THE PEEFACE. 11
words and terms, to express their minds with, which utterly rejected it. Hence were their o/Moiouawg, Inpougiog, sS, ouz ovrcfjv, and the hke names of blasphemy, about which the contests were fierce and end- less. And there were yet farther evils that ensued hereon. For the curious and serpentine wits of men, findmg themselves by this means set at liberty to think and discourse of those mysteries of the blessed Trinity, and the person of Christ, without much regard unto plain divine testimonies, (in such ways wherein cunning and sophistry did much bear sway,) began to multiply such new, curious, and false notions about them, especially about the latter, as caused new dis- turbances, and those of large extent and long continuance. For their suppression, councils were called on the neck of one another, whereon commonly new occasions of differences did arise, and most of them managed with great scandal unto the Christian religion. For men began much to forego the primitive ways of opposing errors and extinguishing heresies; betaking themselves unto their interest, the number of their party, and their prevalency with the present emperors. And although it so fell out — as in that at Constantinople, the first at Ephesus, and that at Chalcedon — that the truth (for the substance of it) did prevail, (for in many others it happened quite otherwise,) yet did they always give occasions unto new divisions, animosities, and even mutual hatreds, among the principal leaders of the Christian people. And great contests there were among some of those who pretended to believe the same truth, whether such or such a council should be received — that is, plainly, whether the church should resolve its faith into theu' authority. The strifes of this nature about the first Ephesian Council, and that at Chalcedon, not to mention those wherein the Arians prevailed, take up a good part of the ecclesiastical story of those days. And it cannot be denied, but that some of the principal persons and assemblies who adhered unto the truth did, in the heat of opposition unto the heresies of other men, fall into unjustifiable excess themselves.
We may take an instance hereof \\ath respect unto the Nestorian heresy, condemned in the first Ephesian Council, and afterward in that at Chalcedon. CjtII of Alexandria, a man learned and vehe- ment, designed by all means to be unto it what his predecessor Athanasius had been to the Arian ; but he fell into such excesses in his undertakincTs, as gave great occasion unto farther tumults. For it is evident that he distinguisheth not between hirCsrasig and fhaig, and therefore affirms, that the divine Word and humanity had jxiav (plsiv, one nature only. So he doth plainly in Epist. ad Successum : " They are ignorant," saith he, on %ar akrikiav sari [lia (pvaig toZ Xoyov <Si(SapK(,jfiivr\. Plence Eutyches the Archimandrite took occasion to run into a contrary extreme, being a no less fierce enemy to Nestorius
12 THE PREFACE.
than Cyril was. For to oppose him who divided the person of Christ into two, he confounded his natures into one — his delu-ant folly being confirmed by that goodly assembly, the second at Ephesus. Besides, it is confessed that Cyril — through the vehemency of his spirit, hatred unto Nestorius, and following the conduct of his own mind in nice and subtle expressions of the great mystery of the person of Christ — did utter many things exceeding the bounds of sobriety prescribed unto us by the apostle, (Rom. xii. 3,) if not those of truth itself Hence it is come to pass, that many learned men begin to think and write that Cyril was in the wrong, and Nestorius by his means condemned undeservedly. However, it is certain to me, that the doctrine condemned at Ephesus and Chalcedon as the doctrine of Nestorius, was destructive of the true person of Christ; and that Cyril, though he missed it in sundry expressions, yet aimed at the declaration and confirmation of the truth ; as he was long since vin- dicated by Theorianus: Dialog, con. Armenios.
However, such was the watchful care of Christ over the church, as unto the preservation of this sacred, fundamental truth, concern- ing his divine person, and the union of his natures therein, retaining their distinct properties and operations, that — notwithstanding all the faction and disorder that were in those primitive councils, and the scandalous contests of many of the members of them; notwith- standing the detennination contrary unto it in great and numerous councils — the faith of it was preserved entire in the hearts of all that truly believed, and triumphed over the gates of hell.
I have mentioned these few things, which belong unto the promise and prediction of our blessed Saviour in Matt. xvi. 18, (the place insisted on,) to show that the church, without any disadvantage to the truth, may be preserved without such general assemblies, which, in the following ages, proved the most pernicious engines for the corruption of the faith, worship, and manners of it. Yea, from the beginning, they were so far from being the only way of preserving truth, that it was almost constantly prejudiced by the addition of their authority unto the confirmation of it. Nor was there any one of them wherein " the mystery of iniquity " did not work, unto the laying of some rubbish in the foundation of that fatal apostasy which afterwards openly ensued. The Lord Christ himself hath taken it upon him to build his church on this rock of his person, by true faith of it and in it. He sends his Holy Spirit to bear testimony unto him, in all the blessed effects of his power and grace. He continueth his Word, with the faithful ministry of it, to reveal, declare, make known, and vindicate his sacred truth, unto the conviction of gain- sayers. He keeps up that faith in him, that love unto him. in the hearts of all his elect, as shall not be prevailed against. Wherefore,