame, Orat. 5. con. Arian. and Epift. ad African. Bafil denied them fo tobe, or that they were ufed unto the famepurpofe in the council of Nice, Epift. 78. The like difference immediately fell out between the Grecians and,Latins, about Hypoftafis and Perfora. For theLatins rendred hypoftafs by Subftantia, and Perfona by sieges ray. HereofJeromcomplains in his epifile to Damafus, that they required of him in the tafl to confefs tres Hypoftafes, and he would only acknowledge tres Perfonas, Epift. 71. !Ind Anilingives an account of the fame difference, de Trinitate, lib. 5, cap. 8, 9. Athanafius endeavoured the compofing of this difference, and in a good meafure effekted it, as Gregory of Nazianzen affirms in his oration concerning his praife. It was done by him in a fynod at Alexandria in the firft year of Julian's Reign. On this occafron many contefis arofe even among them who allpleaded their adherence unto the dottrine of the council of Nice. And as the fnbtle Arians made incredible advantage hereof at fie, pretending that they oppofed not the Deity of Chrift, but only the ex/vegan of it bybl o6mGA ; fo afterwards they countenanced themfelves in coining words and terms to exprefs their minds with, which utterly rejelted it. Hence were their inoos'n , sr,ti l gv. tonel,, and the like names of blafphemy, about which thecontefts werefierce and endlefs. And there were yet farther evils that enfued hereon. Forthe curiousandferpentinewits of men, finding themfelves by this means let at liberry to think and difcourfe ofMofe my¡leries of the v bleffed i
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