a fundamental article of the Christian faith, by the consent
of the Greek, the Latin, the Oriental, and the Protestant churches. But
if the same word had not served to stigmatize the heretics, and to
unite the Catholics, it would have been inadequate to the purpose of
the majority, by whom it was introduced into the orthodox creed. This
majority was divided into two parties, distinguished by a contrary
tendency to the sentiments of the Tritheists and of the Sabellians. But
as those opposite extremes seemed to overthrow the foundations either of
natural or revealed religion, they mutually agreed to qualify the
rigor of their principles; and to disavow the just, but invidious,
consequences, which might be urged by their antagonists. The interest
of the common cause inclined them to join their numbers, and to conceal
their differences; their animosity was softened by the healing counsels
of toleration, and their disputes were suspended by the use of the
mysterious Homoousion, which either party was free to interpret
according to their peculiar tenets. The Sabellian sense, which, about
fifty years before, had obliged the council of Antioch to prohibit this
celebrated term, had endeared it to those theologians who entertained
a secret but partial affection for a nominal Trinity. But the more
fashionable saints of the Arian times, the intrepid Athanasius, the
learned Gregory Nazianzen, and the other pillars of the church, who
supported with ability and success the Nicene doctrine, appeared to
consider the expression of substance as if it had been synonymous
with that of nature; and they ventured to illustrate their meaning, by
affirming that three men, as they belong to the same common species,
are consubstantial, or homoousian to each other. This pure and distinct
equality was tempered, on the one hand, by the internal connection, and
spiritual penetration which indissolubly unites the divine persons; and,
on the other, by the preeminence of the Father, which was acknowledged
as far as it is compatible with the independence of the Son. Within
these limits, the almost invisible and tremulous ball of orthodoxy was
allowed securely to vibrate. On either side, beyond this consecrated
ground, the heretics and the daemons lurked in ambush to surprise and
devour the unhappy wanderer. But as the degrees of theological hatred
depend on the spirit of the war, rather than on the importance of the
controversy, the heretics who degraded, w