tur philosophi.... Nos autem non dicimus duo vel
tria principia, duos vel tres Deos. De Civitat. Dei, x. 23.]

[Footnote 53: Boetius, who was deeply versed in the philosophy of Plato
and Aristotle, explains the unity of the Trinity by the indifference of
the three persons. See the judicious remarks of Le Clerc, Bibliotheque
Choisie, tom. xvi. p. 225, &c.]

[Footnote 54: If the Sabellians were startled at this conclusion, they
were driven another precipice into the confession, that the Father was
born of a virgin, that he had suffered on the cross; and thus deserved
the epithet of Patripassians, with which they were branded by their
adversaries. See the invectives of Tertullian against Praxeas, and the
temperate reflections of Mosheim, (p. 423, 681;) and Beausobre, tom. i.
l. iii. c. 6, p. 533.]

If the bishops of the council of Nice [55] had been permitted to follow
the unbiased dictates of their conscience, Arius and his associates
could scarcely have flattered themselves with the hopes of obtaining a
majority of votes, in favor of an hypothesis so directly averse to
the two most popular opinions of the Catholic world. The Arians soon
perceived the danger of their situation, and prudently assumed those
modest virtues, which, in the fury of civil and religious dissensions,
are seldom practised, or even praised, except by the weaker party. They
recommended the exercise of Christian charity and moderation; urged the
incomprehensible nature of the controversy, disclaimed the use of any
terms or definitions which could not be found in the Scriptures; and
offered, by very liberal concessions, to satisfy their adversaries
without renouncing the integrity of their own principles. The victorious
faction received all their proposals with haughty suspicion; and
anxiously sought for some irreconcilable mark of distinction,
the rejection of which might involve the Arians in the guilt and
consequences of heresy. A letter was publicly read, and ignominiously
torn, in which their patron, Eusebius of Nicomedia, ingenuously
confessed, that the admission of the Homoousion, or Consubstantial,
a word already familiar to the Platonists, was incompatible with the
principles of their theological system. The fortunate opportunity was
eagerly embraced by the bishops, who governed the resolutions of the
synod; and, according to the lively expression of Ambrose, [56] they
used the sword, which heresy itself had drawn from the scabbard, to cut