638. That Apostolic church, since it worshiped the Lord God Jesus Christ, and at the same time God the Father in Him, may be likened to the garden of God, and Arius who then arose, to the serpent sent from hell, and the Nicene Council to Adam's wife, who offered the fruit to her husband and persuaded him to eat of it, after doing which they appeared to themselves to be naked, and covered their nakedness with fig-leaves. Their "nakedness" means their former innocence, and "fig-leaves" the truths of the natural man which were gradually falsified. That primitive church may also be likened to the dawn and morning and from that the day advanced to the tenth hour, and then a dense cloud intervened, under which the day advanced to evening, and afterward to night, in which the moon arose for some, by the dim light of which they saw something from the Word, while others went on so far into the nocturnal darkness that they saw no Divinity in the Lord's Humanity, although Paul says that, In Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of Divinity bodily (Col. 2:9;
and John, that, The Son of God sent into the world is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20, 21). The primitive or Apostolic church never could have divined that a church was to follow which would worship several Gods in heart, and one with the lips; which would separate charity from faith, and the forgiveness of sins from repentance and the pursuit of a new life; which would introduce the doctrine of man's utter impotence in spiritual things; and least of all, that an Arius would lift up his head, and when he was dead would rise again, and secretly rule even to the end.
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