418 PART m. Ch. m. -the person of christ.
that the essential attributes or properties of the two natures remain unchanged after the hypostatical union. The properties of the divine essence do not become the properties of the liuman. Then the humanity of Christ has the attributes of his divinity without its essence, and yet those attributes or properties do not inhere in his human substance.^
It seems a plain contradiction in terms, to say that the human becomes divine, that the finite becomes infinite; and no less a contradiction to say that the humanity of Christ has infinite attri- butes and yet itself is not infinite.
The Lutheran doctrine of the Person of Christ has never been disconnected from the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Both are peculiar to that Church and form no part of Catholic Christianity.
§ 8. Later Forms of the Doctrine.
During the period between the Reformation and the present time, the doctrine concerning the Person of Christ was constantly under discussion. The views advanced however were, for the most part, referrible to the one or other of the forms of the doc- trine already considered. The only theories calling for special notice are Socinianism and that of the Preexistent Humanity of Christ.
Socinianism.
Socinus was an Italian, born of a noble family at Siena, in 1539. The earlier part of his life was not devoted to learning. Being a favourite of the Grand Duke, he passed twelve years at his court, and then removed to Basel that he might prosecute his theologi- cal studies, in which he had become deeply interested. After a few years he removed to Poland and settled at Cracow. There and in its vicinity he passed the greater part of his active life. He died in 1604.
The early Socinians erected a college at Racovia, in Lesser Po- land, which attained so high a reputation that it attracted students from among Protestants and Romanists. It was however sup- pressed by the government in 1658, and the followers of Socinus, after having suffered a protracted persecution, were expelled from the kingdom.
1 The Form of Concord, chap. viii. sections 6 and 7, Epitome; Hase, Lihri Symbolici, p. 606, says, "Credimus, docemus et confitemur, divinam et huraanam naturas non in unam sub- Btantiam commixtas, nee unam in alteram mutatam esse, sed utramque natiiram retinere Buas proprietates essentiales, ut quae alterius naturae proprietates fieri nequeant.
"Proprietates divinse naturae sunt: esse omnipotentem,aeternam, infinitam, et secundum naturae naturalisque suae essentise proprietatem, per se, ubique presentem esse, omnia Bovisse, etc. Hsec omnia neque sunt neque unquam fiunt humanse naturae proprietates."