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190 Credibility of the Gospel History.
the devil tell, tlirough envy of us, and afterwards many
other angels admitted fleshly desires, and fell in love with
the daughters of men:" vvhich opinion doubtless is founded
upon a wrong- interpretation of the sixth chapter of Genesis.
Du Pin, through haste, or some other cause, has" strangely
misrepresented this passage of Mefhodius; supposing him
to ascribe the fall of the devil, as m ell as the other angels, to
this last temptation.
4. Methodius^ had a notion that the divine Word was
incarnate in Adam : he builds this doctrine upon what St.
Paul writes in Eph. v. 31, 32, and says, that ' ''^Adam was
not only a type and tigure, but Christ, forasmuch as the
Word, who was before all ages, dwelled in him; for it was
fit and reasonable, that the first-begotten of God, and the
first and only-begotten, even Wisdom, joining itself to man,
should be incarnate, [or, become man,] in the first-made and
first-born of men.' This Methodius will have to be orthodox,
or the right interpretation of St. Paul: buf Combefis, in
opposition to a learned modern who would justify this pas-
sage, argues, that it cannot be reconciled to sound doctrine.
I shall presently transcribe from Methodius what follows
in the same place.
5. Some Avhile ago we saw the censure M-hich Photius
passed upon the writings of Methodius ; that they had in
them the Arian doctrine, and therefore were interpolated as
he suspected : but learned moderns, not perceiving any
marks of interpolation, have thought themselves obliged to
admit that Methodius Arianised. Bishop Bully indeed, and
^Grabe after him, maintain the orthodoxy of this bishop and
martyr. Du Pin'' likevvise thinks that Methodius may be
very well defended from the accusation of erring about the
" que le peche a ele cause par I'envie du diable, et que le diable
meme, qui avoit ete cree dans la justice semblable aux aulres anges, est tombe
par le peche d'onvie, et par I'amour deregle qu'il a eu pour les filles. Du Pin,
Bib. T. i. p. 198. " Concerning this matter, see Beausobre,
Hist, de Manichee, &c. T. ii. p. 317, 318.
"