There is a little sect here composed of clergymen, and of a few very
learned persons among the laity, who, though they do not call themselves
Arians or Socinians, do yet dissent entirely from St. Athanasius with
regard to their notions of the Trinity, and declare very frankly that the
Father is greater than the Son.
Do you remember what is related of a certain orthodox bishop, who, in
order to convince an emperor of the reality of consubstantiation, put his
hand under the chin of the monarch's son, and took him by the nose in
presence of his sacred majesty? The emperor was going to order his
attendants to throw the bishop out of the window, when the good old man
gave him this handsome and convincing reason: "Since your majesty," says
he, "is angry when your son has not due respect shown him, what
punishment do you think will God the Father inflict on those who refuse
His Son Jesus the titles due to Him?" The persons I just now mentioned
declare that the holy bishop took a very wrong step, that his argument
was inconclusive, and that the emperor should have answered him thus:
"Know that there are two ways by which men may be wanting in respect to
me--first, in not doing honour sufficient to my son; and, secondly, in
paying him the same honour as to me."
Be this as it will, the principles of Arius begin to revive, not only in
England, but in Holland and Poland. The celebrated Sir Isaac Newton
honoured this opinion so far as to countenance it. This philosopher
thought that the Unitarians argued more mathematically than we do. But
the most sanguine stickler for Arianism is the illustrious Dr. Clark.
This man is rigidly virtuous, and of a mild disposition, is more fond of
his tenets than desirous of propagating them, and absorbed so entirely in
problems and calculations that he is a mere reasoning machine.
It is he who wrote a book which is much esteemed and little understood,
on the existence of God, and another, more intelligible, but pretty much
contemned, on the truth of the Christian religion.
He never engaged in scholastic disputes, which our friend calls venerable
trifles. He only published a work containing all the testimonies of the
primitive ages for and against the Unitarians, and leaves to the reader
the counting of the voices and the liberty of forming a judgment. This
book won the doctor a great number of partisans, and lost him the See of
Canterbury; but, in my humble opinion, he was out in his calculation, and
had better have been Primate of all England than merely an Arian parson.
You see that opinions are subject to revolutions as well as empires.
Arianism, after having triumphed during three centuries, and been forgot
twelve, rises at last out of its own ashes; but it has chosen a very
improper season to make its appearance in, the present age being quite
cloyed with disputes and sects. The members of this sect are, besides,
too few to be indulged the liberty of holding public assemblies, which,
however, they will, doubtless, be permitted to do in case they spread
considerably. But people are now so very cold with respect to all things
of this kind, that there is little probability any new religion, or old
one, that may be revived, will meet with favour. Is it not whimsical
enough that Luther, Calvin, and Zuinglius, all of them wretched authors,
should have founded sects which are now spread over a great part of
Europe, that Mahomet, though so ignorant, should have given a religion to
Asia and Africa, and that Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Clark, Mr. Locke, Mr. Le
Clerc, etc., the greatest philosophers, as well as the ablest writers of
their ages, should scarcely have been able to raise a little flock, which
even decreases daily.
This it is to be born at a proper period of time. Were Cardinal de Retz
to return again into the world, neither his eloquence nor his intrigues
would draw together ten women in Paris.
Were Oliver Cromwell, he who beheaded his sovereign, and seized upon the
kingly dignity, to rise from the dead, he would be a wealthy City trader,
and no more.