seem incompatible with the nature and attributes | ites, whose errors are mentioned by Justin Martyr of the universal cause.' Revealed by the A. D. 97. with less severity than they seem to deserve, formed a very inconsiderable portion of the christian name. II. The Gnostics, who were distinguished by the epithet of Docetes, deviated into the contrary extreme; and betrayed the human, while they asserted the divine, nature of Christ. Educated in the school of Plato, accustomed to the sublime idea of the Logos, they readily conceived that the brightest Eon, or Emanation of the Deity, might assume the outward shape and visible appearances of a mortal; but they vainly pretended, that the imperfections of matter are incompatible with the purity of a celestial substance. While the blood of Christ yet smoked on mount Calvary, the Docetes invented the impious and extravagant hypothesis, that, instead of issuing from the womb of the Virgin, he had descended on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; that he had imposed on the senses of his enemies, and of his disciples; and that the ministers of Pilate had wasted their impotent rage on an airy phantom, who seemed to expire on the cross, and, after three days, to rise from the dead.. The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, the authority of the school of Alexandria, and the consent of the Jews and Greeks, were insufficient to establish the truth of a mysterious doctrine, which might please, but could not satisfy, a rational mind. A prophet, or apostle, inspired by the Deity, can alone exercise a lawful dominion over the faith of mankind; and the theology of Plato might have been for ever confounded with the philosophical visions of the Academy, the Porch, and the Lycæum, if the name and divine attributes of the Logos had not been confirmed by the celestial pen of the last and most sublime of the evangelists." The christian revelation, which was consummated under the reign of Nerva, disclosed to the world the amazing secret, that the Logos, who was with God, from the beginning, and was God, who had made all things, and for whom all things had been made, was incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth; who had been born of a virgin, and suffered death on the cross. Besides the general design of fixing on a perpetual basis the divine honours of Christ, the most ancient and respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have ascribed to the evangelic theologian, a particular intention to confute two opposite heresies, which disturbed the peace of the primitive The Ebionites church. I. The faith of the Ebion-writings of the Athenian sage, who had thus marand Docetes. ites, perhaps of the Nazarenes," was gross and imperfect. They revered Jesus as the greatest of the prophets, endowed with supernatural virtue and power. They ascribed to his person and to his future reign all the predictions of the Hebrew oracles which relate to the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of the promised Messiah. Some of them might confess that he was born of a virgin; but they obstinately rejected the preceding existence and divine perfections of the Logos, or Son of God, which are so clearly defined in the gospel of St. John. About fifty years afterwards, the Ebion t Petav. Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii. 1. viii. c. 2. p. 791. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen, s. i. c. I. p. 8-13. This notion, till it was abused by the Arians, was freely adopted in the christian theology. Tertulliau (adv. Praxeam, c. 16.) has a remarkable and dangerous passage. After contrasting, with indiscreet wit, the nature of God, and the actions of Jehovah, he concludes: Scilicet ut hæc de filio Dei non credenda fuisse, si non scripta essent; fortasse non credenda de Patre licet scripta. u The Platonists admired the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, as containing an exact transcript of their own principles. Augustin de Civitat. Dei, x. 29. Amelius apud Cyril, advers. Julian. 1. viii. p. 283. But in the third and fourth centuries, the Platonists of. Alexandria might improve their trinity, by the secret study of the christian theology. x See Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 377. The gospel according to St. John is supposed to have been published about seventy years after the death of Christ. y The sentiments of the Ebionites are fairly stated by Mosheim (p. 331.) and Le Clerc. (Hist. Eccles. p. 535.) The Clementines, published among the apostolical fathers, are attributed by the critics to one of these sectaries. z Stanch polemics, like Bull, (Judicium Eccles. Cathol. c. 2.) insist on the orthodoxy of the Nazarenes; which appears less pure and cer. tain in the eyes of Mosheim, (p. 330.) a The humble condition and sufferings of Jesus have always been a stumbling-block to the Jews. "Deus... contrariis coloribus Messiam depinxerat; futurus erat Rex, Judex, Pastor," &c. See Limborch et Orobio, Amica Collat. p. 8-19. 53-76. 192-234. But this objection has obliged the believing christians to lift up their eyes to a spiritual and everlasting kingdom. b Justin Martyr. Dialog. cum Tryphonte, p. 143, 144. See Le Clerc, Hist. Eccles. p. 615. Bull, and his editor Grabe, (Judicium Mysterious nature of the Trinity. The divine sanction, which the apostle had bestowed on the fundamental principle of the theology of Plato, encouraged the learned proselytes of the second and third centuries to admire and study the vellously anticipated one of the most surprising discoveries of the christian revelation. If the respectable name of Plato was used by the orthodox, and abused by the heretics, as the common support of truth and error: the authority of his skilful commentators, and the science of dialectics, were employed to justify the remote consequences of his opinions; and to supply the discreet silence of the inspired writers. The same subtle and profound questions concerning the nature, the generation, the distinction, and the equality of the three divine persons of the mysterious Triad or Trinity," were Eccles. Cathol. c. 7. and Appendix,) attempt to distort either the senti ments or the words of Justin; but their violent correction of the text is rejected even by the Benedictine editors. C The Arians reproached the orthodox party with borrowing their Trinity from the Valentinians and Marcionites. See Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, l. iii. c. 5-7. e d Non dignum est ex utero credere Deum, et Deum Christum non dignum est ut tanta majestas per sordes et squalores mulieris transire credatur. The Gnostics asserted the impurity of matter, and of marriage; and they were scandalized by the gross interpretations of the fathers, and even of Augustin himself. See Beausobre, tom. ii.p. 523. Apostolis adhuc in sæculo superstitibus apud Judæum Christi san. guine recente, et phantasma corpus Domini asserebatur. Cotelerins thinks (Patres Apostol. tom. ii. p. 24.) that those who will not allow the Docetes to have arisen in the time of the apostles, may with equal reason deny that the sun shines at noon-day. These Docetes, who formed the most considerable party among the Gnostics, were so called, because they granted only a seeming body to Christ. f Some proofs of the respect which the christians entertained for the person and doctrine of Plato, may be found in De la Mothe le Vayer, tom. v. p. 135, &c. edit. 1757; and Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. iv. p. 29. 79, &c. Doleo bonâ fide, Platonem omnium hæreticorum condimentarium factum. Tertullian. de Anima, c. 23. Petavius (Dogm. Theolog. tom. iii. proleg. 2.) shows that this was a general complaint. Beausobre (tom. i. I. ii. c. 9, 10.) has deduced the Gnostic errors from Platonic principles; and as, in the school of Alexandria, those principles were blended with the Oriental philosophy, (Brucker, tom. i. p. 1356.) the sentiment of Beausobre may be reconciled with the opinion of Mosheim. (General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 37.) h If Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, (see Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. i. p. 66.) was the first who employed the word Triad agitated in the philosophical and in the christian schools of Alexandria. An eager spirit of curiosity urged them to explore the secrets of the abyss; and the pride of the professors, and of their disciples, was satisfied with the science of words. But the most sagacious of the christian theologians, the great Athanasius himself, has candidly confessed, that whenever he forced his understanding to meditate on the divinity of the Logos, his toilsome and unavailing efforts recoiled on themselves; that the more he thought, the less he comprehended; and the more he wrote, the less capable was he of expressing his thoughts. In every step of the inquiry, we are compelled to feel and acknowledge the immeasurable disproportion between the size of the object and the capacity of the human mind. We may strive to abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter, which so closely adhere to all the perceptions of our experimental knowledge. But as soon as we presume to reason of infinite substance, of spiritual generation; as often as we deduce any positive conclusions from a negative idea, we are involved in darkness, perplexity, and inevitable contradiction. As these difficulties arise from the nature of the subject, they oppress, with the same insuperable weight, the philosophic and the theological disputant; but we may observe two essential and peculiar circumstances, which discriminated the doctrines of the catholic church from the opinions of the Platonic school. Zeal of the christians. I. A chosen society of philosophers, men of a liberal education and curious disposition, might silently meditate, and temperately discuss, in the gardens of Athens or the library of Alexandria, the abstruse questions of metaphysical science. The lofty speculations, which neither convinced the understanding, nor agitated the passions, of the Platonists themselves, were carelessly overlooked by the idle, the busy, and even the studious part of mankind. But after the Logos had been revealed as the sacred object of the faith, the hope, and the religious worship of the christians; the mysterious system was embraced by a numerous and increasing multitude in every province of the Roman world. Those persons who, from their age, or sex, or occupations, were the least qualified to judge, who were the least exercised in the habits of abstract reasoning; aspired to contemplate the economy of the Divine Nature: and it is the boast of Tertullian,' that a christian mechanic could readily answer such questions as had perplexed the wisest Trinity, that abstract term, which was already familiar to the schools of philosophy, must have been introduced into the theology of the christians after the middle of the second century. i Athanasius, tom. i. p. 808. His expressions have an uncommon energy; and as he was writing to monks, there could not be any occa sion for him to affect a rational language. In a treatise, which professed to explain the opinions of the ancient philosophers concerning the nature of the gods, we might expect to discover the theological Trinity of Plato. But Cicero very honestly confessed, that although he had translated the Timæus, he could never understand that mysterious dialogue. See Hieronym. præf. ad 1. xii. in Isaiam, tom. v. p. 154. Tertullian. in Apolog. c. 46. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, au mot Simonide. His remarks on the presumption of Tertullian are profound and interesting. in Lactantius, iv. 8. Yet the Probole, or Prolatio, which the most orthodox divines borrowed without scruple from the Valentinians, and of the Grecian sages. Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may indeed be calculated as infinitely small: yet the degree of weakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence. These speculations, instead of being treated as the amusement of a vacant hour, became the most serious business of the present, and a most useful preparation for a future, life. A theology, which it was incumbent to believe, which it was impious to doubt, and which it might be dangerous and even fatal to mistake, became the familiar topic of private meditation and popular discourse. The cold indiffercnce of philosophy was inflamed by the fervent spirit of devotion; and even the metaphors of common language suggested the fallacious prejudices of sense and experience. The christians, who abhorred the gross and impure generation of the Greek mythology," were tempted to argue from the familiar analogy of the filial and paternal relations. The character of Son seemed to imply a perpetual subordination to the voluntary author of his existence;" but as the act of generation, in the most spiritual and abstracted sense, must be supposed to transmit the properties of a common nature, they durst not presume to circumscribe the powers or the duration of the Son of an eternal and omnipotent Father. Fourscore years after the death of Christ, the christians of Bithynia declared before the tribunal of Pliny, that they invoked him as a god and his divine honours have been perpetuated in every age and country, by the various sects who assume the name of his disciples." Their tender reverence for the memory of Christ, and their horror for the profane worship of any created being, would have engaged them to assert the equal and absolute divinity of the Logos, if their rapid ascent towards the throne of heaven had not been imperceptibly checked by the apprehension of violating the unity and sole supremacy of the great Father of Christ and of the universe. The suspense and fluctuation produced in the minds of the christians by these opposite tendencies, may be observed in the writings of the theologians who flourished after the end of the apostolic age, and before the origin of the Arian controversy. Their suffrage is claimed, with equal confidence, by the orthodox and by the heretical parties; and the most inquisitive critics have fairly allowed, that if they had the good fortune of possessing the catholic verity, they have delivered their illustrated by the comparisons of a fountain and stream, the sun and its rays, &c. either meant nothing, or favoured a material idea of the divine generation. See Beausobre, tom. i. 1. iii. c. 7. p. 548. Many of the primitive writers have frankly confessed, that the Son owed his being to the will of the Father. See Clarke's Scripture Trinity, p. 280-287. On the other hand, Athanasius and his fol lowers seem unwilling to grant what they are afraid to deny. The schoolmen extricate themselves from this difficulty by the distinction of a preceding and a concomitant will. Petav. Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. 1. vi, c. 8. p. 587-603. o See Petav. Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. 1. ii. c. 10, p. 159. P Carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem. Plin. Epist. x. 97. The sense of Deus, ecos, Elohim, in the ancient languages, is critically examined by Le Clerc, (Ars Critica, p. 150-156.) and the propriety of worshipping a very excellent creature is ably defended by the Socinian Emlyn. (Tracis, p. 29-36. 51-145.) conceptions in loose, inaccurate, and sometimes contradictory language. Factions. cord was rapidly communicated from the schools to Arius. II. The devotion of individuals was Authority of the church. the first circumstance which distinguished the christians from the Platonists: the second was the authority of the church. The disciples of philosophy asserted the rights of intellectual freedom, and their respect for the sentiments of their teachers was a liberal and voluntary tribute, which they offered to superior reason. But the christiansbyter, who, in a former election, had declared, and formed a numerous and disciplined society; and perhaps generously declined, his pretensions to the the jurisdiction of their laws and magistrates was episcopal throne. His competitor Alexander asstrictly exercised over the minds of the faithful. sumed the office of his judge. The important cause The loose wanderings of the imagination were gra- was argued before him; and if at first he seemed to dually confined by creeds and confessions; the hesitate, he at length pronounced his final sentence, freedom of private judgment submitted to the public as an absolute rule of faith. The undaunted preswisdom of synods; the authority of a theologian byter, who presumed to resist the authority of his was determined by his ecclesiastical rank; and the angry bishop, was separated from the communion of episcopal successors of the apostles inflicted the the church. But the pride of Arius was supported censures of the church on those who deviated from by the applause of a numerous party. He reckoned the orthodox belief. But in an age of religious among his immediate followers two bishops of controversy, every act of oppression adds new force Egypt, seven presbyters, twelve deacons, and (what to the elastic vigour of the mind; and the zeal or may appear almost incredible) seven hundred virobstinacy of a spiritual rebel was sometimes stimu-gins. A large majority of the bishops of Asia aplated by secret motives of ambition or avarice. A peared to support or favour his cause; and their metaphysical argument became the measures were conducted by Eusebius of Caesarea, cause or pretence of political contests; the most learned of the christian prelates; and by the subtilties of the Platonic school were used as Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had acquired the rethe badges of popular factions, and the distance putation of a statesman without forfeiting that of a which separated their respective tenets was en- saint. Synods in Palestine and Bithynia were oplarged or magnified by the acrimony of dispute. posed to the synods of Egypt. The attention of the As long as the dark heresies of Praxeas and Sabel-prince and people was attracted by this theological lius laboured to confound the Father with the Son, the orthodox party might be excused if they adhered more strictly and more earnestly to the distinction, than to the equality, of the divine persons. But as soon as the heat of controversy had subsided, and the progress of the Sabellians was no longer an object of terror to the churches of Rome, of Africa, or of Egypt; the tide of theological opinion began to flow with a gentle but steady motion toward the contrary extreme; and the most orthodox doctors allowed themselves the use of the terms and definitions which had been censured in the mouth of the sectaries.' After the edict of toleration had restored peace and leisure to the christians, the Trinitarian controversy was revived in the ancient seat of Platonism, the learned, the opulent, the tumultuous city of Alexandria; and the flame of religious disq See Daillé de Usu Patrum, and Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. x. p. 409. To arraign the faith of the Anti-Nicene fathers, was the object, or at least has been the effect, of the stupendous work of Petavius on the Trinity; (Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii.) nor has the deep impression been erased by the learned defence of bishop Bull. The most ancient creeds were drawn up with the greatest latitude. See Bull (Judicium Eccles. Cathol.) who tries to prevent Episcopius from deriving any advantage from this observation. s The heresies of Praxeas, Sabellius, &c. are accurately explained by Mosheim. (p. 425. 680-714.) Praxeas, who came to Rome about the end of the second century, deceived, for some time, the simplicity of the bishop, and was confuted by the pen of the angry Tertullian. + Socrates acknowledges, that the heresy of Arius proceeded from his strong desire to embrace an opinion the most diametrically opposite to that of Sabellius. u The figure and manners of Arius, the character and numbers of his first proselytes, are painted in very lively colours by Epiphanius, (tom. i. Bæres. Ixix. 3. p. 729.) and we cannot but regret that he should soon forget the historian, to assume the task of controversy. * See Philostorgius, (1. i. c. 3.) and Godefroy's ample Commentary. A. D. 318-325. and dispute; and the decision, at the end error.a Arianism. y Sozomen (1. i. c. 15.) represents Alexander as indifferent, and even ignorant, in the beginning of the controversy; while Socrates (1. i. c. 5.) ascribes the origin of the dispute to the vain curiosity of his theological speculations. Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 178.) has censured, with his usual freedom, the conduct of Alexander; προς οργην εξάπτεται .... ὁμοιως φρονειν εκέλευσε. z The flames of Arianism might burn for some time in secret; but there is reason to believe that they burst out with violence as early as the year 319. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 774-780. a Quid credidit? Certe, aut tria Domina audiens tres Deos esse credidit, et idololatra effectus est: aut in tribus vocabulis trinominem credens Deum, in Sabellii hæresim incurrit; aut edoctus ab Arianis unuru esse verum Deum Patrem, filium et spiritum sanctum credidit creaturas. Aut extra hæc quid credere potuerit nescio. Hieronym. adv. Lucife. rianos. Jerom reserves for the last the orthodox system, which is more complicated and difficult. b As the doctrine of absolute creation from nothing, was gradually introduced among the christians, (Beausobre, tom. I. p. 165-215.) Tritheism. and the longest of the astronomical periods could be compared only as a fleeting moment to the extent of his duration; yet this duration was not infinite, and there had been a time which preceded the ineffable generation of the Logos. On this only-begotten Son the Almighty Father had transfused his ample spirit, and impressed the effulgence of his glory. Visible image of invisible perfection, he saw, at an immeasurable distance beneath his feet, the thrones of the brightest archangels: yet he shone only with a reflected light, and, like the sons of the Roman emperors, who were invested with the titles of Cæsar or Augustus, he governed the universe in obedience to the will of his Father and Monarch. II. In the second hypothesis, the Logos possessed all the inherent, incommunicable perfections, which religion and philosophy appropriate to the Supreme God. Three distinct and infinite minds or substances, three co-equal and co-eternal beings, composed the Divine Essence; and it would have implied contradiction, that any of them should not have existed, or that they should ever cease to exist. The advocates of a system which seemed to establish three independent Deities, attempted to preserve the unity of the First Cause, so conspicuous in the design and order of the world, by the perpetual concord of their administration, and the essential agreement of their will. A faint resemblance of this unity of action may be discovered in the societies of men, and even of animals. The causes which disturb their harmony proceed only from the imperfection and inequality of their faculties: but the omnipotence which is guided by infinite wisdom and goodness, cannot fail of choosing the same means for the accomplishment of the same ends. III. Three Beings, who, by the self-derived necessity of their existence, possess all the divine attributes in the most perfect degree; who are eternal in duration, infinite in space, and intimately present to each other, and to the whole universe; irresistibly force themselves on the astonished mind, as one and the same Being, who, in the economy of grace, as well as in that of nature, may manifest himself under different forms, and be considered under different aspects. By this hypothesis, a real substantial Trinity is refined into a trinity of names, and abstract modifications, that subsist only in the mind which conceives them. The Logos is no longer a person, but an attribute; and it is only in a figurative sense, that the epithet of the dignity of the workman very naturally rose with that of the Sabellianism. work. The metaphysics of Dr. Clarke (Scripture Trinity, p. 276–280.) could digest an eternal generation from an infinite cause. This profane and absurd simile is employed by several of the pri mitive fathers, particularly by Athenagoras, in his Apology to the em peror Marcus and his son; and it is alleged, without censure, by Bull himself. See Defens. Fid. Nicen sect. iii. c. 5. No. 4. See Cudworth's Intellectual System, p. 559. 579. This dangerous hypothesis was countenanced by the two Gregories, of Nyssa and NaZlanzen, by Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus, &c. See CudWorth, p. 603. Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 97-105. f Augustin seems to envy the freedom of the philosophers. Liberis verbis loquuntur philosophi . .... Nos autem non dicimus duo vel tria principia, duos vel tres Deos. De Civitat. Dei, x. 23. Boetius, who was deeply versed in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, explains the unity of the Trinity by the indifference of the three persons. See the judicious remarks of Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. xvi. p. 225, &c. Son can be applied to the eternal reason which was with God from the beginning, and by which, not by whom, all things were made. The incarnation of the Logos is reduced to a mere inspiration of the Divine Wisdom, which filled the soul, and directed all the actions, of the man Jesus. Thus, after rcvolving round the theological circle, we are surprised to find that the Sabellian ends where the Ebionite had begun; and that the incomprehensible mystery which excites our adoration, eludes our inquiry.h If the bishops of the council of Nicei Council of Nice, had been permitted to follow the un- A. D. 325. biassed dictates of their conscience, Arius and his associates could scarcely have flattered themselves with the hopes of obtaining a majority of votes, in favour of an hypothesis so directly adverse to the two most popular opinions of the catholic world. The Arians soon perceived the danger of their situation, and prudently assumed those modest virtues, which, in the fury of civil and religious dissensions, are seldom practised, or even praised, except by the weaker party. They recommended the exercise of christian charity and moderation; urged the incomprehensible nature of the controversy; disclaimed the use of any terms or definitions which could not be found in the scriptures; and offered, by very liberal concessions, to satisfy their adversaries, without renouncing the integrity of their own principles. The victorious faction received all their proposals with haughty suspicion; and anxiously sought for some irreconcilable mark of distinction, the rejection of which might involve the Arians in the guilt and consequences of heresy. A letter was publicly read, and ignominiously torn, in which their patron, Eusebius of Nicomedia, ingenuously confessed, that the admission of the HoмOOUSION, or Consubstantial, a word already fa- The Homooumiliar to the Platonists, was incompa k tible with the principles of their theological system. The fortunate opportunity was eagerly embraced by the bishops, who governed the resolutions of the synod; and, according to the lively expression of Ambrose, they used the sword, which heresy itself had drawn from the scabbard, to cut off the head of the hated monster. The consubstantiality of the Father and the Son was established by the council of Nice, and has been unanimously received as a fundamental article of the christian faith, by the consent of the Greek, the Latin, the Oriental, and h If the Sabellians were startled at this conclusion, they were driven down another precipice into the confession, that the Father was born of a virgin, that he had suffered on the cross; and thus deserved the odious epithet of Patri-passians, with which they were branded by their adversaries. See the invectives of Tertullian against Praxeas, and the temperate reflections of Mosheim, (p. 423. 681.) and Beausobre, tom. i. l. iii. c. 6. p. 533. i The transactions of the council of Nice are related by the ancients, not only in a partial, but in a very imperfect, manner. Such a picture as Fra-Paolo would have drawn, can never be recovered; but such rude sketches as have been traced by the pencil of bigotry, and that of reason, may be seen in Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles, tom. v. p. 669-759.) and in Le Clerc (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. x. p. 435-454. k We are indebted to Ambrose (de Fide, 1. iii. cap. ult.) for the knowledge of this curious anecdote. Hoc verbum posuerunt patres, quod viderunt adversariis esse formidiui; ut tanquam evaginato ab ipsis gladio, ipsum nefandæ caput hæreseos amputarent. was consumed in irreconcilable opposition to the impious madness of the Arians; but he defended above twenty years the Sabellianism of Marcellus of Ancyra; and when at last he was compelled to withdraw himself from his communion, he continued to mention, with an ambiguous smile, the venial errors of his respectable friend. the protestant churches. But if the same word had not served to stigmatize the heretics, and to unite the catholics, it would have been inadequate to the purpose of the majority, by whom it was introduced into the orthodox creed. This majority was divided into two parties, distinguished by a contrary tendency to the sentiments of the Tritheists and of the Sabellians. But as those opposite extremes seemed to overthrow the foundations either of natural or revealed religion, they mutually agreed to qualify the rigour of their principles; and to disavow the just but invidious consequences, which might be urged by their antagonists. The interest of the common cause inclined them to join their numbers, and to conceal their differences; their animosity was softened by the healing counsels of toleration, and their disputes were suspended by the use of the mysterious Homoousion, which either party was free to interpret according to their peculiar tenets. The Sabellian sense, which, about fifty years before, had obliged the council of Antioch' to prohibit this celebrated term, had endeared it to those theologians who entertained a secret but partial affection for a nominal Trinity. But the more fashionable saints of the Arian times, the intrepid Athanasius, the learned Gregory Nazianzen, and the other pillars of the church, who supported with ability and success the Nicene doctrine, appeared to consider the expression of substance, as if it had been synonymous with that of nature; and they ventured to illustrate their meaning, by affirming that three men, as they belong to the same common species, are consubstantial or homoousian to each other." This pure and distinct equality was tempered, on the one hand, by the internal connection, and spiritual penetration, which indissolubly unites the divine persons;" and on the other, by the pre-eminence of the Father, which was acknowledged as far as it is compatible with the independence of the Son. Within these limits the almost invisible and tremulous ball of orthodoxy was allowed securely to vibrate. On either side, beyond this consecrated ground, the heretics and the dæmons lurked in ambush to surprise and devour the unhappy wanderer. But as the degrees of theological hatred depend on the spirit of the war, rather than on the importance of the controversy, the heretics who degraded, were treated with more severity than those who annihilated, the person of the Son. The life of Athanasius 1 See Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. sect. ii. c. i. p. 25-36. He thinks it his duty to reconcile two orthodox synods. m According to Aristotle, the stars were homoousian to each other. "That Homoousios means of one substance in kind, hath been shown by Petavius, Curcellæus, Cudworth, Le Clerc, &c. and to prove it, would be actum agere." This is the just remark of Dr. Jortin, (vol. ii. p. 212.) who examines the Arian controversy with learning, candour, and ingenuity. n See Petavins (Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. 1. iv. c. 16. p. 453, &c.) Cudworth, (p. 559.) Bull, (sect, iv. p. 285-290. edit. Grab.) The epi Xopnois, or circumincessio, is perhaps the deepest and darkest corner of the whole theological abyss. o The third section of Bull's Defence of the Nicene faith, which some of his antagonists have called nonsense, and others heresy, is consecrated to the supremacy of the Father. p The ordinary appellation with which Athanasius and his followers chose to compliment the Arians, was that of Ariomanites. 9 Epiphanius, tom. i. Hæres. lxxii. 4. p. 837. See the adventures of Marcellus, in Tillemont. (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 880-899.) His The authority of a general council, Arian creeds. to which the Arians themselves had been compelled to submit, inscribed on the banners of the orthodox party the mysterious characters of the word Homoousion, which essentially contributed, notwithstanding some obscure disputes, some nocturnal combats, to maintain and perpetuate the uniformity of faith, or at least of language. The Consubstantialists, who by their success have deserved and obtained the title of catholics, gloried in the simplicity and steadiness of their own creed, and insulted the repeated variations of their adversaries, who were destitute of any certain rule of faith. The sincerity or the cunning of the Arian chiefs, the fear of the laws or of the people, their reverence for Christ, their hatred of Athanasius, all the causes, human and divine, that influence and disturb the counsels of a theological faction, introduced among the sectaries a spirit of discord and inconstancy, which, in the course of a few years, erected eighteen different models of religion,' and avenged the violated dignity of the church. The zealous Hilary, who, from the peculiar hardships of his situation, was inclined to extenuate rather than to aggravate the errors of the oriental clergy, declares, that in the wide extent of the ten provinces of Asia, to which he had been banished, there could be found very few prelates who had preserved the knowledge of the true God. The oppression which he had felt, the disorders of which he was the spectator and the victim, appeased, during a short interval, the angry passions of his soul; and in the following passage, of which I shall transcribe a few lines, the bishop of Poitiers unwarily deviates into the style of a christian philosopher. "It is a thing," says Hilary, "equally deplorable and dangerous, that there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as many doctrines as inclinations, and as many sources of blasphemy as there are faults among us; because we make creeds arbitrarily, and explain them as arbitrarily. The Homoousion is rejected, and received, and explained away by successive work, in one book, of the unity of God, was answered in the three books, which are still extant, of Eusebius, After a long and careful examina tion, Petavius (tom. ii. 1. i. c. 14. p. 78.) has reluctantly pronounced the condemnation of Marcellus. r Athanasius, in his epistle concerning the Synods of Seleucia and Rimini, (tom. i. v. 886-905.) has given an ample list of Arian creeds, which has been enlarged and improved by the labours of the indefatiga. ble Tillemont. (Mem. Eccles. tom, vi. p. 477.) s Erasmus, with admirable sense and freedom, has delineated the just character of Hilary. To revise his text, to compose the annals of his life, and to justify his sentiments and conduct, is the province of the Benedictine editors. + Absque episcopo Eleusio et paucis cum eo, ex majore parte Asianæ decem provincia, inter quas consisto, vere Deum nesciunt. Atque utinam penitus nescirent! cum procliviore enim veniâ ignorarent quam obtrectarent. Hilar. de Synodis, sive de Fide Orientalium, c. 63. P. 1186. edit. Benedict. In the celebrated parallel between atheism and superstition, the bishop of Poitiers would have been surprised in the philosophic society of Bayle and Plutarch. |