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them, who made the controversies of the Christians a common subject of ridicule and buffoonery.*

Arius was expelled from the church by two Councils, assembled by Alexander at Alexandria, the latter of which was composed of nearly a hundred Bishops. Arius retired to Palestine; and the Emperor Constantine, seeing no chance of a reconciliation between his abettors and their opponents, assembled the famous Council at Nice,† in Bithynia, in the year 325, with the view of terminating the controversy. This general Council was composed of three hundred and eighteen Bishops, and about as many Presbyters; it condemned Arius and his doctrines, after a most patient examination of the latter; and proved, from Scripture, that Jesus Christ is "very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father:"§ and to this effect the venerable Hosius, Bishop of Corduba, in Spain, was appointed to draw up a Creed, which is, to all intents, the same which we now call the Nicene Creed.

Alexander, dying five months after his return home from this Council, was succeeded in the see of Alexandria by Athanasius, a Deacon of that church, who has rendered his name illustrious as a champion of the truth by his zeal and activity, both before and after his elevation, against Arius and his followers. The view which Gibbon has taken of this faithful man's character and labours is worthy of being inserted here, as, coming from a historian deeply prejudiced against the doctrines he so zealously defended, it is no mean testimony in his favour

:

"We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either in active or speculative life, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles may be surmounted, by the force of a single mind, when it is inflexibly applied to the pursuit of a single object. The immortal name of Athanasius will never be separated from the catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to whose defence he consecrated every moment and every faculty of his being. Educated in the family of Alexander, he had vigorously opposed the early progress of the

* Their theatres resounded with shouts of laughter raised by ludicrous representation on the stage of Christian worship, and the numerous subjects of dissension by which the followers of Jesus were occupied, and allowed their passions to be influenced, all which must have appeared sufficiently ridiculous and contemptible to Pagans.

+ Some ruins are all that now remain of this city, where two celebrated Councils were held; the one mentioned above, in which, besides the Arian question, the dispute about the time of celebrating Easter was settled. An attempt was here made to impose celibacy on the Clergy, which was defeated by Paphnutius, a Bishop of Thebais, who had lost an eye in the last persecution; and the married Clergy were allowed to retain their wives. The second Nicene Council was assembled in 787, by Irene, Empress of Constantinople, who had murdered her husband, and who afterwards put out the eyes of her son Constantine. In this Council, presided over by Adrian, Bishop of Rome, the Decrees of the Council of Constantinople were reversed, and the worship of images, which that Council condemned, was restored, and severe punishments announced against those who maintained that God was the only object of religious adoration.

‡ A goodly body of confessors appeared at this celebrated Council,-many that bore in their body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Paul, Bishop of Neocæsarea, had lost the use of both hands, by the application of red-hot iron; others appeared there deprived of their right eyes; others deprived of their legs and by such men, who had drunk deep of the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, the blessed truth was asserted and established of "God manifest in the flesh." In the extremity of their sufferings they were "still;" for they "knew that He was God."

§ Opoovaios, homoousios, "consubstantial," a term then for the first time employed to represent a truth difficult of explanation.

On the occupation of Africa by the Vandals, in 427,* Genseric, whom they had greatly assisted in his conquest, took them under his patronage, and their condition and numbers rapidly improved. This state of prosperity they enjoyed for more than a century, until the Vandals were subdued by Belisarius, in the year 533, and driven out of Africa, when their cause again declined, although they continued to exist as a sect until the close of the sixth century, when, by the exertions of Gregory, Bishop of Rome, they were reduced to the verge of extinction, and their very name perished amid the ruins of the Christian church in Africa,-themselves, in part, the instruments of the destruction in which both were involved.

The Arian heresy next invites our attention. Although far more important, as a subject of Christian inquiry, than the schism of the Donatists, it does not require to be so particularly described, as, unhappily, it has not yet ceased to afflict the church, and afford to Christians an object of humbling contemplation and just abhorrence.+

For three centuries there had been no dispute in the church concerning the co-equal Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This doctrine was always admitted, although the Doctors of the church differed sometimes in their way of announcing or illustrating the mystery of the Trinity in Unity. For instance: Origen, whose views on the subject were by no means sound, held that the Son was in the Father after a similar manner as reason is in man, and answering a similar end; and that the Holy Ghost was nothing more than the divine energy or active power: thus destroying the personality of the two latter, which was a heresy in itself. But this opinion was rather explanatory than dogmatical, and hence no serious controversy arose on the subject; but, in the year 317, the church was visited with the most daring contradiction of the established doctrine which had yet been attempted on this or any other point, by a Presbyter of Alexandria, named Arius, in an assembly of Presbyters, convened by Alexander, at that time Bishop of that see, who had just expressed his opinion that the Son was not only of the same eminence and dignity, but of the same essence, with the Father. To this Arius replied, that as the Son is begotten of the Father, there must have been a time when the Son was not; that he was the first and noblest of beings, whom the Father had created out of nothing; and that by his subordinate operation the Father formed the universe: therefore, the Son was inferior to the Father.

This blasphemous and unscriptural notion was no sooner promulgated, than it found ready adherents in Egypt, where the seeds of heathen philosophy had been for a long time springing up, and bearing fruit of a most pernicious tendency; and the most furious contests ensued between the Arians and the orthodox upon this new ground of unchristian warfare, which were beheld with malicious pleasure by the pagan population around

* Or, 429.

+ The Donatists were singularly regardless of human life, whether their own or that of others. The Circumcelliones were noted murderers and suicides; and it is curious to note how they preserved this twofold feature of their character to the In revenge, they assisted the Vandals to possess themselves of Africa, who, as Arians, they knew would seek to uproot their own creed, which was certainly

last.

orthodox.

Sabellianism.

them, who made the controversies of the Christians a common subject of ridicule and buffoonery.*

Arius was expelled from the church by two Councils, assembled by Alexander at Alexandria, the latter of which was composed of nearly a hundred Bishops. Arius retired to Palestine; and the Emperor Constantine, seeing no chance of a reconciliation between his abettors and their opponents, assembled the famous Council at Nice,† in Bithynia, in the year 325, with the view of terminating the controversy. This general Council was composed of three hundred and eighteen Bishops, and about as many Presbyters; it condemned Arius and his doctrines, after a most patient examination of the latter; and proved, from Scripture, that Jesus Christ is "very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father:"§ and to this effect the venerable Hosius, Bishop of Corduba, in Spain, was appointed to draw up a Creed, which is, to all intents, the same which we now call the Nicene Creed.

Alexander, dying five months after his return home from this Council, was succeeded in the see of Alexandria by Athanasius, a Deacon of that church, who has rendered his name illustrious as a champion of the truth by his zeal and activity, both before and after his elevation, against Arius and his followers. The view which Gibbon has taken of this faithful man's character and labours is worthy of being inserted here, as, coming from a historian deeply prejudiced against the doctrines he so zealously defended, it is no mean testimony in his favour :

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"We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either in active or speculative life, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles may be surmounted, by the force of a single mind, when it is inflexibly applied to the pursuit of a single object. The immortal name of Athanasius will never be separated from the catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to whose defence he consecrated every moment and every faculty of his being. Educated in the family of Alexander, he had vigorously opposed the early progress of the

* Their theatres resounded with shouts of laughter raised by ludicrous representation on the stage of Christian worship, and the numerous subjects of dissension by which the followers of Jesus were occupied, and allowed their passions to be influenced, all which must have appeared sufficiently ridiculous and contemptible to Pagans.

Some ruins are all that now remain of this city, where two celebrated Councils were held; the one mentioned above, in which, besides the Arian question, the dispute about the time of celebrating Easter was settled. An attempt was here made to impose celibacy on the Clergy, which was defeated by Paphnutius, a Bishop of Thebais, who had lost an eye in the last persecution; and the married Clergy were allowed to retain their wives. The second Nicene Council was assembled in 787, by Irene, Empress of Constantinople, who had murdered her husband, and who afterwards put out the eyes of her son Constantine. In this Council, presided over by Adrian, Bishop of Rome, the Decrees of the Council of Constantinople were reversed, and the worship of images, which that Council condemned, was restored, and severe punishments announced against those who maintained that God was the only object of religious adoration.

A goodly body of confessors appeared at this celebrated Council,-many that bore in their body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Paul, Bishop of Neocæsarea, had lost the use of both hands, by the application of red-hot iron; others appeared there deprived of their right eyes; others deprived of their legs: and by such men, who had drunk deep of the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, the blessed truth was asserted and established of "God manifest in the flesh." In the extremity of their sufferings they were "still;" for they "knew that He was God."

SOμoovoios, homoousios, "consubstantial," a term then for the first time employed to represent a truth difficult of explanation.

Arian heresy. He exercised the important functions of Secretary under the aged Prelate; and the Fathers of the Nicene Council beheld with surprise and respect the rising virtues of the young Deacon. In a time of public danger, the dull claims of age and of rank are sometimes superseded; and within five months after his return from Nice, the Deacon Athanasius was seated on the archiepiscopal throne of Egypt. He filled that eminent station above forty-six years, and his long administration was spent in a perpetual combat against the powers of Arianism. Five times was Athanasius expelled from his throne; twenty years he passed as an exile or a fugitive; and almost every province of the Roman empire was successively witness to his merits, and his sufferings in the cause of the homoousion, which he considered as the sole pleasure and business, as the duty and as the glory, of his life. Amidst the storms of persecution, the Archbishop of Alexandria was patient of labour, jealous of fame, careless of safety; and although his mind was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism,* Athanasius displayed a superiority of character and abilities which would have qualified him, far better than the degenerate sons of Constantine, for the government of a great monarchy. His learning was much less profound and extensive than that of Eusebius of Cæsarea, and his rude eloquence could not be compared with the polished oratory of Gregory or Basil; but whenever the Primate of Egypt was called upon to justify his sentiments or his conduct, his unpremeditative style either of speaking or writing was clear, forcible, and persuasive."

To explain the cause of his frequent suspensions from his bishopric, and his long exile, referred to in this extract, we must inform the reader, that his enemies frequently succeeded in prejudicing the mind of the Emperor Constantine, and his successor Constantius, against him, by the most odious accusations which bigoted malice could invent. Rebellion, extortion, immorality, and even murder, were among the crimes laid to his charge; but, through the good hand of his God upon him, he was able to disprove them all.+

Arius, patronised by Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, who recommended and introduced him to Constantia, sister of the Emperor Constantine, had the address to make the Emperor believe that he had been unjustly condemned; and on being recalled to Constantinople, after five years' exile, presented to him such a satisfactory confession of faith, subscribing without hesitation to the Nicene decrees, and, moreover, at the Emperor's request, confirming his assent to them by an oath, that Constantine ordered Alexander, the Bishop of Constantinople, to receive him the next day into the church. The pious Bishop was aware of the dissimulation of the heresiarch, and spent the intervening night in fasting and prayer to God, earnestly imploring that he would interpose to avert from the church the calamity with which it was threatened. The next day the Arians paraded the city in a triumphant manner, with Arius at their head. As, however, they drew nigh to the forum of Constantine, Arius was seized with a disorder of the bowels, which obliged him to retire, and, shocking to

* We beg to remind our readers,-Gibbon loquitur.

The Creed which bears the name of St. Athanasius was not composed until several years after his death. It is ascribed to Vigilius, Bishop of Thapsus, who was banished by Huneric the Arian, King of the Goths, towards the close of the fifth century.

Not the historian, who, however, was a contemporary of the above, but who was Bishop of Cæsarea.

relate, his intestines were discharged from his body with a great effusion of blood, and he immediately expired. Who can help exclaiming, while they read this, "Verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth?"

The reign of Constantius, the son of Constantine, proved a severe blow to the professors of the orthodox creed, and greatly encouraged the hopes of the Arian faction. Instructed in Christianity by an Arian Priest, and married to a confirmed Arian, his weak mind was easily biassed in favour of the prevailing error. By him Athanasius was persecuted, together with others of the Nicene Bishops and Clergy, and the enemies of the truth were patronised and advanced. The episcopal office was sold to all candidates professing Arianism, and Councils were held in various places in support of that blasphemous system; and the whole Christian world was infected with the deadly disease. Africa was sinking deeper and deeper in error and impiety; and, notwithstanding the exertions of the renowned Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, to whom we shall presently advert, the African church was preparing itself for the scourge of an Arian despot, and the relentless besom of Mahomedan conquest.

Constantius died in the year 362; and with him the triumphs of the Arian party, in the general church, with the exception of a few brief intervals, seem to have terminated. Their last imperial friend, Valens, who was associated with his brother Valentinian in the empire, was killed in an engagement with the Huns, in A.D. 378; and Theodosius the Great drove them from every station of trust or influence in his dominions, and established everywhere the decrees of the Council of Nice. The discomfited Arians took refuge among the barbarian nations which were then beginning to render themselves formidable, such as the Huns, Goths, Vandals, Suevi, Heruli, and Burgundians, whom they soon infected with their unscriptural notions, and rendered them the most formidable instruments of their ambition and their vengeance.

His

To stem the tide of corruption, irreligion, and false doctrine, which was ready to overflow the Western church; the Lord of the vineyard raised up such a champion of evangelical truth as Augustine. He was born in the year 354, at Tagosta or Tagiste, a small town in Numidia, of respectable parents. His father, Patricius, filled for some time the office of Magistrate in his native town, and continued a Pagan till near his death. mother, Monica, was renowned for Christian piety, and early sowed the seeds of divine truth in the mind of her son, who has given a most interesting narrative of his early days-of his parent's feelings and conversion-in his work, entitled, "Confessions." As a boy he did not like the drudgery of study, and found it difficult to acquire the Greek language, although reputed a boy of promising genius. In early youth he confesses that he walked in the ways of sensuality and profaneness; and, with a heart polluted by vicious pleasures, he visited Carthage, to enjoy the literary advantages of that celebrated city. Here he betook himself to the study of philosophy, not, however, entirely forgetting the lessons of his childhood, though esteeming the Scriptures dull and uninteresting in comparison with the spirit and grace of Cicero.

At Carthage he fell in with a silly sect of self-named philosophers, called Manichees, from Manes their founder, which had existed for a hundred years, and which was distinguished for some foolish notions derived from Persian mythology, and attempted to be amalgamated with Christian truth, by which it was sought to explain whatever appeared abstruse in the Christian scheme regarding the Trinity, man, and the existence of evil.

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