SECTION II.

THE SOCINIAN SCHEME.

THE Socinians maintained that Jesus was a human being, at least that he had no existence previous to his miraculous conception. But they appear to have believed that his body was made of a substance superior to that of other men, that he might be capable of sustaining the glory of that state to which he was advanced after his resurrection.

They maintained, that after having been declared at his baptism to be the Messiah, he retired into the wilderness, where he was admitted to some peculiar intercourse with the Supreme Being, and was occasionally taken up into heaven, to be instructed in the nature and purposes of his mission, and in all that he was to do and to suffer in the discharge of it. And it is by this hypothesis that they explain all those texts in which mention is made of ascending into, or of descending from, heaven.

After having fulfilled his ministry, he was publicly crucified. The Socinians deny that the death of Christ is in any degree a satisfaction for sin; but they allow that he is said to expiate sin, inasmuch as by his death he acquired that universal empire which authorizes and enables him to deliver his faithful disciples from the punishment of sin. But every idea of compensation to divine

lowing extract of a letter, now in my possession, from a learned Arian, William Whiston, to another learned Arian, James Peirce, dated Cambridge, July 16, 1708 : " Your letter a little surprised me, to find myself supposed to be a Socinian or UNITARIAN. I never was, nor am now, under the least temptation of such doctrines.-I hope you will do me the favour to be one of the examiners of my papers. Till which time you will do kindly to stop so false a report."

justice

justice they reject, as unworthy of the perfections of God, and contradictory to the plainest declarations of Scripture.

The Socinians believed that Jesus Christ, after his resurrection and ascension into heaven, was invested with universal and unlimited authority; that all mankind, the righteous and the wicked, the living and the dead, were made subject to his government; and that he was advanced to rule over angels of every order and degree, whether good or evil, and indeed over the whole created universe.

In consequence of this exaltation, and by the appointment of the Father, he is now become the proper object of religious worship and invocation, even of the very same kind of worship which is addressed to God himself; and that for this reason, as well as on account of the dignity and authority to which he was exalted, he is called God by the sacred writers.

The Socinians further taught, that at the final consummation of all things Jesus Christ would again return to raise the dead, to judge the world, to reward the virtuous with eternal life and happiness, and to consign the wicked to adequate punishment.

This denomination of christians flourished in Poland in the sixteenth century. They took their name from Lælius Socinus, a nobleman of Sienna in Italy, and from Faustus Socinus his nephew, who were able and zealous advocates for the Socinian doctrine, and who, together with others equally zealous and enlightened, were very successful in spreading these tenets in Poland and Transylvania.

There was a great difference of opinion amongst the Socinians concerning the propriety of praying to Christ. Faustus Socinus strenuously maintained it, and declares them to be no christians who refuse to worship Christ, whatever profession they may make of believing in him. Francis David, a preacher of note in Transylvania, taught that Jesus

Jesus was put to death by the Jews contrary to the intention of the divine Being, who meant that he should be their king; and that since his resurrection and ascension he is placed in a state in which he is totally unacquainted with every thing that passes in the world, and consequently that he cannot be the proper object of religious worship. Socinus was sent for to convince Francis David of his error; but, not being able to accomplish his purpose, and he still persisting to teach, both publicly and privately, that to worship Jesus Christ was exactly the same thing as worshiping the Virgin Mary and other saints, was thrown into prison by order of the prince of Transylvania, where he died soon afterwards, a melancholy proof that persecution is not limited to any party. Socinus himself, though a great and good man, is not altoge. ther clear from the suspicion of having been accessary to the sufferings of Francis David.

It was the uniform opinion of the Socinians, that the Holy Spirit was the energy of God exerted in the miraculous gifts and powers communicated to the apostles and primitive believers, and not a conscious intelligent agent, either created or divine.

Against the doctrine peculiar to the Socinians it has been objected, That the personal ascent of Jesus into heaven is not in itself probable, and is indeed founded upon the puerile supposition that heaven is a particular district of the universe where God resides and manifests his glory in a peculiar and sensible manner;-that, had this local ascent and descent been a literal fact, there can be no doubt that other evangelists would have mentioned it be sides John, as they have related his temptation and his transfiguration;-that such a local ascent could be of no use, as the divine Being might have communicated the knowledge of his will to Jesus while he lived in this world, as easily and as distinctly as if he had been transported to

the

the remotest regions of the universe ;-that the phrases 'ascending to,' and 'descending from, heaven,' as applied to Jesus, are peculiar to St. John, and that there is no great difficulty in explaining them in a mystical and figurative sense, like many other of the bold and metaphorical expressions which occur so frequently in the writings of that evangelist.

Also, that the advancement of a human being to the government of the whole created universe, exalting him above all the supposed orders of the celestial hierarchy, and making him the proper object of religious worship, and this for doing nothing more than any other human being, aided by the same power, might have done, is a fact, in its own nature, barely possible, and in its circumstances in the highest degree improbable, contrary to all experience and analogy, not to be admitted but upon the most explicit and irresistible evidence; and though not involving a contradiction so palpable as the Athanasian doctrine, it is nevertheless almost equally incredible, and would, if it were taught in the New Testament, constitute one of the strongest objections against the truth and divine authority of the christian religion.

These objections are so obvious, and of such weight, that the Socinian doctrine now is universally exploded, at least in this country.

The doctrines of the old Socinians are contained in the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum; including the works of Faustus Socinus, Crellius, Slichtingius and Wolzogenius: also, in those of Przipcovius, and Brenius. See also Dr. Toulmin's Life of Socinus.

SECTION

SECTION III.

THE LOW ARIAN SCHEME.

THIS hypothesis maintains that the soul which animated the body of Jesus was a pre-existent spirit, but of what order or degree of the celestial hierarchy is not known. It is however denied that he had any concern in the formation of the world, or in the administration of providence antecedent to his supposed incarnation. It is maintained, that in consequence of his sufferings and death he is now advanced to great personal dignity and authority, and that he will hereafter appear to raise the dead and to judge the world. The Low Arians in general deny that the death of Christ was a satisfaction for the sins of men; and some of them maintain that he died only as a martyr and an example, and that his death is an expiation for sin solely as being a means of virtue: while others use language upon this subject which seems to imply that this event had some mysterious design, and answered some purposes under the divine government which they do not, or cannot, explain.

They are unanimous in rejecting the worship of Christ, and the personal existence of the Holy Spirit.

This denomination of christians is in the strictest sense Unitarian they ascribe neither attributes, nor works, nor honours to Christ, which reason and revelation appropriate to God; and they differ from other Unitarians solely, or chiefly, in assigning an earlier date to the existence of Jesus.

The Low Arian hypothesis is founded upon a literal acceptation of those texts in which Jesus is said to have

descended