CHAPTER

XVI.

Of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine after the Council of Nice.

TH

HAT the unitarians conftituted the great body of chriftians till the time of Justin Martyr, and that they were the majority at least of the common people till about the time of the council of Nice, has, I prefume, been proved to as much fatiffaction as the circumftances of the cafe could be expected to admit. There is every reason to believe that it was fo a priori, a great number of circumstances, applied by the cleareft axioms of historical criticism, fhew that it must have been so, And there is likewife the ftrongest pofitive teflimony to the fact, from fome of the most confiderable chriftian writers. The unitarians were the major pars credentium, in

the

the time of Tertullian, they were the T And, the multitude, and the Ta winen, the mul titudes of Origen, and the awo, the many of Athanafius.

According to Eutychius, who is faid to have compiled his annals from the archives. of the church of Alexandria, there must have been more unitarian bishops than the Greek hiftorians give us any account of. He fays, that there were two thoufand and forty eight bishops affembled at the council "of Nice, fome of whom were Sabellians, "who believed that Chrift had no being "before he was born of the virgin; others

faying that God was one fubftance called 'by three names, but not believing in the "word, or the Holy Spirit, which," he fays, "was the opinion of Paulus Samosa"tenfis; and that Conftantine having heard "their opinions, but approving of that of "three hundred and eighteen, who held "the fame doctrine, he appointed them to "meet in a large room, and gave them power to make decrees." The fame account Selden, the publisher of Euty

chius,

chius, found in an Arabian and chriftian writer, named Jofeph, and alfo in a celebrated Mahometan hiftorian, Ifmael Ebn Ali.

This account, though feemingly very different from that of the other ecclefiaftical hiftorians, Beaufobre thinks may be reconciled with it, if it be fuppofed that the bishops of villages, prefbyters, and those who were deemed heretical, were not allowed to have a feat with the reft *. Wormius, he obferves, fays that no fectary was allowed to give his opinion in that council †.

*Hiftoire de Manicheifme, vol. 1. p. 531.

+ Mittens ergo Conftantinus rex in omnes paffim regiones patriarchas et epifcopos convocavit, adeo ut poft annum et duos menfes, Niceæ convenirent bis mille quadraginta octo epifcopi, fententiis et religionibus inter fe difcrepantes.Erant qui dicerent chriftum a patre effe, inftar flammæ ignis quæ ab igne flammante dependeret, nec priorem diminuere pofterioris ab ipfo derivationem. Erat que hæc Sabellii et affectarum ipfius fententia.-Alii chriftum hominem fuiffe a divinitate creatum ejufdem cum noftrum aliquo fubftantiæ, filiique principium a Maria fuiffe, ipfumque clectum qui fubftantiæ humanæ liberator effet, comitante ipfum gratia divina, et in ipfo

per

That the unitarians were exceedingly numerous in the time of Athanafius, or not long before it, especially in Africa, is evident from his complaints on the fubject. He fays that in Pentapolis of Upper Lybia,

loca

per amorem et voluntatem habitante, ideoque appellatum fuiffe filium dei. Dicentes etiam deum fubftantiam unam effe, et perfonam unam quæ tribus nominibus appellatur, nec in verbum, nec in fpiritum fanctum credentes: erat hæc fententia Pauli Samofateni patriarchæ Antiochani, ejufque fectatorum qui Pauliciani audiunt.-Alii (denique) afferuerunt divinitatem Chrifti; quæ Pauli apoftoli fententia eft, nec non epifcoporum trecentorum et octodecim. auditis ipforum fententiis miratus eft Conftantinus rex hanc difcrepantiam, domoque ipfis fepofita in qua ipfis paravit, difputationes ipfos habere juffit, ut perfpecto apud quem vera effet fides, ipfum fequeretur. Illi ergo tercentum et octodecim in unam fidem, unamque fententiam confenferunt, cumque reliquis qui litem ipfis moverunt difputantes, illis argumentis fuis fuperiores evaferunt fidemque veram declararunt: reliqui autem epifcopi fententiis et religionibus inter fe diverfi fuerunt; Rex ergo trecentis et octodecim epifcopis iftis loco quodam proprio et amplo parato, ipfe in eorum medio confedit, acceptaque, annulum, gladium et fceptrum fuum ipfis tradidit, dicens ipfis, vobis hodie in imperium meum poteftatem conceffi, ut in eo faciatis quicquid facere vobis expedit eorum quæ ad religionem rite stabiliendam et fidelium commodum fpectant. Selden's Eutychius, p. 439, 440. 443, 444. VOL. III.

Y

" fome

chius, found in an Arabian and chriftian writer, named Jofeph, and alfo in a celebrated Mahometan hiftorian, Ifmael Ebn Ali.

This account, though feemingly very different from that of the other ecclefiaftical hiftorians, Beaufobre thinks may be reconciled with it, if it be fuppofed that the bishops of villages, prefbyters, and those who were deemed heretical, were not allowed to have a feat with the reft *. Wormius, he obferves, fays that no fectary was allowed to give his opinion in that council †.

Hiftoire de Manicheifme, vol. I. p. 531.

+ Mittens ergo Conftantinus rex in omnes paffim regiones patriarchas et epifcopos convocavit, adeo ut poft annum et duos menfes, Niceæ convenirent bis mille quadraginta octo epifcopi, fententiis et religionibus inter fe discrepantes.Erant qui dicerent chriftum a patre effe, inftar flammæ ignis quæ ab igne flammante dependeret, nec priorem diminuere' posterioris ab ipfo derivationem. Erat que hæc Sabellii et affectarum ipfius fententia. Alii chriftum hominem fuiffe a divinitate creatum ejufdem cum noftrum aliquo fubftantiæ, filiique principium a Maria fuiffe, ipfumque clectum qui fubftantiæ humanæ liberator effet, comitante ipfum gratia divina, et in ipfo

per