BARON CUVIER. 189 



ness of predestination, such as Gomar taught it, 

 lie scarcely began to reflect, before he turned to 

 the milder doctrine of Armhiius. But, as he 

 advanced, he always seemed to find too much to 

 believe ; he therefore adopted the tenets of the 

 Arrians, who, after having invaded Christianity 

 from the time of the successors of Constantine, 

 have now no other asylum than in England, but 

 whose faith is decorated by the names of Mil- 

 ton, Clarke, and Locke, and even, as report 

 says, that of Newton, and whose reputations, in 

 some measure, repair the loss of former power. 



" Arrianism, while it declares Christ to be a 

 creature, believes him, nevertheless, to be a 

 being of a superior nature, produced before the 

 world, and the organ of the Creator in the pro- 

 duction of other beings. This is the doctrine 

 clothed in the magnificent poetry of the Paradise 

 Lost. After having long professed this, Priestley 

 abandoned it, in order to become an Unitarian, 

 or that which we call Socinian. There are few, 

 perhaps, among those who now hear me, who 

 have ever informed themselves in what these 

 two sects differ. It is, that the Socinians deny 

 the pre-existence of Christ, and only look upon 

 him as a man, though they revere in him the 



