SOCINIANS, in church-history, a sect of Christian heretics, so called from their founder Faustus Socinus. See SOCINUS.—They maintain, "That Jesus Christ was a mere man, who had no existence before the Virgin Mary; that the Holy Ghost is no distinct person, but that the Father is truly and properly God. They own that the name of God is given in the holy scriptures to Jesus Christ; but contend, that it is only a deputed title, which, however, invests him with an absolute sovereignty over all created beings, and renders him an object of worship to men and angels. They deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteousness; and only say that Christ preached the truth to mankind, set before them in himself an example of heroic virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his blood. Original sin and absolute predestination they esteem scholastic chimeras. They likewise maintain the sleep of the soul, which they say becomes insensible at death, and is raised again with the body at the resurrection, when the good will be established in the possession of eternal felicity, while the wicked will be consigned to a fire that will not torment them eternally, but consume both their souls and bodies for a certain duration proportioned to their demerits."