the language of poetry; and as to the antiquity of these hymns, as the historian has not mentioned the age of them, it is very poffible, for any thing that appears to the contrary, that they might have been those very hymns which were rejected by Paulus Samofatenfis on account of their novelty.

It is likewife alledged, that Pliny fays, that "the chriftians on a certain day, before "it was light, met to fing a hymn to Christ "as to God (or a God) *." But as to this writer, if he had been told that hymns were fung by chriftians in honour of Chrift, being himself a heathen, he would naturally imagine that they were fuch hymns as had been compofed in honour of the heathen gods, who had been men. He would be far from concluding from that circumftance, that Chrift was confidered by his followers either as the fupreme God, or as a pre-exiftent fpirit, the maker of the world under God.

* Affirmabant autem hanc fuiffe fummam vel culpæ fuæ, vel erroris, quod effent foliti ftato die, ante lucem convenire; carmenqueChristo,quasi deo, dicere. Epift. 97.

SEC

Of the Excommunication of Theodotus by Victor.

THE argument that is urged with the

moft plausibility against the antiquity of the unitarian doctrine, is that which is drawn from the excommunication of Theodotus, by Victor, bishop of Rome, about the year 200; as it may be faid, that this bishop, violent as he was, would not have proceeded to the public excommunication of a man whose opinions were not generally obnoxious.

I wish that we had a few more particulars concerning this excommunication of Theodotus, as it is the first of the kind that is inentioned in hiftory. It is to be obferved, that it is not Caius, the writer quoted by Eufebius, who fays that he was excommunicated on account of his being an unitarian, but Eufebius himself *; so that,

* Ησαν δε τοι αμφω Θεοδοίς τε σκευλέως μαθηται, το πρωίε επι ταύλη τη φρονήσει, μαλλον δε αφροσύνη, αφορισθέντος της κοινωνίας υπο βικτορος ως εφην, τα τότε επίσκοπε. Hift. lib. 5. cap. 21. p. 253. confidering

confidering the writer's prejudices, there may be fome room to doubt, whether he was excommunicated on that account.

The unitarians, it has been feen, faid that Victor favoured their doctrine, and this we find afferted in the Appendix to Tertullian's Treatife, De Præfcriptione, which, whether written by Tertullian himself, or not, is probably as good an authority as that of Eufebius. He fays that, after the two Theodotus's, "Praxeas introduced his

herefy into Rome, which Victorinus en"deavoured to ftrengthen. He said that

Jefus Chrift was God the Father omni"potent, that he was crucified, fuffered, "and died, &c.*" Victorinus, in this paffage, Beaufobre fays †, it is agreed, should be Victor, and it cannot be supposed, that he would have patronized in Praxeas the fame doctrine for which he had before excommunicated Theodotus. The probabi

*Sed poft hos omnes etiam Praxeas quidam hærefim introduxit, quam Victorinus corroborare curavit. Hic deum patrem omnipotentem Jefum Chriftum effe dicit; hunc crucifixum paffumque contendit et mortuum. Finem, p. 223.

+ Hiftoire de Manicheisme, vol. 1. p. 533.

Ad

3

lity,

lity, therefore, is, that Theodotus was excommunicated on some other account than that of his being an unitarian.

Theodotus having been excommunicated as an unitarian, is not consistent with that general prevalence of the unitarian doctrine in the time of Tertullian (which was also that of Victor) which we have seen that Tertullian expressly asserts. However, the account of Eusebius, though improbable, may

be admitted without denying that of Tertullian, when the circumstances attending them are duly considered.

Tertullian lived in Africa, where there seems to have been a greater inclination for the unitarian doctrine than there was at Rome; as we may collect from the remarkable popularity of Sabellius in that country, and other circumstances. Athanasius also, who complains of many persons of low understanding favouring the same principle, was of the same country, residing chiefly in Egypt; though he had seen a great part of the christian world, and was, no doubt, well acquainted with the state of it, VOL. III.

X

We

We should likewife confider the peculiarly violent character of Victor, who was capable of doing what few other perfons would have attempted; being the fame perfon who excommunicated all the eastern churches, because they did not obferve Eafter at the fame time that the western churches did, for which he was much cenfured by many bishops, even in the west.

Such an excommunication as this of Theodotus was by no means the fame thing with cutting a perfon off from communion with any particular church, with which he had been used to communicate. Theodotus was a stranger at Rome, and it is very poffible that the body of the christian church in that city did not interest themfelves in the affair ; the bishop and his clergy only approving of it. For I readily grant that, though there were fome learned unitarians in all the early ages of christianity, the majority of the clergy were not fo.

Theodotus, befides being a ftranger at Rome, was a man of science, and is faid by the unitarians to have been well received by Victor at firft; so that it is very

poffible