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vast amount of agreement between the different sections of the Catholic Church. There are indeed doctrines held by different parties even within the same communion, on which there is some uncertainty purposely left for the exercise of faith, so that the profoundest Theologians have differed on them; but they will be found to be more abstruse than practical, and such as should never be allowed to disturb the harmony of the universal Church, much less to mingle in the discussions of a Literary Society. "In essentials unity, in circumstantials liberty, in all things charity," is the principle on which Churches may safely correspond, and individuals peaceably mingle in society.

All these unsettled points, are very unimportant indeed compared with the demonstrated evidence and authority of the Christian religion, the equally proveable inspiration of the sacred writers, and the grand doctrines of Divine Providence, human responsibility, and salvation by grace. The majority of Scripture Christians are as much united on these great points as they are on the real properties of light, though in theory they may oscillate between Clements Alexandrinus and Augustine, Calvin and Arminius, as modern opticians do between the undulatory and Newtonian systems of light. In natural philosophy things are now taken for granted which have been disputed with great acrimony; but which if not demonstrated are become conventional; and from which you proceed to experimental results. Is it not reasonable therefore to recognise the genuineness and Divine authority of the Scriptures, the foundation of all theological science, which are as well or better demonstrated than any physical truths, so that a man can no more excuse himself for disbelieving the authenticity of the New Testament, than that of Magna Charta; for denying the facts of the Gospel than that of the Revolution in 1688; or the beneficial effects of Christianity, than any property of the electric fluid, or any habit of animated nature! Ordinary faculties and common research are alone only requisite to convince any candid man, as they have done thousands before him, that the pursuit of Religious Truth is the noblest, most elevating, and most unspeakably important occupation of a being born for eternity.

True science has always consecrated itself to this spirit-stirring study. Let a man walk through one of our ancient libraries, and behold the deep and ponderous volumes of manuscript and printed books, Polyglotts, Commentaries, Lexicons, et cætera, connected with the Sacred Scriptures; and he will feel himself and his labours shrink into insignificance, as a pigmy beside the giants of former times. Is it not, therefore, the height of arrogance for the pamphlet-readers and newspaper heroes of modern days, to shut out all these mighty resources from their circles of knowledge, and call the latter by large and sounding epithets, taken from languages which would have been unintelligible as the Babylonian, but for the labours of those to whom, with equal modesty and wisdom, they deny the suffrages of learning! How would the spirit of an Origen, a Hooker, a Cudworth, a Milton, a Walton, or a Barrow, smile with a serenity bordering on scorn, did not Divine Wisdom exhibit that sinful neglect in the light of eternity, in such colours as forbid the levity of contempt for those, over whom it proclaims denunciations of infinite woe!

C. A. H.

207

A TALE OF THE ANCIENT SYRIAN CHURCH.

(By a Correspondent of "The Church.")

CHAPTER I.THE COUNCIL.

"Genius and art, ambition's boasted wings,
Our boast but ill deserve. A feeble aid!
Heart-merit wanting, mount we n'er so high,
Our height is but the gibbet of our name.
When I behold a genius bright and base,
Of towering talents and terrestrial aims,
Methinks I see, as thrown from her high sphere,
The glorious fragments of a soul immortal,
With rubbish mixt and glittering in the dust."
Young's Night Thoughts.

"Take heed unto all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers."Acts xx. 28.

THE fair city of Antioch, on a morning in the month of May, A.D. 269, wore a more than usually attractive appearance. The day was one of the brightest in that favoured clime: the sky, divested of every cloud, offered to the eye an unbroken expanse of blue; while the leaves were just rustled by the breath of the Western airs, which came freighted with the odours of the Grecian isles. The sun, whose heat had not yet, at the third hour of the day, become oppressive, poured a flood of radiance on the "laughing tide of the Orontes, which sparkled brightly beneath its beams, and reflected in its bosom, though in tremulous and broken lines, the clear azure of the heaven above it.

Antioch was a commercial city; but was not what we understand by that appellation in modern times. Ancient art had omitted no device to transform it into a Paradise of delight,—a change indeed by no means difficult to effect in a land where the choicest productions of nature scarce tasked the culture of one laborious hour. The gardens around were arrayed in their richest bloom. Here the banana unfolded its broad leaves, and almost sank beneath the burthen of its hanging fruit; the Pomegranate flourished in its native vigour, not shrunken and diminutive like our pining exotic; the purple vine transgressing its bounds, climbed in wanton luxuriance round porch and pillar; and the rose of Damascus, raising her head with queenly dignity, shed her tribute of fragrance on the air already scented with the perfume of a thousand flowers.

Such was the general aspect of this voluptuous city (a city, alas! how unworthy of the lavish bounty of Heaven!) at the period of which we write. But we may not dwell longer on its charms; for we must notice the excitement which now prevailed in its thronged streets. The multitude that met the eye, and who seemed to be all moved by some common impulse, as they were all hurrying in the same direction, formed a very promiscuous assemblage. Pagans and Christians, of every grade and occupation, were mingled together, for the season of persecution had now, for a brief interval, passed away from the Church of Christ; and in Antioch especially, which owned the sovereignty of Zenobia, who treated her Christian subjects with

lenity and even with favour, the profession of the Cross was no longer exposed to the fury of that bigotry which loved to make havoc of the Christian flcck.

In a solid and imposing, though not costly, edifice, on the bank of the river, and contiguous to the city wall, but removed from the bustle of the more frequented streets, a Christian council had been convened. A portion of this structure had been reserved for the purposes of public worship; but by far the greater part was appropriated to a spacious atrium or hall, surmounted by a lofty vaulted ceiling of cedar, and supported on either side by a range of marble columns of the Corinthian order. This division was used on public occasions, and was sufficiently capacious to contain a large number of spectators. The seats, for the accommodation of these, were disposed in the style of the ancient theatre, this being thought the most advantageous arrangement; retreating, tier above tier, in concentric circles; and the front of the building, where the proscenium or stage (to pursue the comparison) would have stood, was left open in such a manner as to afford to the spectators under the broad portico and without in the area, a full view of the interior.

The division answering to the orchestra, bounded by the lower range of seats and facing the public entrance, was filled by the members of the Council.

These consisted of no less than seventy bishops, besides a large number of presbyters, deacons, and acolytes. At a small table, placed at the foot of the president's chair, sat several notaries prepared to take down 'in shorthand the proceedings of the assembly. Amongst the venerable array of prelates who had repaired thither from various parts of the Eastern Church, the most conspicuous were Helenus of Tarsus, Hymenæus of Jerusalem, Theotecnus of Cæsarea in Palestine, Maximus of Bosra, and Nicomas of Iconium,—all of them, by their comely vesture and grave demeanour, sustaining well the reverend character of chief shepherds in their Lord's fold.

The subject proposed for their solemn deliberation demanded the exercise of their utmost care and vigilance. It was that intestine malady, heresy; more fatal in its results than the persecutor's sword. The author of the false doctrine stood before his judges in the person of the well-known Paul of Samosata, the bishop of Antioch," -no ordinary criminal. Nor was the crime for which he had been arraigned a petty delinquency; he had denied the Lord who bought him. The opinions laid to his charge fell not short of absolute blasphemy; cancelling, as it was their obvious tendency to do, the merits of Christ's precious blood-shedding; and, by thus sweeping away the doctrine of the Atonement, not only mutilating but subverting from its very foundation the whole fabric of Christianity. The Church, in short, imputed to him the false and wicked tenets of Artemas (which had seen the light about eighty years before,) being a denial of the Pre-existence and Divinity of our blessed Lord and Saviour.

*At this time the Christians were in the habit of erecting (in populous parts at least,) substantial houses of prayer. We can trace the practice at Rome, with considerable certainty, as far back as the reign of Alexander Severus (A.D. 222); and it is not improbable that in the colonial dependencies of the Empire, where the increase of Christianity would not excite so strong a prejudice as in the Capitol, the custom privailed quite as early, if not earlier. It is not likely, however, that it was very general so soon as the present period.

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He was an artful as well as an evil man. Once before, through his wily sophistry, he had escaped public condemnation from a council holden in the same place but the time had now arrived when his artifices were no longer to shelter his heretical sentiments. The audacious corrupter of the truth was now to be exposed; and the world was to be satisfied that he had prostituted his abilities to unworthy ends, and had proved, (a rare event in those days of comparative purity,) unfaithful to the solemn trust reposed in him, and a traitor to his Episcopal charge.

The absorbing interest of the occasion; the eminence of the offender; and the magnitude of the offence, might well account for the dense crowd of anxious spectators. Still it was strange that Heathens should so far sink their prejudices as to join the listening throng. But the accused was known to be an advocate of the Platonic philosophy; and this circumstance it probably was, operating with full force in a city where the views of Longinus reigned supreme, that drew the Priest of Apollo from the grove of Daphne, and the pale philosopher from his silent study.

Opposite to and confronting the delinquent, there stood one, of noble stature and commanding aspect, who was destined, in the Providence of God, to be the instrument of conferring a great and permanent benefit on his Church. He had been chosen to conduct the examination. Malchion, the rhetorician, was the man who had been selected for this honourable and responsible commission,—a —an individual well qualified in every way for the efficient discharge of the high office. He was at this time a Presbyter in the Church of Antioch, and not more distinguished for the depth of his philosophy and the extent of his learning, than for the purity of his faith and the holy fervour of his uniform piety. By his side, on a small table, there were placed a stylus and tablets (for the purpose of taking down occasional notes): and with these there lay several parchment rolls, having inscribed on them, in the Greek tongue, the precious words of the Scriptures of truth: consisting of those books of either Covenant which he had thought it probable he should be required to consult.

On the lips of the Samosatan there dwelt the sneer of bitter sarcasm, which yet but ill concealed his real solicitude; in the countenance of the other all was placid composure. The one stood there to preserve from derangement his craftily woven web of deceit; the other to plead the cause and shield the interest of Catholic truth.

When the busy hum of the multitude had subsided, the bishop who occupied the presidential chair gravely rose from his seat. and thus addressed the culprit:-"Paul of Samosata! thou hast been summoned hither to undergo an examination touching a charge, not now for the first time alleged against thee, of denying the eternal being of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever; and of saying that he is not one God with the Father. I ask then: Dost thou plead guilty to this accusation, and throw thyself, with penitent spirit, on the mercy of these holy Fathers here assembled; or dost thou submit thine innocence to the test of examination?"

"The Bishop of Antioch knoweth of none offence committed by him against the truth of God's Word, or the teaching of Christ's universal Church. He hath now attended to give public proof that such may not fairly be laid to his charge,"

* A.D. 264.

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"May God, then, (replied the presiding bishop) who searcheth the hearts, assist us to the knowledge of the truth. Malchion! let the trial proceed."

"Paul of Samosata," began the gifted advocate," though, as a Minister of the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ, I must needs abhor the evil practices as well as the false doctrine which the men of thy generation, marking thy daily walk and manner of life, have imputed to thee, and I fear alas! with too much truth, yet I cannot forget that thou art still a bishop of Christ's flock on earth,-standing and ministering in the first rank of our three-fold spiritual priesthood. Ill would it become me to do violence, in aught, to the command of that blessed martyr, who in times past ruled this Church, and was made perfect through suffering; even that Ignatius whose sepulchre is amongst us, who straitly charged them of Smyrna, I might say with his dying breath,-Follow the bishop as Christ Jesus followed the Father! Thou, I say, art a bishop, and I but a presbyter; yet do 1 here speak not in mine own person, (for then were my words as chaff and my boldness of speech presumption,) but with the voice of this most grave and holy Council do I address thee.

66

Many years back there lived, as thou knowest, one Artemas, or Artemon, who did hold, with Theodotus the currier of Byzantium, that Christ Jesus was but a man,-What thinkest thou of this man's opinion?”

"Of a truth," answered the accused, "I utterly reject such pernicious doctrine."

"Thou hast well said, Samosatan! but I would learn from thee how thou interpretest these sayings of our Lord, handed down to us by the Holy Evangelist St. John,-'The Father dwelleth in me, and I in him;' and again,— I and the Father are one' ?"

"I acknowledge that Divinity did reside in the Man Christ Jesus when on this earth."

"In such a manner that, as he was perfect Man, so likewise he was perfect God,-possessing in himself the very undivided essence of the Father?" Malchion, answer me ! Dost thou believe Christ, the Son of God, to be consubstantial with the Father?'

66

"Such, of a surety, is my belief; in common with all them that hold the orthodox faith."

"Much have I pondered on the word omousios (consubstantial;) and I like it not. If Christ Jesus be omousios with God the Father, then are there two Gods and not one.

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"The Catholic Church, Samosatan, doth not hold him to be consubstantial, corporaliter (as thou vainly imaginest,) but spiritualiter and in modo divino. Thy speech bewrayth thee; for whatsoever thou mayest mean by the resi dence of the Divinity in Christ Jesus, if He, as the only-begotton Son of God, be not, in substance, identical with the Father, then is he different, and if different then a creature, and therefore not God. But I would further hear from thee, wherefore Christ Jesus came into the world?”

"To save sinners, even as saith the Holy Apostle Paul, which indeed he calleth a true saying, and worthy of all acceptation.'"

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*Fragments of the Dialogue beetween Malchion and Paul have been preserved in -the writings of Leontius of Byzantium. (See Cave's Hist. Litt., in Paulum Samosat., Sec. Novat.)

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