Those, then, who of old opposed the doctrine of the Trinity, especially of the deity of Christ, his person and natures, may be referred to three heads, and of them and their ways this is the sum : —
The first sort of them may be reckoned to be those who are commonly esteemed to be followers of Simon Magus, known chiefly by the names of Gnostics and Yalentinians. These, with their abominable figments of Econs, and their combinations, conjugations, genealogies, and unintelligible imaginations, wholly overthrowing the whole revelation of God concern- ing himself and his will, the Lord Jesus and the gospel, chiefly, with their leaders, Marcus, Basilides, Ptolema^us, Valentinus secundus (all fol- lowing or imitating Simon Magus and Menander), of all others most ]ie)'plexed and infected the primitive church : as Irena^us, lib. i. ; Tertul- lian, Proescrip. ad H;i?ret. caji. xlix; Philastrius, in his catalogue of heretics; Epiphanius in Panario, lib. i. tom. ii ; and Augustine, in his book of He- resies,' "ad quod vultdeus m.anifeste." To these may be added Tatianus, Cerdo, Marcion, and their companions (of whom see Tertullian at large, and Eusebius, in their respective places.) I shall not separate from them Montanus, with his enthusiastical formal associates ; in Avhose abominations it was hoped that these latter days might have been unconcerned, until the present madness of some, commonly called Quakers, renewed their follies ; but these may ])ass (with the Manichees), and those of the like fond imaginations, that ever and anon troubled the church with their madness and folly.
' Epiph. Ha;r xlvii.
THE PREFACE TO THE READER. ] 3
Of the second rank Cemntiius is the head, with Judaizing- Ebion;^ both denying expressly the deity of Christ, and asserting liim to be but a mere man; even in tlie entrance of the Gospel being conibimded by Jolni, as is affirmed by Epiphanius, Hajr. li. " Hioronymus de Scriptoribus Ecclc- siasticis de Johanne." The same abomination was again revived by Theo- dotus, called Coriarins (who, having once denied Christ, was resolved to do so always); excommunicated on that account by Victor, as Euscbius relates. Hist. Eccles. lib, v. cap. ult., where he gives also an account of his associates in judgment, Artemon, Asclepiodotus, Natalius, etc.; and the books written against him are there also mentioned. But the most noto- rious head and patron of this madness was Paulus Samosatenus, bishop of Antioch, anno 272; of whose pride and passion, folly, followers, assistants, opposition, and excommunication, the history is extant at large in Euse- bius. This man's pomp and folly, his compliance with the Jews and Zenobia, the queen of the Palmyrians, who then invaded the eastern parts of the Roman empire, made him so infamous to all Christians, that the Socinians do scarce plead for him, or own him as the author of their opinion. Of him wdio succeeded him in his opposition to Jesus Christ, some fifty or sixty years after, namely, Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, they constantly boast. Of Samosatenus and his heresy, see Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xxix., xxx., and Hilary, De Synodis ; of Photinus, 8ocrat. Eccles. Hist. lib. ii. cap. xxiv., xxv. And with these do our present Soci- nians expressly agree in the matter of the person of Christ.^
To the third head I refer that deluge of Arianism, whose rise, con- ception, author, and promoters, advantages, success, and propagation ; the persecutions, ci'uelty, and tyranny of the rulers, emperors, kings, and governors infected with it; its extent and continuance, — are known to all who have taken care in the least to inquire what was the state of the church of Grod in former days, that heresy being as it were the flood of water that pursued the church for some ages. Of Macedonius, Nestorius, and Eutyches, — the first denying the deity of the Holy Ghost, the second the hypostatical union of the two natures of Christ, and the last confounding them in his person, — I shall not need to speak. These by the Socinians of our days are disclaimed.*
In the second sort chiefly we are at present concerned. Now, to give an account, from what is come down unto us, by testimonies of good report and esteem, concerning those named, Thoodotus, Paulus, Photinus, and the rest of the men who were the predecessors of them with whom we have to do, and undertook the same work in the infancy of the church which these are now engaged in when it is drawing, with the world, to its period, with what were their ways, lives, temptations, ends, agreements, difterences among them, and in reference to the persons of our present contest (of whom a full account shall be given), is not my aim nor business. It hath been done by others ; and to do it with any exactness, beyond what is commonly known, would take up more room than to this preface is allotted. Some things peculiarly seem of concernment for our observation, from the
'ESi&iv 'S.tifiO.fiiTuiv 'i^li TO (■Hl'Kvi.ov, 'lovoalcov to ovoficc, T^a^njpixiaiv T^v yvaf^yiV, Kap-ro- xf.XTia.vctiv Triv xaxoTpo-rlav. — Epiph.
2 " Injuria afficit Fi'anken eomplurcs, qiii hac de re idem ant sensevunt aut sentiunt quod Sccinns; ct uede iisqui hodie vivuiit, qiiidquam dicanuis, duos tantum nominabi- iiiiis, quorum alter ante annos mille ducentos, alter vcro nostra aitate vixit. Ille Photi- nus fuiL quondam Sirmii cpiscopus, ipsorumetiam adversariorum testinionio divinavum literaium doctissimus," etc — Faust. Socin. Disputat. de Adorat Christi. cum Cliristian. Fiankcn. p. 2!).