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sense of the word. Dr. Doddridge also is supposed to have been a Sabellian, and also Mr. Benjamin Fawcett, of Kidderminster, who published a valuable piece, entitled, "Candid Reflections concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity." It is a pity that this work is not republished, and circulated throughout the religious world. Robinson's "Plea for the Divinity of Christ" is a most ingenious tract on the subject.

UNITARIANS.

INCLUDING ARIANS AND HUMANITARIANS.

ARIANS.

The Arian derives his name from Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, who flourished about the year 315, and the propagation of whose doctrine occasioned the famous council of Nice, assembled by Constantine, in the year 325. The origin of Arianism has been thus accounted for. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, 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 a directly opposite opinion. However, whatever may have been the opinion or conduct of Arius, the system spread, and efforts were made for its extinction. It was for a time in the east the reigning religion. After all, Arius fell a victim to the fury of his persecutors. Dr. Maclaine, in his Translation of Mosheim, remarks, "It appears to me extremely probable that this unhappy man was a victim to the resentment of his enemies, and was destroyed by poison, or some such violent method. A blind and fanatical zeal for certain systems of faith has in all ages produced such horrible acts of cruelty and injustice."

Arius owned Christ to be God in a subordinate sense, and considered his death to be a propitiation for sin.

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The Arians acknowledge that the Son was the Word, though they deny its being eternal: contending, that it had only been created prior to all other beings. Christ, say they, had nothing of man in him, except the flesh, with which the Logos, or Word, spoken of by the apostle John, was united, which supplied the rest. The Arians, though they deny that Christ is the eternal God, yet they contend against others for his pre-existence. His pre-existence they found on the two following passages, among many others :-" Before Abraham was I am." And the prayer of Jesus-"Glorify me with that glory which I had with thee before the world began.' These and other texts of a similar kind are, in their opinion, irrefragable proofs that Christ did actually exist in another state before he was born of the Virgin Mary, in the land of Judea. This matter has been argued by various writers, and names of the first character have distinguished themselves in the Arian controversy. It has also been urged by the advocates of Arianism, that the pre-existent dignity of Christ accounts for that splendid apparatus of prophecies and miracles, with which the mission of the Messiah was attended! In modern times, the term Arian is indiscriminately applied to those who consider Jesus simply subordinate to the Father. Some of them believe Christ to have been the creator of the world, but they all maintain that he existed previous to his incarnation, though in his pre-existent state they assign him different degrees of dignity. Hence the appellation High and Low Arian.

That valuable practical writer, Mr. Job Orton, though he never published any thing explicitly on the Trinity, is supposed, during the latter period of his life to have entertained these sentiments of the peson of Christ. He used to recommend the two following tracts, as having given him the most satisfaction on that subject: "A Sober and Charitable Disquisition on the Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity," by Simon Brown; and “ An Essay towards a Demonstration of the Scripture Trinity," by Dr. Scott, a new edition of which was published by Samuel Goadby, brother to the author of "Illustrations

of the Bible." Of the system of Arianism, Dr. Clarke, in his " Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity," Mr. Henry Taylor (for many years vicar of Portsmouth), in his learned work, entitled, "Ben Mordecai's Apology," Mr. Tomkins, in his "Mediator," and Mr. Hopkins, in his "Appeal to the Common Sense of all Christian People,” have been deemed able advocates. Mr. Whiston, the astronomer and translator of Josephus, revived this controversy in the beginning of the last century. Soon after, Dr. Clarke published his celebrated treatise, entitled, "The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity," which was disapproved of by the convocation, and answered by D. Waterland, who had been charged with verging towards Tritheism." Erasmus (says the Encyclopædia Britannica) seemed to have aimed in some measure to restore Arianism at the beginning of the 16th century, in his Commentaries on the New Testament. Accordingly he was reproached by his adversaries with Arian interpretations and glosses, Arian tenets, &c., to which he made little answer, save that there was no heresy more thoroughly extinct than that of the Arians." But Erasmus is known to have been timid in his disposition, and confessed in one of his letters to a friend, that he possessed not the spirit of a martyr. Of the truth of this declaration there were many proofs.

The Rev. Dr. Bruce, of Belfast, has just published a second edition of his "Sermons " for the elucidation and confirmation of the truth of the system of Arianism, as taught in the New Testament. It first appeared in Ireland; and is now re-published in this country. The introductory discourses on the Scriptures are inimitable; and the latter, or more controversial portion of the volume is penned with liberality.

The history of the Arian controversy, in modern times, may be found in a pamphlet, entitled "An Account of all the considerable Books and Pamphlets that have been wrote on either side, in the controversy concerning the Trinity, from the year 1712: in which is also contained an Account of the Pamphlets written this last year on each side by the Dissenters, to the end of the year 1719" published at London, 1720.

Thomas Emlyin, a pious and learned divine, should be mentioned here, since he has been rendered memorable for his sufferings in the cause of Arianism. He was a dissenting minister in Dublin, and there shamefully persecuted on account of his religious sentiments. He rejected the common notion of the Trinity, but firmly maintained the pre-existence of Christ. He died in London, 1741; and his works were published by his son, an eminent counsellor, in three volumes; to which are prefixed memoirs of the author.

Dr. Richard Price, in his incomparable Sermons on the Christian doctrine, has taken much pains in explaining and defending the principles of Arianism. He states at large the nature of the doctrine, and enumerates the advantages arising from it in the explication of the Scriptures. To these discourses the reader is referred: and whatever he may think of the arguments urged in favour of that system, he must admire the Christian spirit with which they are impregnated

The reader is also referred to the work of JOHN MILTON, lately found among the State Papers at Whitehall, after 150 years' concealment. Dr. Sumner, prebendary of Canterbury, has ably translated it from the Latin, and published it in a quarto volume, by the express order of his Majesty. It is intitled, "A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone, by John Milton." This truly interesting work, divided into two books, on the konwledge of God, and on the service of God-is expressly Arian respecting the person of Christ. Bishop Newton has pronounced, that Milton "was generally truly orthodox;" though Warton says, that, in "Paradise Lost," not a word is said there of the Son of God but what a Socinian, or at least an Arian, would allow. In this new work, according to its translator, it is asserted, that "the Son existed in the beginning, and was the first of the whole creation, by whose delegated power all things were made in heaven and earth; begotten, not by natural necessity, but by the decree of the Father, within the limits of time, endued with the divine nature and substance, but distinct from and inferior to

the Father-one with the Father in love and unanimity of will, and receiving every thing in his filial as well as in his mediatorial character-from the Father's gift. This summary will be sufficient to show that the opinions of Milton were nearly Arian, ascribing to the Son as high a share of divinity as was compatible with the denial of his self-existence and eternal generation, but not admitting his co-equality and co-essentiality with the Father. That he entertained different views at other periods of his life is evident from several expressions scattered through his works." The volume abounds with a constant reference to Scripture, even to profusion. And in an admirable. prefatory address, alike indicative of his sincerity and piety, he declares, "It was a great solace to me to have compiled, by God's assistance, a precious aid for my faith, or rather to have laid up for myself a treasure, which would be a provision for my future life, and would remove from my mind all grounds for hesitation, as often as it behoved me to render an account of the principles of my belief." This work well repays its perusal, and has excited great and merited attention in the religious world. It is a precious theological relic, and its publication redounds highly to his Majesty's good sense and liberality.

HUMANITARIANS.

"Unitarian is not opposed to Tritheist or Polytheist, it does not denote a believer in one God, as contradistinguished from a believer in three Gods, or more Gods than one: it is opposed to Trinitarian, Tri-uni-tarian only, and signifies a believer in, and a worshipper of one God, in one Person, as contradistinguished from a believer in, and a worshipper of one God in three Persons." Bailey gives this explanation of the terms Unitarian and Trinitarian in his well-known Dictionary, and Dr, Berriman, a clergyman, in his "Historical Account of Controversies on the Trinity," in eight Sermons at Lady Moyer's Lecture, 1725, acknowledges this distinction when he remarks,

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