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with much moderation. He never gave ear to dela tors, and never deprived any man of life or fortunes in an illegal way, or for the sake of gain *"

A. D. 427. Sisinnius, bishop of Constantinople, who died this year, was a man renowned for temperance, piety, and benevolence to the poor; simple, and affable in his manners, and avoiding much business and public affairs. For which reason he was very unacceptable to active men, and accounted no better than a tame sluggard †.

About this time the famous Symeon Stylites is said to have mounted on a pillar, and to have continued in that sublime situation for thirty-seven years.

A. D. 428. Nestorius was made bishop of Constantinople. In his first sermon before the emperor, he declared openly his intention to wage war with all the heterodox, and promised the emperor success upon earth, and a genteel place in the kingdom of heaven, if he would join with him in extirpating he retics. Even the orthodox were scandalized at this vanity and violence, which presently flamed out in suitable effects; for five days after, he attempted to demolish the church of the Arians, and acted with such fury, that they themselves out of rage and des pair set fire to it, and burnt it down, together with other buildings in the neighbourhood. Then he proceeded to plague the Novatians; but the emperor put some stop to it. Then he persecuted the Quartadeci mans in Lydia, Caria, and other places; and some murders were committed on this occasion. He also oppressed the Macedonians, and took their churches

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from them; nor did he spare the Pelagians; and to conclude, he persuaded the emperor to make laws against all heretics. He led a sober and austere life, and in short, he would have passed for a saint of the first magnitude, as Du Pin observes, if he had not fallen into a notion which was condemned as heretical. It is true; he seems to have had all the qualifications requisite for a fifth-century-saint, except the gift of miracles. The poor man soon had an opportunity of learning the iniquity of persecution by woful experience, and became himself a memorable example of the cruelty of the orthodox prelates instigated by Cyril.

When he had been hastily condemned and deposed in a tumultuous manner by the council of Ephesus, John of Antioch arrived at Ephesus, and taking it as an heinous offence and affront that Cyril and his crew had not stayed for his coming, he instantly called a synod, and excommunicated Cyril for his impudence, and Memnon, bishop of Ephesus, and anathematized all those who would not anathematize the anathematisms of Cyril.

The Emperor Theodosius II. was a mere tool in the hands of ecclesiastics and of courtiers; and Cyril had procured his favour by bribing one of his eunuchs, if we may believe Acacius bishop of Bercea.

For three years together, the quarrel lasted between Cyril and John, who was not one jot better than Cyril. At last, by the interposition and the absolute command of the emperor, John and Cyril were reconciled, and agreed together to sacrifice Nestorius, and to confirm the decrees of the council of Ephe

sus.

Basnage..

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Basnage*, though mightily inclined to favour the fathers and the synods of those times, yet compelled by stubborn truth, and plain facts, hath given us a tolerably fair account of the irregularities and the dishonesty of the council of Ephesus.

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Nestorius was deposed, and confined in a monas tery but his implacable enemies would not let him rest there. They persuaded the emperor to banish him to Oasis in Libya, a barren miserable spot, surrounded with sandy deserts.

It appears from the writings of Nestorius in his ba nishment, that the Roman governor, whosoever he was, sent him about from place to place, when he was aged, infirm, and sick, on purpose to break his heart and his constitution. The project answered expectation, and the old man died of grief and of cruel usage. But the malice of his enemies died not with him: they put about a story, adopted by Evagrius, that his body corrupted, and his tongue rotted and was eaten of worms, as a divine judgment on him for his blasphemies. The learned Petavius (but he was a furious bigot) was not ashamed to take up this stupid rumour, and give it a place in his book t

Evagrius hath written a most unfair account of the Nestorian and Eutychian quarrels, crying up Cyril and his associates as saints, and representing Nesto rius as the vilest of blasphemers, and worse than Judas Iscariot; and then makes the following digression concerning the variety of theological sentiments a mongst Christians:

111.

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324, &c. See also Le Clerc. Bibl. A. ¿ M. xxiii. 237. xxiv. 1. & 237. Mosheim, p. 220. Six Dissertations, p. 81.

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+ Ration. Temp. i. 314.

Let not the Gentiles deride us, because our later prelates vary from their predecessors, and are always adding something new to our faith. For we searching the mysterious and incomprehensible goodness of God towards men, and endeavouring to honour and extol it as much as we possibly can, follow, some this, and some that opinion. Not one of those who have started heresies amongst Christians, and have fallen into errors, had any design of favouring impiety, and insulting the divine majesty; but in reality, each of these persons thought that he expres sed himself better than those who had been before him. And as to the principal and fundamental of faith, we are all of one accord*, &c."

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Out of thy own mouth shalt thou be judged; for if Christians may err bond fide, and with the most upright intentions, and if this was generally the case of heretics, the consequence is very clear, that Christians ought not to treat one another as dogs, devils, and Iscariots, for mere mistakes in opinion, nor invent and enlarge unscriptural and metaphysical confessions of faith, on purpose to distress and exclude such persons, nor pass a sentence of anathematism and damnation. upon them.

"Some of these fathers could not write their own name, and in the councils they were obliged to employ others to do it for them. This in all probability was very common, since they made no scruple to own a thing which ought to have covered them with shame.

Clarkson, on the liturgy, hath produced many examples taken from the acts of the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, where subscriptions are to be found

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in this form; I, such an one, have subscribed by the hand of such an one, because I cannot write. And, Such a bishop having said that he could not write, I, whose name is underwritten, have subscribed for him."

In behalf of the Ephesian council, a miracle was seasonably trumped up, and one St Dalmatius, a monk, had a voice from heaven, ordering him to go and present himself before the Emperor Theodosius, in favour of Cyril, and of the council †.

"Thus, thanks to the purse of St Cyril, the Roman church, which holds the infallibility of general councils, is preserved from an heresy. For if this prelate had been more covetous and less spiteful and malicious, Nestorianism would have been established; and the Virgin Mary would not have been called Mother of God.”

In the Nestorian controversy, the contending parties seem to have been all of one opinion, as to the doctrine of the Trinity, in opposition to the Arians, and to have held the consubstantiality, coeternity, and natural coequality of the three persons or hypostases.

According to them, Christ was compounded of the Aóyes, the second person of the Trinity, and was God, and consequently an intelligent agent; of an human soul, which also must be an intelligent agent; and of an human body.

Hence many questions arose, which gave rise to as many controversies. For example, it was debated, Whether the two natures in Christ were so united as to become one? or whether they remained distinct? Whether, since Christ was born, and died, and rose again, it could be said that God was born, and died, and rose again?

* Bibl; Univ. xvi. 159.

Bibl. Univ. xxi. 27.

Whether

+ Fleury, vi. 143;

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