fcriptures were now no longer the rule and standard of the Chriftian faith; orthodoxy and herefy were from henceforward, to be determined by the decifions of councils and fathers, and religion to be propagated no longer by the apoftolic methods of perfuafion, forbearance, and the virtues of an holy life, but by imperial edicts and decrees; and heretical gainfayers not to be convinced, that they may be brought to the acknowledgement of the truth and be faved, but to be perfecuted and destroyed. It is no wonder, that after this there fhould be a continual fluctuation of the public faith, juft as the prevailing parties had the imperial authority to fupport them; or that we should meet with little elfe in ecclefiaftical hiftory but violence and cruelties, committed by men, who had left the fimplicity of the Chriftian faith and profeffion, enflaved themselves to ambition and avarice, and had before them the ensnaring views of temporal grandeur, high preferments, and large revenues.

If one reads the complaints of the orthodox writers against the Arians, one would think the Arians the moft execrable set of men that ever lived: but Socrates tells us, this was the practice of the bishops towards all they depofed, to accufe and pronounce them impious, but not to tell others the reafons why they accufed them as fucht..

Soon after these transactions, Arius died; and the manner of his death, as it was reported by the orthodox, Athanafius thinks of itself fufficient, fully to condemn the Arian herefy, and an evident proof that it was hateful to God. The Chriftians, however, being bleffed with Chriftian emperors, were of opinion, that the divine providence had, in a fignal manner, raised up and protected Conftantine, for deftroying the enemies of the church; but there is ufually much of rafhnefs and prefumption, in fuppofing the calamities of finners in this world are particular judgements of

E. H. 1. 1. c. xiv.

God.

God. Nor did Conftantine himself long furvive him. He was fucceeded by his three fons, Conftantine, Conftantius, and Conftans. Conftantine, the eldeft, recalled Athanafius from banishment, and reftored him to his bishopric upon which account there arofe most grievous quarrels and feditions, many being killed, and several publicly whipped, by Athanafius's order, according to the, accufations of his enemies. Conftantius, after his elder brother's death, convened a fynod at Antioch in Syria, where Athanafius was again depofed for thefe crimes, and Gregory put into the fee of Alexandria. In this council a new creed was drawn up, in which the word Confubftantial was wholely omitted, and the expreffions made ufe of fo general, as that they might have been equally agreed to by the orthodox and Arians. In the close of it feveral anathema's were added, and particularly upon all who fhould teach, or preach, otherwife than what this council had received, because, as they themselves fay, They did really believe and follow all things delivered by the holy fcriptures, both prophets and apoftles. So that now the whole Chriftian world was under a fynodical curfe, the oppofite councils having damned one another, and all that differed from them; and if councils, as fuch, have any authority to anathematize all who will not fubmit to them, this authority equally belongs to every council; and therefore it was but a natural piece of revenge, that as the council of Nice had fent all the Arians to the devil, the Arians, in their turn, fhould take the orthodox along with them for company, and thus repay one anathema with another,

Conftantius II. was warmly on the Arian fide, and favoured the bishops of that party only, and ejected Paul, the orthodox bifhop, from the fee of Conftantinople, as a perfon altogether unworthy of it. Macedonius being fubftituted in his room, who was in a different scheme, or at least expreffed himself in different words, both from the orthodox and Arians, afferting that the Son was not confubftantial, not of the fame,

I

Fourth] fame, but of a like fubftance with the Father, and openly propogated this opinion after he had thruft himfelf into the bishopric of Paul; this the orthodox party highly refented, and perfecuted those who favoured that opinion.

The truth is, that the Chriftian clergy were now become the chief incendiaries and disturbers of the empire; and the pride of the bishops, and the fury of the people on each fide, were now grown to fuch a height, as that there fcarce ever was an election or restoration of a bishop in the larger cities, but it was attended with flaughter and blood, as it is evident from the accounts given by the ecclefiaftical hiftorians of Athanafius, Macedonius, and others, that they treated one another with the fame implacable bitterness and severity as ever their common enemies, the heathens, treated them, as though they thought that perfecution for confcience fake had been the diftinguishing precept of the Chriftian religion *.

This was the unhappy ftate of the church in the reign of Conftantius, which affords us little more than the hiftory of councils and creeds differing from, and contrary to, each other; bifhops depofing, cenfuring, and anathematifing their adverfaries; and the Chriftian people, divided into factions under their respective leaders, for the fake of words they understood nothing of the fenfe of, and ftriving for victory, even unto bloodfhed and death.

This occafioned much debate about the authority of councils and their liability to err in their decifions. It was fuggefted, that in a council convened by a Chriftian emperor, wherein fome hundreds of prelates are affembled to defide a theological difpute, many are liable to be influenced by fear or dread of fuperiors of greater jurifdiction, either of falling under their displeasure of being reviled as heretics, or perhaps beggared and ruined by their refufing to be influenced by fome active and do

* Doctor Chandler's Hift. of Perfecution, p. 36.

mineering

mineering fpirits; by a deference to the majority; by a love of applause and refpect; by vanity and ambition; by a total ignorance of the queftion in difpute, or a total indifference about it; by private friendship; by enmity and refentment; by an indolent difpofition; by an averfion to difputes, or love of peace and quietnefs, &c. which whoever confiders will be ready to conclude, there is no great deference to be paid to the authority of councils. Even the authority of councils themselves were zealously afferted by the council of Conftance and Bafil, and condemned by the Lateran; neverthelef's the difpute turned in favour of councils, and it was in general deemed heretical to fpeak against their authority. They who difclaim private judgement, and believe the infallibility of the church, act confiftently in holding the infallibility of councils; but they who take their faith from the fcriptures, and not from the church, should be careful not to require nor to yield too much regard to fuch affemblies *.

We have a rule, by which we may with fafety, and with fatisfaction, judge of their authority; a rule given us by our Mafter, By their fruits ye shall know them. We need only furvey their acts and monuments, their behaviour, doctrines, decrees, and cenfures, and compare them impartially with the morality, the fimplicity, the prudence, the charity of the gofpel; and by this we may judge of the authority of councils and fathers.

The forming of creeds or fummary accounts of the Chriftian faith, till this century, were but few, and those concise, expreffive only of the principal articles, and those not impofed on the churches; but in process of time, when the empire became Chriftian, and the decifions of affembled bishops were made under the influence of the court, and then enforced by the fecular arm, the creeds they drew up were no longer mere accounts of the principal doctrines for preferving a unity of faith, &c. but obtained the nature of decrees and Jortin's Remark on Ecclef. Hift. vol. iii. p. 55.

laws,

1

laws, henceforth precluding all private judgement, and under one shape or other binding the main body of the clergy, if not the whole Chriftian world. And indeed, what St. Gregory Nazianzen thought of the councils held in his time, that is to fay, in the latter half of the fourth century, appears fufficiently from his letter to Procopius-that he never faw a good ending of any fynod--the fpirit of contention, or the fpirit of ambition, and love of rule, ftill gaining the afcendancy over reason nor does he except that council to which we are fo far indebted for the Nicene creed, and at which he himself, to his forrow, was prefent. They fall, faith he, into factions, and fight for the fake of thrones, i. c. of epifcopal fees, and divide the whole world in a lawlefs or irreligious manner*.

In the beginning of Julian's reign, A. D. 361. he behaved himself with great moderation towards the Chriftians; yet his hatred to them foon afterwards appeared fo, that they were not permitted the education of their children, nor to be inftructed in the Grecian language and learning. He taxed them very heavily, and exacted fines from fuch as would not facrifice; and when the governors of the provinces took occafion, from thence, to increase the oppreffion, infomuch that perfons of all ranks could not but complain of their cruelty, Julian anfwered, with a fneer, Your God hath commanded you to fuffer perfecution. And one of the reafons affigned for his feverity was, that the Christian bishops fhewed fuch a turbulent fpirit, that he was obliged to have a jealous eye over them, and bear a strict hand toward them. But the effects of his averfion to the Chriftians did not laft long, for he was killed in the Perfian wars, and reigned fcarce two years.

Jovian fucceeded him, who was a Chriftian both by principle and profeffion. But the bifhops were foon for tampering with him: Athanafius writes to him in fa vour of the Nicene creed, and endeavoured to prevail

Greg. Naz. Epift. ad Procop.

upon