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 he was conceived by the Virgin Mary; that the Holy Ghost is Socinians, 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 say that Christ only 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 predetermination 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 shall be established in the possession of eternal felicity, while the wicked shall be confined to a fire that will not torment them eternally, but for a certain duration in proportion to their deserts."

This sect has long been indignant at being styled Socinians. They disclaim every human leader; and professing to be guided solely by the word of God and the deductions of reason, they call themselves Unitarians, and affect to consider all other Christians, even their friends the Arians, as Polytheists. Modern Unitarianism, as taught by Dr Priestley, is, however, a very different thing from Socinianism, as we find it in the Racovian catechism and other standard works of the sect. This far-famed philosopher has discovered, what escaped the sagacity of all the fraters poloni, that Jesus Christ was the son of Joseph as well as Mary; that the evangelists mistook the meaning of Isaiah's prophecy, that "a virgin should conceive and bear a son;" that the applying of this prophecy to the birth of our Saviour, led them to conclude that his conception was miraculous; and that we are not to wonder at this mistake, as the apostles were not always inspired, and were in general inconclusive reasoners. The modesty of the writer in claiming the merit of such discoveries will appear in its proper colours to all our readers: the truth of his doctrine shall be considered in another place. See Theology.