ing the nature of the Divine Trinity; and it was
pronounced, that none of these systems, in a pure and absolute sense,
were exempt from heresy and error. [47] I. According to the first
hypothesis, which was maintained by Arius and his disciples, the Logos
was a dependent and spontaneous production, created from nothing by the
will of the father. The Son, by whom all things were made, [48] had been
begotten before all worlds, and the longest of the astronomical periods
could be compared only as a fleeting moment to the extent of his
duration; yet this duration was not infinite, [49] and there had been
a time which preceded the ineffable generation of the Logos. On this
only-begotten Son, the Almighty Father had transfused his ample spirit,
and impressed the effulgence of his glory. Visible image of invisible
perfection, he saw, at an immeasurable distance beneath his feet, the
thrones of the brightest archangels; yet he shone only with a reflected
light, and, like the sons of the Romans emperors, who were invested
with the titles of Caesar or Augustus, [50] he governed the universe
in obedience to the will of his Father and Monarch. II. In the second
hypothesis, the Logos possessed all the inherent, incommunicable
perfections, which religion and philosophy appropriate to the Supreme
God. Three distinct and infinite minds or substances, three coequal and
coeternal beings, composed the Divine Essence; [51] and it would have
implied contradiction, that any of them should not have existed, or that
they should ever cease to exist. [52] The advocates of a system which
seemed to establish three independent Deities, attempted to preserve the
unity of the First Cause, so conspicuous in the design and order of
the world, by the perpetual concord of their administration, and the
essential agreement of their will. A faint resemblance of this unity of
action may be discovered in the societies of men, and even of
animals. The causes which disturb their harmony, proceed only from the
imperfection and inequality of their faculties; but the omnipotence
which is guided by infinite wisdom and goodness, cannot fail of choosing
the same means for the accomplishment of the same ends. III. Three
beings, who, by the self-derived necessity of their existence, possess
all the divine attributes in the most perfect degree; who are eternal in
duration, infinite in space, and intimately present to each other, and
to the whole universe; irresistibly for