XXI.

CHAP. after the end of the apoftolic age, and before the origin of the Arian controversy. Their fuffrage is claimed, with equal confidence, by the orthodox and by the heretical parties; and the most inquifitive critics have fairly allowed, that if they had the good fortune of poffeffing the Catholic verity, they have delivered their conceptions in loose, inaccurate, and fometimes contradictory lan

Authority of the church.

guage

39

II. The devotion of individuals was the firft circumftance which diftinguished the Chriftians from the Platonifts: the fecond was the authority of the church. The difciples of philofophy afferted the rights of intellectual freedom, and their respect for the fentiments of their teachers was a liberal and voluntary tribute, which they offered to fuperior reason. But the Chriftians formed a numerous and difciplined fociety; and the jurifdiction of their laws and magiftrates was ftrictly exercifed over the minds of the faithful. The loofe wanderings of the imagination were gradually confined by creeds and confeffions ; the freedom of private judgment fubmitted to the public wifdom of fynods; the authority of a theologian was determined by his ecclefiaftical rank; and the epifcopal fucceffors of the apostles inflicted the cenfures of the church on those who deviated from the orthodox belief. But in an age of religious controversy, every act of oppreffion adds new force to the elaftic vigour of the mind; and the zeal or obftinacy of a fpiritual rebel was fometimes ftimulated by fecret motives of ambition or avarice. A metha

4,0

phyfical

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Factions.

phyfical argument became the cause or pretence of political contefts; the fubtleties of the Platonic school were used as the badges of popular factions, and the distance which feparated their respective tenets was enlarged or magnified by the acrimony of difpute. As long as the dark herefies of Praxeas and Sabellius laboured to confound the Father with the Son, the orthodox party might be excufed if they adhered more ftrictly and more earneftly to the diftinction, than to the equality of the divine perfons. But as foon as the heat of controversy had fubfided, 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 them felves the ufe of the terms and definitions which had been cenfured in the mouth of the fectaries". After the edict of toleration had reftored peace and leisure to the Chriftians, the Trinitarian controverfy was revived in the ancient feat of Platonifm, the learned, the opulent, the tumultuous city of Alexandria; and the flame of religious difcord was rapidly communicated from the schools, to the clergy, the people, the province, and the Eaft. The abftrufe question of the eternity of the Logos was agitated in ecclefiaftic conferences, and popular fermons; and the heterodox opinions of Arius "were foon made public Arius. by his own zeal, and by that of his adverfaries. His most implacable adverfaries have acknowledged

Vol. III.

R

CHAP.

XXI.

A. D. 318 325.

Three [yf

Trinity.

the learning and blameless life of that eminent presbyter; who, in a former election, had declared, and perhaps generously declined, his pretenfions to the epifcopal throne **. His competitor Alexander affumed the office of his judge. The important cause was argued before him; and if at first he feemed to hesitate, he at length pronounced his final fentence, as an abfolute rule of faith ". The undaunted presbyter, who prefumed to refift the authority of his angry bishop, was feparated from the communion of the church. But the pride of Arius was fupported by the applause of a numerous party. He reckoned among his immediate followers two bishops of Egypt, feven presbyters, twelve deacons, and (what may appear almost incredible) seven hundred virgins. A large majority of the bishops of Afia appeared to fupport or favour his caufe; and their measures were conducted by Eufebius of Cæfarea, the most learned of the Chriftian prelates; and by Eufebius of Nicomedia, who had acquired the reputation of a statesman without forfeiting that of a faint. Synods in Palestine and Bithynia were oppofed to the fynods of Egypt. The attention of the prince and people was attracted by this theological dif pute; and the decifion, at the end of fix years was referred to the fupreme authority of the ge

neral council of Nice.

46

When the mysteries of the Chriftian faith were tems of the dangerously expofed to public debate, it might be obferved, that the human understanding was capable of forming three diftinct, though imperfect,

47

49

created from

The Son,

by

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fyftems, concerning the nature of the Divine Trinity; and it was pronounced, that none of these systems, in a pure and absolute sense, were exempt from herefy and error ". I. According Arianifm to the first hypothefis, which was maintained by Arius and his difciples, the Logos was a dependent and spontaneous production, nothing by the will of the Father. whom all things were made ", had been begotten before all worlds, and the longest of the aftronomical 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 transfufed his ample fpirit, and impreffed the effulgence of his glory. Vifible image of invisible perfection, he faw, at an immeasurable diftance beneath his feet, the thrones of the brighteft archangels: yet he shone only with a reflected light, and, like the fons of the Roman emperors, who were invefted with the titles of Cæfar or Auguftus he governed the univerfe in obedience to the will of his Father and Monarch. II. In the fecond hypothefis, the Logos Tritheifm. poffeffed all the inherent, incommunicable perfections, which religion and philofophy appropriate to the Supreme God. Three diftinct and infinite minds or fubftances, three co-equal and co-eternal beings, compofed the Divine Effence "; and it would have implied contradiction, that any of them should not have exifted, or that they

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XXI.

should ever cease to exift ". The advocates of a fyftem which feemed to establish three independent Deities, attempted to preserve the unity of the Firft Caufe, fo confpicuous in the defign and order of the world, by the perpetual concord of their adminiftration, and the effential agreement of their will. A faint resemblance of this unity of action may be difcovered in the focieties of men, and even of animals. The caufes which disturb their harmony proceed only from the imperfection and inequality of their faculties: but the omnipotence which is guided by infinite wif dom and goodness, cannot fail of chufing the fame means for the accomplishment of the fame ends. Sabellian III. Three Beings, who, by the felf - derived

ifin.

neceffity of their existence, poffefs all the divine attributes in the most perfect degree; who are eternal in duration, infinite in fpace, and intimately present to each other, and to the whole universe; irresistibly force themselves on the astonished mind, as one and the fame Being ", who, in the economy of grace, as well as in that of nature, máy manifeft himself under different forms, and be confidered under different aspects. By this hypothefis, a real fubftantial Trinity is refined into a trinity of names, and abstract modifications, that fubfift only in the mind which conceives them. The Logos is no longer a perfon, but an attribute; and it is only in a figurative fense, that the epithet of fon can be applied to the eternal reason which was with God from the beginning, and by which, not by whom, all things