I. That the eternal Father was the one only God; that the Word was no more than an expression of the Godhead, and had not existed from all eternity; and that Jesus Christ was God, no otherwise than by his superiority above all creatures, who were put in subjection to him by the Father.
II. That Jesus Christ was not a mediator between God and men, but sent into the world to serve as a pattern of their conduct; and that he ascended up to heaven only, as it were, to take a journey thither.
III. That the punishment of hell will last but for a certain time, after which both body and soul will be destroyed. And,
IV. That it is not lawful for princes to make war.
These four tenets were what Socinus defended with the greatest zeal: in other matters, he was a Lutheran, or a Calvinist. The truth is, he did but refine upon the errors of all the Anti-Trinitarians who had gone before him.
The Socinians spread extremely in Poland, Lithuania, and Transylvania. Their chief school was at Racow, and there all their first books were published. Their sentiments are explained at large in their catechism, printed several times, under the title of Catechesis Ecclesiarum Polonicarum unum Deum patrem, illiusque filium unigenitum, uno cum Sancto Spiritu, ex sacra scriptura confitentium. They were exterminated out of Poland in 1655; since which time they have been chiefly sheltered in Holland; where, though their public meetings have been prohibited, they find means to conceal themselves under the names of Arminians and Anabaptists.
SOFFIT. The under-surface of an arch. In the nomenclature of mouldings, the soffit-plane is the plane at right angles with the face of the wall, which is the direction of the soffit in its simplest form. Courses of mouldings occupying the soffit-plane and the wall-plane, to the exclusion of the chamfer-plane, indicate Norman or Early English work.
SOLFIDIANS. Those who rest on faith alone for salvation, without any connexion with works; or who judge themselves to be Christ’s because they believe they are.
SOMPNOUR. (Chaucer.) An officer employed to summon delinquents to appear in ecclesiastical courts; now called an apparitor.
SON OF GOD. (See Jesus, Lord.) “The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her substance; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.”—Article II. He is the true, proper, and only Son of God; begotten “from the beginning;” “before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. i. 20; 1 John i. 1); as he “came down from heaven,” (John vi. 38,) where he had “glory with the Father,” “before the world was” (John xvii. 5); as he is himself called God, “one” with the “Father,” (John x. 30,) being of the same Divine essence communicated to him, (Matt. xi. 27; John v. 26; xiii. 3; xvi. 15; Rom. xiv. 9,) and exercising a power above that of all created beings. (Eph. i. 21; Heb. i. 2, 13; 1 Pet. iii. 22.) By him the world and “all things were made,” (John i. 3, 10; Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 2, 10,) “by whom are all things,” (1 Cor. viii. 6,) for “He is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Col. i. 17.) “All things are put in subjection under his feet,” and “nothing is left that is not put under him.” (Heb. ii. 8; Ps. viii. 6; 1 Cor. xv. 27; Eph. i. 22.) Of the manner and nature of this generation we are ignorant, and must not endeavour to be wise above what is written. We find our Lord declared by prophecy to be a “son begotten,” (Ps. ii. 7,) and acknowledged, by inspiration, as “the only begotten Son.” (John iii. 16; i. 14; 1 John iv. 9.) That he is “the image of the invisible God, the first-born of (or before) every creature, for by him were all things created” (Col. i. 15, 16); and who thus “being in the form of God,” “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,” (Heb. i. 3,) was without “robbery equal to God.” (Phil. ii. 6.) That he “is in the bosom of the Father,” (John i. 18,) and is “one” with him. (John x. 30.) Many similes were imagined by the ancients to elucidate this: as the sun producing light—a fountain its streams, &c.; but too much caution cannot be used on this subject, lest things are conceived or uttered by us derogatory to the ineffable nature and peculiar attributes of the Divine majesty.