, &c.)

SOCINIANS.

A sect so called from Faustus Socinus, who died in Poland, in 1604. There
were two who bore the name of Socinus,--uncle and nephew,--and both
disseminated the same doctrine; but it is the nephew who is generally
considered as the founder of this sect. They maintain that Jesus Christ
was a mere man, who had no existence before he was conceived by the Virgin
Mary; that the Holy Ghost is no distinct person; but that the Father is
truly and properly God. They own that the name of God is given, in the
holy Scriptures, to Jesus Christ, but contend that it is only a deputed
title, which, however, invests him with a great authority over all created
beings. They deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteousness,
and say that Christ only preached the truth to mankind, set before them,
in himself, an example of heroic virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his
blood. Original sin, and absolute predestination, they esteem scholastic
chimeras. Some of them likewise maintain the sleep of the soul, which,
they say, becomes insensible at death, and is raised again, with the body,
at the resurrection, when the good shall be established in the possession
of eternal felicity, while the wicked shall be consigned to a fire that
will not torment them eternally, but for a certain duration, proportioned
to their demerits. (See Acts 2:22; 17:31. 1 Tim. 2:5.)

HUMANITARIANS.

The Humanitarians believe in the simple humanity of Christ, or that he was
nothing more than a mere man, born according to the usual course of
nature, and who lived and died according to the ordinary circumstances of
mankind.

SECTARIANS.

This term is used among Christians to denote those who form separate
communions, and do not associate with one another in religious worship and
ceremonies. Thus we call Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, different sects,
not so much on account of their differences in opinion, as because they
have established to themselves different fraternities, to which, in what
regards public worship, they confine themselves; the several denominations
above mentioned having no intercommunity with one another in sacred
matters. High, Strict, and Moderate Calvinists, High Church and Low
Church, we call only parties, because they have not formed separate
communions. Great and known differences in opinion, when followed by no
external breach in the society, are not considered constituting distin