Sabellius taught that as man, though composed of body and soul, is but one person; so God, though he is Father Son, and Holy Ghost, is but one person. The Sabellians differed from the followers of Noetius in this particular: Noetius was of opinion, that the person of the Father had assumed the human nature of Christ; but Sabellius maintained, that a certain energy only, proceeding from the Supreme Parent, or a certain portion of the divine nature, was united to the Son of God, the man Jesus. He considered, in the same manner, the Holy Ghost as the efflux of the Deity. The reader will find it interesting to compare these views of the Sabellians in regard to Christ, with those of Emanuel Swedenborg upon the same subject. Modern Unitarians differ as widely as the ancient in their opinions touching the nature of Christ; but by far the greater number believe in the sole, exclusive, and incommunicable divinity of God; deny the personal existence of the Holy Spirit, and on this ground declare it to be contrary to scripture and reason to worship any other being than the one supreme Jehovah, who is the only object of prayer and adoration. They ascribe neither attributes, nor works, nor honours to Christ, which reason and revelation appropriate to God. Not believing in the preexistence of Christ, they declare that all the benefits we derive from him consist in the bright example he set before us. These professors are in the strictest sense Unitarians, because they maintain the Unity of God to the total exclusion of Christ, and acknowledge him only as a prophet of God, a mortal man, but "the most complete character that was ever exhibited to the world." These opinions were propagated in the early ages of the church by the Ebionites, by the Carpocratians in the second century, in the third century by the followers of Paul of Samosata, who were called Samosatanians, and in the fourth century by Photenius a bishop of Galatia. The Unitarians acknowledge no other rule of faith and practice than the Holy Scriptures. They reject all creeds of human device, and hold in less esteem than many other sects nice theological subtleties concerning the precise rank of Jesus Christ, and the nature of his relation to God. They believe that the Holy Ghost is not a distinct. person in the Godhead, but that power of God, that divine influence, by which Christianity was established through miraculous aids, and by which its spirit is still shed abroad in the hearts of men. They advocate the most perfect toleration. They believe that sin is its own punishment, and virtue its own rewarder; That the moral consequences of a man's good or evil conduct go with him into the future life, to afford him remorse or satisfaction; That God will be influenced in all his dealing with the soul by mercy and justice, punishing no more severely than the sinner deserves, and always for a benevolent end. Indeed, the greater part of the denomination are Restorationists, or believe in the final restoration of men to virtue and consequent felicity. Unitarians consider, that besides the Bible, all the AnteNicene Fathers—that is, all Christian writers for three centuries after the birth of Christ-give testimony in their favor, against the "modern" popular doctrine of the Trinity. As for antiquity, it is their belief that it is really on their side. In the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, which was written towards the close of the first century, -and the evidence for the genuineness of which, they maintain, is stronger than for that of any other of the productions attributed to the apostolical fathers, the supremacy of the father is asserted and implied throughout, and Jesus is spoken of in terms mostly borrowed from the Scriptures. He is once called the "sceptre of the majesty of God"; and this highly figurative expression is the most exalted applied to him in the whole Epistle. Justin Martyr, the most distinguished of the ancient fathers of the church, who flourished in the former part of the second century, and whose writings (with the exception of those attributed to the apostolic fathers) are the earliest Christian records next to the New Testament, expressly says, "We worship God, the Maker of the uni verse, offering up to him prayers and thanks. But assigning to Jesus, who came to teach us these things, and for this end was born, the second place' after God, we not without reason honor him.” The germ and origin of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Unitarians find in the speculations of those Christianized philosophers of the second century, whose minds were strongly tinctured with the Platonic philosophy, combined with the emanation system, as taught at Alexandria, and held by Philo. From this time they trace the gradual formation of the doctrine, through successive ages down to Anthanasius and Augustine; the former of whom, A. D. 362, was the first to insist upon the equality of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son; and the latter about half a century afterwards, was the first to insist upon their numerical unity. In all ages of the church, there have been many learned and pious men who have rejected the Trinity as unscriptural and irrational. The first attempt at the council of Nice, to establish and make universal the Trinitarian creed, caused disturbances and dissensions in the church, which continued for ages, and produced results the most deplorable to every benevolent mind which exalts charity over faith. The following proof-texts are some of those upon which the Unitarians rest their belief in the inferiority of the Son to the Father-John 8: 17, 18. John 17:3. Acts 10: 38. 1 Tim. 2: 5. 1 John 4: 14. Rom. 8:34. 1 Cor. 11: 3. John 10: 29. John 14: 28. Matt. 19: 17. John 17: 21. John 20: 17. 1 Cor. 8:5, 6. 25; 7: 16, 17; 8:28; 23. John 6: 38, 57; 12. John 11:41, 42. Phil. 2: 11. Col. 1: 15. 12:18. Luke 2: 52. 5: 19, 20; 8: 49, 50. Rev. 3: 14. John 10: Matt. 20: Luke 6: Acts 2 : 22--24. Heb. 3:3. Matt. In England, the number of Unitarians was considerable, according to Strype, as early as 1548; and in 1550, he represents the Unitarian doctrine as spreading so fast that the leading Churchmen were alarmed, and " thought it necessary to suppress its expression by rigid measures." These "rigid measures," such as imprisonment and burning, were successful for a time. But afterwards, the "heresy" gained new and able supporters, such as Biddle, Firmin, Dr. S. Clarke, Dr. Lardner, Whiston, Emlyn, Sir Isaac Newton, &c., and has been spreading to this day; when, according to Brande's Encyclopædia, the number or their congregations in England is stated at something more than two hundred; " but they are principally composed of persons of the educated classes." In Geneva, the pulpits of the established church are mostly occupied by the professors of these opinions. He The late Dr. William Ellery Channing, an American, was, perhaps, the most distinguished of modern Unitarian divines. Since the days of Addison, no writer of English prose has acquired a more enduring celebrity. But his was a still higher praise. "From his youth," says the Rev. Mr. Dewey, "Channing strove to give birth to his own glowing idea of the true Christian man. could not bear that a shallow morality, or a mere worldly decency, or a vulgar fanaticism, or any distorted peculiarity of any religious class, should usurp the honors of Christian virtue. Of this great achievement, virtue-the end to him and the explanation of everything in humanity and in the human lot-his views were at once large and generous on the one hand, and on the other, strict and solemn. No preacher ever demanded a higher purity, ever set forth a loftier model.” It is estimated that there are about four hundred churches and congregations of the Unitarian denomination in the United States, and about that number of ministers. In the city of Boston, it is one of the most numerous and influential classes of Christians, having eighteen societies, most of which are large and flourishing. In the Middle, Southern and Western States, their congregations are fewer, but gradually multiplying. CHAPTER V THE GREEK CHURCH-ROMAN CATHOLICS. THE GREEK CHURCH. THE Greek Church comprises the great bulk of the Christian population of Russia and Greece, Moldavia and Wallachia, besides various congregations scattered throughout the provinces of the Turkish and Austrian empires, who acknowledge the patriarch of Constantinople as their head. The opinions of this church bear considerable affinity to those of the Latin, or Roman Catholic. The fundamental distinction is the rejection of the spiritual supremacy of St. Peter, and the denial of any visible representative of Christ upon earth. In the view which it takes of the Holy Ghost it is also at variance, not only with the Roman Catholic church, but with Protestants.* It recognises, however, the seven sacraments; authorises the offering of prayer to the saints and Virgin; and encourages the use of pictures, though forbidding the use of images. It holds in reverence, also, the relics and tombs of holy men; enjoins strict fasting and the giving of alms, looking upon them as works of intrinsic merit; and numbers among its adherents numerous orders of monks and nuns. It allows, however, the marriage of its secular priests, and rejects auricular confession. It holds that modified form of the Roman doctrine of the eucharist, which is denominated consubstantiation; and apparently entertains some confused notions of a purgatory, in consideration of which it offers prayers for the dead. It administers baptism by immersion. *The variation_consists in the idea, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son alone, and not from the Father and the Son. |