This paper will argue that John Gill adopted the method of testes veritatis to defend the Nicene doctrine of eternal generation in his short work “A Dissertation Concerning the Eternal Sonship of Christ,” which was first published posthumously in the 1773 edition of his Sermons and Tracts. This Protestant method was pioneered by Flacius Illyricus in his work Catalogus testium veritatis (1556) and further developed through his editorial oversight of the Magdeburg Centuries (1559-1574) as an answer to the Roman Catholic consensus patrum.
Scholars of the early modern era such as Irena Backus, E.P. Meijering, and Jean-Louis Quantin have argued that the Reformed Orthodox adopted the testes veritatis method not only in their polemic against Rome, but also in their defense of Nicene Orthodoxy against the growing anti-trinitarianism of the 17th and 18th centuries. Establishing that John Gill used this method in his “Dissertation Concerning Eternal Sonship” will strengthen the evidence for the call to situate John Gill within the Reformed Orthodox movement, understanding him as a Baptist Reformed Orthodox theologian.
To accomplish this, the paper will examine the anti-trinitarian attacks on Nicaea, briefly examine the work of Flacius Illyricus and then compare the structure, arguments, sources, and purpose of these works, showing that Gill adopted the method of testes veritatis to defend the Nicene doctrine of eternal generation.