THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
tality. " The Word was made flesh " (i. 14) should be " was flesh," meaning that he through whom God revealed his will was subject to all human misery and death. The kenosis (Phil. ii. 6) can not possibly refer to divine nature. From John iii. 13, 31 and vi. 38, 62, it is concluded that Christ was caught up into heaven for a season like Paul. Contrary arguments of reason are added : (1) Two absolutely different substances can not unite in one person, because mortality and immortality, variability and invariability are irreconcilable; (2) if the union of the two natures be inseparable, then Christ could not have died; (3) the height of absurdity was the communicatio idiomatum of Lutheran doctrine. On the other hand, Socinians expressly asserted that Christ was " more " than all other human beings, superior in endowments but not in nature. He was conceived of a virgin, is perfectly holy, and has power to reign over all tilings. Just as dominion over the earth constitutes in man the inherent image of God, so the absolute power conferred by God upon Christ constitutes his divinity. In this sense he is truly God (I John v. 20) and is to be worshiped, next to the Father. Socinus calls the non-adorantes non-Christians, because they have not Christ.
The work of Christ in redemption is concentrated in his prophetic and kingly offices. For the prophetic office he was qualified by the instruction received
during his sojourn in heaven (ut sup.).
5. Work The content of revelation is essen-
of Christ, tially composed of " precepts and
promises." The Lord's Supper is a ceremonial precept, supplementing the law of the Old Testament. Great emphasis is laid upon the symbolic idea of immersion and the breaking of bread. The Lord's Supper is taught as a memorial of Christ's death after the view of Zwingli, and the term sacrament is spurned. Baptism was deprecated as not of permanent validity, but only as a primitive rite of confession for Jewish and pagan converts. For those born of Christian parents it is unessential. It is not commanded and not designed for infants, who are incapable of confession, and those of Christian parentage are holy by virtue of descent (I Cor. vii. 14). Among promises, on the other hand, are (1) eternal life, characteristic of the New, absent from the Old Testament; (2) the Holy Spirit, not as a person but a power or divine activity, manifest visibly in the early Church and invisibly later as the spirit of revelation and faith. The essential element in the prophetic office is the death of Christ. The new revelation was attested (1) by the sinlessness of Jesus, (2) by his holy life, and (3) by his miracles and death. The doctrine of satisfaction is disputed in the manner of Scotist scholasticism. Christ's death was necessary to attest, first, the great love of God for human redemption; and, secondly, the resurrection to eternal life on the condition of obedience. The kingly office of Christ consists in the exaltation to the right hand of God to reign in his stead, power over his enemies, and the eternal reign and protection of the just, and begins with the ascension. The high-priestly office is an adjunct of the kingly, and means that he will, and actually does, come to the succor of man, which
is styled a sacrifice. Its seat is in heaven, since on earth Christ is not high priest and has no tabernacle fit for the high-priesthood.
The soteriological doctrine shows an essentially Pelagian form. Presupposing human autonomy, it conceives the divine will as manifest 6. Soteriol- in revelations, to which the human ogy; the obedience with divine reenforcement Church; responds. On justification it is taught Eschatology. that that article of faith involves three elements: assent to the teaching of Jesus as true, trust in God through Christ, and obedience to the divine commandments. In effecting this, faith is justifying and saving. All imputation is repudiated. The true Church is " the company of those who hold and profess sound doctrine." The Church is one with a school of the true knowledge of God. In government it is an ecclesiastical democracy, subject only to Christ the head. The offices are those of pastor, elders, and deacons, of whom the first is elected by the synod. Church discipline is strictly insisted upon. Interference by the state is refused, even in case of heresy. The Christian is obligated to endure passively all that the civil power imposes, but active obedience is due only where there is no conflict with God's Word. " Rather to suffer than to commit injustice " is practised in private life; fellow church-members are to be prosecuted in civil courts only in urgent cases; and on the same principle military service is renounced, except that with weapons one is permitted to make a feint upon an enemy. Socinus and a majority of theologians approved of holding civic office as not in conflict with the law of Christ; but, in practise, this was impossible in view of the foregoing. In eschatology, the resurrection of the flesh is repudiated. The real substance of man or spirit will be retained, and identity of person clothed in a spiritual body (I Cor. xv.). The ungodly, with the devil and his angels, shall be annihilated. Thus the end like the beginning of the Socinian doctrine is immortality. (O. ZocKLEEf.)
Bibliography: On the life and teaching of Socinus consult: J. Crell, Beschrijvinghe van Godt en zijne eygenschappen . Hier is by Ghevoeght F. Socini leven en daden, Rakow, 1650 (?); S. Przykowski, Vita Fausti Socino, Cracow, 1636, Eng. transl., The Life of that Incomparable Man Faustus Socinus, London, 1653; G. Ashwell, De Socino et Socinianismo, Oxford, 1680; A. Calovius, Scripta Antisociniana, 3 vols., Ulm, 1684; J. Toulmin, Memoirs of the Life, Character, Sentiments and Writings of F. Socinus, London, 1777; G. F. Illgen, Symbola ad vitam et doctrina Fausti Socini, 3 parts, Leipsic, 1826-40; E. Tagart, Sketches of the Lives and Characters of the Leading Reformers of the 16th Century, London, 1843; P. Lecler, Fauste Socin. Biographique et critique, Geneva, 1885; Bayle, Dictionary, v. 168-180.
For the history of Socinianism consult: Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, 6 vols., Amsterdam, 1626; B. Lamy, Hist, du Socinianisme, Paris, 1723; S. F. Lauterbach, Ariano-Socinianismus olim in Polonia, Leipsic, 1725; M. Maimbourg, The Hist, of Arianism, . with Account of
the . . Socinian and Arian Controversies, 2 vols., London, 1728-29; F. S. Bock, Hist. Antitrinitariorum, maxime Socinianorum, 2 vols., Konigsberg, 1774-S4; T. Lindsey, Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation, London, 1783; A. Fuller, The Calvinistic and Socinian Systems Examined and Compared, Edinburgh, 1815; F. Trcchsel, Die protestantischen Antitrinitarier vor Faustus Socinus, 2 parts, Heidelberg. 1839-44; O. Fock, Der Socinianismus nach seiner Stellung in der Gesammlentwickelung des christlichen Geistes, i. 121-