elshman, Italian, Greek,
Syrian, Armenian, Alexandrian; there are voices from Arles, and from
Carthage, as well as from Samosata on the Euphrates, and Jerusalem on
its holy hill, and Caesarea on the sea-shore. We have to regard the
Mediterranean Sea as the Council Table, with chairs at the back for
such as could not find places on its shores. Three continents faced
one another at an oval table, 13,000 miles in circumference. Even in
thoughtful meditation, a voice must be raised to be heard in such a
conference. This will to some extent explain how it happened that men,
whom we account orthodox, are occasionally found uttering what we will
call _suggestions_, unorthodox in character.

I. _About God's Being_.

1. _The Jew_. There is but One God.

2. _The Ebionite_. Then Christ is but a Man divinely endowed--the only
man so divinely endowed.

3. _St John_. No! He is the Word. By Him all things were made; the
Word was God and was made flesh.

4. _The Sabellian_. Then perhaps,--God being One and being made
flesh,--the Word, and the Holy Ghost, are but manifestations of God.

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5. _The Catholick Church_. No! They are Persons. A Father and a Son
are different persons.

6. _The Arian_. Then, if the Father is a real father, and the Son a
real son, perhaps the Father was before the Son, and the Son was made.

7. The Catholick Church. This will not do; because the Sonship would
not be real sonship unless the Godhead were equal. The Godhead of the
Son must be the same Godhead as that of the Father.

8. _Macedonius_. But at any rate the Holy Ghost may be a creature, or
a manifestation of God the Father.

9. _The Catholick Church_. That will not do either; for His Personal
Being and Godhead are implied by some verses; and in various passages
He is ranked with the Father and the Son.

10. _The Semi-Arian_. Then you really say that there is an actual
equality of the Three Persons, and yet that there is but one God?

11. _The Catholick Church_. Yes! That is the Catholick Faith.

Of course this is but a rough specimen of the dialogue which was
conducted by the Church with the various guessers at great Truths, who
debated, disputed, and dogmatized, during the early centuries. I have
left out all the other controversies, and some parts of this, in order
to present a fairly clear view. But you will observe that the order
followed in History has a good deal of the natural course of argument
an