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He is equally named with them in the form of baptism," Go, &c. and baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"-he is therefore a third person, but the same God.

ARIANISM, AND ARIANS.

NAMES.-The Arians derive their name from Arius, a native of Lybia, in Africa, and a presbyter of Alexandria about the year 315; who owned Christ to be God, yet maintained him to be inferior to the Father, even as to his Deity, and his essence to be different from that of the Father; and that he was neither co-eternal nor co-equal with him; also that the Holy Ghost was not God. But the modern Arians differ very widely from their predecessors; and the term Arian is now said to be applied to all those who consider Jesus Christ as simply inferior and subordinate to the Father.* That Christ was the Creator of the world, is now believed only by a part of the Arians; but they all maintain, in opposition to the Socinians, that he existed previous to his incarnation, though in his pre-existent state they assign him different degrees of dignity; and hence the appellation of Semi, High, and Low Arian.-Arians of all descriptions claim the appel

* Such an indiscriminate application of the term is, however, by no means correct. See above p. 106. Note.

lation of Unitarians. But, says Mr. Belsham, "Genuine Arianism is not, and cannot be, Unitarianism; for it believes in two Gods, a great God, and a lesser one, and in two Creators, one supreme, and the other subordinate."*

RISE, PROGRESS, AND HISTORY.-From the earliest ages of Christianity to the present day, various have been the doctrines and opinions respecting the Trinity which have prevailed in the Christian Church; and most of them have regarded the person, natures, offices, or merits of the Redeemer. Doubts respecting his real divinity seem to have arisen even in the apostles' days; yet to them we are indebted for St. John's Gospel; for it is generally allowed, that he wrote against Ebion and Cerinthus, who took upon them to deny that fundamental and important truth.

"At first it (Arianism) arose a 'little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand.' But, in a short time, 'the heaven was black with clouds and wind,

* Letters upon Arianism, &c. p. 142. Mr. Belsham seems disposed to confine the term Unitarians to the modern Socinians, and the Low Arians, or believers in the simple pre-existence of Christ, whom he does not admit to be genuine Arians.

Emlyn and Whiston appear to be the first of the Arians who claimed the title of Unitarians; yet the latter seemed to prefer that of Eusebian. Dr. Price also eagerly challenged the appellation of Unitarian, which he defined to be one "who believes that there is but one God, and one object of religious worship."

and there was a great rain."* All the Jewish horizon was involved in the gloom. It even spread a deep shade of the darkness over the Christian. Before the end of the first century, this heresy had already infected the Jews very deeply. Before the beginning of the second, it was conveyed by the Jews to the infant church of the Christians. The first Arians that ever existed under the gospel, were two Jews; and their names have been consigned to an infamous immortality, for the fact, Ebion and Cerinthus."+

But though Arius was not the original author of the principles to which his followers are attached, from his having been, perhaps, the ablest and most zealous advocate for them in the ancient church, their abettors have been known by his name; and the rise of the Arian controversy (as far as he is concerned) is referred, by some, to the year 316, by others to 319, by Baronius to 315, and by Basnage and others to the year 317.-Socrates gives this account of its origin: "Alexander," (bishop of Alexandria) he says, "discoursing one day too curiously concerning the doctrine of the Trinity in unity, in the presence of his presbyters and the rest of his clergy, Arius, one of the presbyters, supposed his bishop to advance the doctrine of Sabellius, and, disliking that, he went into an opinion directly opposite." Theodoret also says, that Arius took

* 1 Kings, xviii. 44, 45.

† Whitaker's Origin of Arianism, p. 411, 412.
Eccles. Hist. lib. i. cap. 5.

occasion, from things said by Alexander, to raise a disturbance; and Constantine, likewise, in his letter to Alexander and Arius, first blames the former for putting questions to his presbyters which he ought not; and then the latter, for inconsiderately uttering notions that ought to have been buried in silence.

Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia,† a great favourite of Constantia, sister of the Emperor Constantine, and wife of Licinius, became a zealous promoter of Arianism. He took Arius under his protection, and introduced him to Constantia; so that the sect increased, and several bishops embraced it openly. It was however condemned, and its followers anathematised by a council at Alexandria, consisting of 100 bishops, in 320, under Alexander; who accused Arius of impiety, and caused him, and several ecclesiastics, of whom two were bishops, to be expelled from the communion of the church. But, so far from being extinguished, it soon increased still more, and both parties became contentious and refractory; so that, in order to put an end to the disputes, and remedy the disorders which it occasioned,

Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 1.

† Not the historian, though he also endeavoured to pacify Alexander, and to persuade him to compromise the quarrel.

The two bishops who persisted in ism, and afterwards refused to subscri when drawn up, were Thomas, bish Secundus, bishop of Ptolemais.

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