CHAP. which herefy itself had drawn from the fcabbard, XXI. to cut off the head of the hated monster.

The

confubftantiality 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 confent of the Greek,
the Latin, the Oriental, and the Proteftant
churches. But if the fame word had not served
to ftigmatize the heretics, and to unite the Catho-
lics, 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, diftinguished by
by a contrary ten-
dency to the fentiments of the Tritheifts and of
the Sabellians. But as those oppofite extremes
feemed to overthrow the foundations either of
natural, or revealed, religion, they mutually
agreed to qualify the rigour of their principles;
and to difavow the juft, but invidious, confe-
quences, which might be urged by their an-
tagonists. The intereft of the common caufe
inclined them to join their numbers, and to con-
ceal their differences; their animofity was foftened
by the healing counfels of toleration, and their
disputes were fufpended by the ufe of the myfte-
rious Homooufion, which either party was free to
interpret according to their peculiar tenets. The
Sabellian fenfe, which, about fifty years before,
had obliged the council of Antioch " to prohibit

quod viderunt adverfariis effe formidini; ut tanquem evaginato ab ipfis gladio, ipfum nefandæ caput heræfeos amputarent.

57 See Bull, Defenf. Fid. Nicen. fect. ii. c. i. p. 25-36. He thinks it his duty to reconcile two orthodox fynods.

this

this celebrated term, had endeared it to thofe CHAP. theologians who entertained a fecret but partial affection for a nominal Trinity. But the more fashionable faints of the Arian times, the intrepid Athanafius, the learned Gregory Nazianzen, and the other pillars of the church, who fupported with ability and fuccefs the Nicene doctrine, appeared to confider the expreflion of fubftance, as if it had been fynonymous with that of nature; and they ventured to illustrate their meaning, by affirming that three men, as they belong to the fame common fpecies, are consubstantial or homoóufian to each other 58. This pure and diftinct equality was tempered, on the one hand, by the internal connection, and spiritual penetration, which indiffolubly unites the divine perfons 59; 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 invifible and tremulous ball of orthodoxy was allowed fecurely to vibrate. On either fide, beyond this confecrated ground, the

$8 According to Ariftotle, the flars were homooufian to each other. "That Homooufics means of one substance in kind, hath been fhewn by Petavius, Curcellæus, Cudworth, Le Clerc, &c. and to "prove it, would be actum agere." This is the juft remark of Dr. Jortin (vol. ii. p. 212.), who examines the Arian controversy with learning, candour, and ingenuity.

59 See Petavius (Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. l. iv. c. 16. p. 453, &c.), Cudworth (p. 559.), Bull (fect. iv. p. 285–290. edit. Grab.). The ☛εpixwpness or circuminceffio, is perhaps the deepest and dai keit corí er of the whole theological abyfs.

bo The third fection of Bull's Defence of the Nicene Faith, which fome of his antagonists have called nonienfe, and others herefy, is confecrated to the fupremacy of the Father.

heretics

CHAP. heretics and the dæmons lurked in ambush to XXI. furprise and devour the unhappy wanderer. But

Arian creeds.

as the degrees of theological hatred depend on the fpirit of the war, rather than on the importance of the controversy, the heretics who degraded, were treated with more feverity than those who annihilated, the perfon of the Son. The life of Athanafius was confumed in irreconcileable oppofition to the impious madness of the Arians"; but he defended above twenty years the Sabellianifm of Marcellus of Ancyra; and when at last he was compelled to withdraw himself from his communion, he continued to mention, with an ambiguous fmile, the venial errors of his refpectable friend 2.

62

The authority of a general council, to which the Arians themselves had been compelled to fub. mit, infcribed on the banners of the orthodox party the myfterious characters of the word Homooufion, which effentially contributed, notwithstanding fome obfcure difputes, fome nocturnal combats, to maintain and perpetuate the uniformity of faith, or at least of language. The Consubstantialists, who by their fuccefs have deserved and obtained the title of Catholics, gloried in the fimplicity and steadiness of their own creed,

61 The ordinary appellation with which Athanafius and his followers chose to compliment the Arians, was that of Ariomanites.

62 Epiphanius, tom. i. Hæref. Ixxii. 4. p. 837. See the adven tures of Marcellus, in Tillemont (Mem. Ecclef. tom. vii. p. 880899.). His work in one book, of the unity of God, was answered in the three books, which are still extant, of Eufebius. After a long and careful examination, Petavius (tom. ii. l. i. c. 14. p. 78.) haş reluctantly pronounced the condemnation of Marcellus.

and

and infulted the repeated variations of their adver- CHAP. faries, who were deftitute of any certain rule of XXI. faith. The fincerity or the cunning of the Arian chiefs, the fear of the laws of the people, their reverence for Chrift, their hatred of Athanafius, all the causes, human and divine, that influence and disturb the counfels of a theological faction, introduced among the fectaries a spirit of difcord and inconftancy, which, in the courfe of a few years, erected eighteen different models of religion 63, and avenged the violated dignity of the church. The zealous Hilary 64, who, from the peculiar hardships of his fituation, was inclined to extenuate rather than to aggravate the errors of F the oriental clergy, declares, that in the wide

1

ان

ال

extent of the ten provinces of Afia, to which he
had been banished, there could be found very
few prelates who had preferved the knowledge of
the true God 65. The oppreffion which he had
felt, the diforders of which he was the fpectator
and the victim, appeafed, during a fhort interval,

63 Athanafius in his epiftle concerning the fynods of Seleucia and Rimini (tom, i. p. 886-905.), has given an ample lift of Arian creeds, which has been enlarged and improved by the labours of the indefatigable Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 477.).

64 Erafmus, with admirable fenfe and freedom, has delineated the juft character of Hilary. To revife his text, to compofe the an nals of his life, and to justify his fentiments and conduct, is the province of the Benediétine editors.

65 Abfque epifcopo Eleufio et paucis cum eo, ex majore parte Afianæ decem provinciæ, inter quas confifto, vere Deum nefciunt. Atque utinam penitus nefcirent ! cum procliviore enim veniâ igno. rarent quam obtrectarent. Hilar. de Synodis, five 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 philofophic fociety of Bayle and Plutarch.

VOL. III.

Z

the

CHAP. the angry paffions of his foul; and in the followXXI. ing paffage of which I fhall tranfcribe a few lines, the bishop of Poitiers unwarily deviates into the ftyle of a Chriftian philofopher. "It is a thing," fays Hilary," equally deplorable and dangerous, "that there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as many doctrines as inclinations, and as many fources of blafphemy as there are faults among us; becaufe we make creeds arbitrarily, "and explain them as arbitrarily. The Homo"oufion is rejected, and received, and explained ' away by fucceffive fynods. The partial or total "refemblance of the Father and of the Son, is a

Arian fects.

fubject of difpute for these unhappy times. 66 Every year, nay every moon, we make new creeds "to defcribe invifible myfteries. We repent of "what we have done, we defend those who repent, "we anathematise those whom we defended. "We condemn either the doctrine of others in

ઃઃ

ઃઃ

ourfelves, or our own in that of others; and "reciprocally tearing one another to pieces, we "have been the cause of each other's ruin 66 "

It will not be expected, it would not perhaps be endured, that I fhould fwell this theological digreffion, by a minute examination of the eighteen creeds, the authors of which, for the most part, difclaimed the odious name of their parent Arius. It is amusing enough to delineate the form, and to trace the vegetation, of a fingular plant; but

66 Hilarius ad Conftantium, l. ii. c. 4, 5. p. 1227, 1228. This remarkable paffage deserved the attention of Mr. Locke, who has transcribed it (vol. iii. p. 470.) into the model of his new common place book.

the