OF THE

ANTE-NICENE FATHERS

TO THE DOCTRINE OF

THE TRINITY

AND OF THE

DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST.

BY

THE REV. EDWARD BURTON, D. D.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH.

OXFORD,

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

MDCCCXXXI.

Clar, Press

1.0.61.

INTRODUCTION.

IT is unnecessary to state, that the present work is intimately connected with one which has been already published, entitled, Testimonies of the AnteNicene Fathers to the Divinity of Christ. The two works might not improperly have been incorporated, and the whole would have formed a body of Ante-Nicene testimony to the doctrine of the Trinity. I preferred however making a distinct collection of all the passages, which assert a belief in Christ's divinity: and I had intended to follow this up by a similar collection of quotations concerning the divinity of the Holy Ghost. It is known to the readers of ecclesiastical history, that there was no specific controversy concerning the third person of the Trinity till the fourth century. It might not be incorrect to say, that till then the divinity of the third person was never doubted or denied but however this may be, the absence of controversy might prepare us for few passages, which bear directly upon this subject; and I have therefore thought it better to bring together in the present work all the testimonies which remain, whether they relate to the doctrine of the Trinity, or the divinity of the Holy Ghost.