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under the form of that animal. In consequence of this opinion they offered a subordinate kind of divine worship to a certain number of serpents, which they nourished and esteemed sacred. It is said they kept a live serpent in a kind of cage. At certain times they opened the door and called the serpent. The animal came out, and, mounting upon the table, twined itself about some loaves of bread. This bread they broke and distributed among the company, who all kissed the serpent. This they called their eucharist. Their other opinions were similar with the rest of the Egyptian Gnostics. See Gnostics.

*

ORIGENISTS, a denomination which appeared in the third century, who derived their opinions from the writings of Origen, a presbyter of Alexandria, and a man of vast and uncommon abilities, who interpreted the divine truths of religion according to the tenor of the Platonic philosophy. He alleged that the source of many evils lies in adhering to the literal and external part of scripture; and that the true meaning of the sacred writers was to be sought in a mysterions and hidden sense, arising from the nature of things themselves.

The principal tenets ascribed to Origen, together with a few of the reasons made use of in their defence, are comprehended in the following summary:

1. That there is a pre-existent state of human souls. For the nature of the soul is such as to make her capable of existing eternally, backward as well as forward; because her spiritual essence, as such, makes it impossible that she should, either through age or violence, be dissolved: so that nothing is wanting to her existence but the good pleasure of him from whom all things proceed. And if, according to the Platonic scheme, we assign the production of all things to the exuberant fulness of life in the Deity, which, through the blessed necessity of his communicative nature, empties itself into all possibilities of being, as into so many capable receptacles, we must suppose her existence in a sense necessary, and in a degree co-eternal with God.

2. That souls were condemned to animate mortal bodies, in order to expiate faults they had committed in a pre-existent state: for we may be assured, from the infinite goodness of their Creator, that they were at first

* Broughton, vol. ii. p, 191. Mosheim, vol. i, pp. 189–190,
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joined to the purest matter,* and placed in those regions of the universe which were most suitable to the purity of essence they then possessed. For that the souls of men are an order of essentially incorporate spirits, their deep immersion into terrestrial matter, the modification of all their operations by it, and the heavenly body promised in the gospel, as the highest perfection of our renewed nature, clearly evince. There fore if our souls existed before they appeared inhabitants of the earth, they were placed in a purer element, and enjoyed far greater degrees of happiness. And certainly he, whose overflowing goodness brought them into existence, would not deprive them of their elicity, till, by their mutability, they rendered themselves less pure in the whole extent of their powers, and became disposed for the susception of such a degree of corporeal life as was exactly answerable to their present disposition of spirit. Hence it was necessary that they should become ter restrial men.

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3. That the soul of Christ was united to the Word be fore the incarnation. For

the scriptures teach us that the soul of the Messiah was created before the beginning of the world. (Phil. ii, 5—7.) This text must be understood of Christ's human soul, because it is unusual to propound the Deity as an example of humility in scripture. Though the humanity of Christ was so God-like, he emptied himself of this fulness of life and glory, to take upon him the form of a servant. was this Messiah who conversed with the patriarchs under a human form it was he who appeared to Moses upon the holy mount: it was he who spoke to the prophets under a visible appearance: and it is he who will at last come in triumph upon the clouds, to restore the universe to its primitive splendour and felicity.

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4. That at the resurrection we shall be clothed with ethereal bodies. For the elements of our terrestrial compositions are such as almost fatally entangle us in vice, passion, and misery. The purer the vehicle the soul is united with the more perfect is her life and operations. Besides, the supreme Goodness who made all things assures us he made

*Origen supposed that our souls, being incorporeal and invisible, always stand in need of bodies suitable to the nature of the places where they

exist.

* See this subject more fully illustrated in Dr. Watts's Glory of Christ.

all things best at first; and therefore his recovery of us to our lost happines (which is the design of the gospel) must restore us to our better bodies and happier habitations, which is evident from 1 Cor. xv. 49, 2 Cor. v. 1, and other texts of scripture,

5. That, after long periods of time, the damned shall be released from their torments, and restored to a new state of probation. For the Deity has such reserves in his gracious providence as will vindicate his sovereign goodness and wisdom from all disparage ment. Expiatory pains are a part of his adorable plan: for this sharper kind of favour has a righteous place in such creatures as are by nature mutable. Though sin has extinguished, or silenced the divine life, yet it has not destroyed the faculties of reason and understanding, consideration and memory, which will serve the life which is most powerful. If, therefore, the vigorous attraction of the sen sual nature be abated by a ceaseless pain, these powers may resume the seeds of a better life and nature. As in the material system there is a gravitation of the less bodies towards the greater, there must of necessity be some

thing analogous to this in the intellectual system: and since the spirits created by God are emanations and streams from his own abyss of being, and as self-existent power must needs subject all beings to itself, the Deity could not but impress upon her intimate na tures and substances a central tendency towards himself, an essential principle of res union to their great original.

6. That the earth after its conflagration shall become ha bitable again, and be the mansion of men and other ani mals, and that in eternal vicissitudes. For it is thus expresssed in Isaiah: Behold, I make new heavens, and a new earth, &c.; and in Heb. i. 10-12, Thou, Lord, in thẻ beginning hast laid the founda tions of the earth; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed, &c. Where there is only a change the substance is not destroyed, this change being only as that of a garment worn out and decaying. The fashion of the world passes away like a turning scene, to exhibit a fresh and new representation of things; and if only the present dress and appearance of things go off, the substance is supposed to remain entire.* OSIANDRIANS, a deno

*Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 219, 225. Cudworth's Intellectual System, vol. ii. p. 818. The Phoenix, vol. i. pp. 16-57. Cheyne's Phi losiphical Principles of Religion, pp. 47-84, Travels of Cyrus, pp. 235, 238.

mination among the Lutherans, 2. That man becomes
which was founded in the year
1550, by Andrew Osiander, a
celebrated German divine,
whose doctrine amounted to
the following propositions :

1. That Christ, considered in his human nature only, could not, by his obedience to the divine law, obtain justification and pardon for sinners: neither can we be justified before God by embracing and applying to ourselves through faith, the righteousness and obedience of the man Christ. It is only through that eternal and essential righteousness which dwells in Christ, considered as God, and which resides in his divine nature, that is united to the human, that mankind can obtain complete justification.

PAP

APISTS, so called by protestants, from their adhering to the pope. Roman Catholics is the title which they apply to themselves. The word pope is derived from the greek of Пanas, which signifies a father. Hence he is styled the Father of the Church. This pontiff is likewise called the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the Visible Head of the Church, and the Successor of St. Peter. He wears the keys, as an emblem of his power to

partaker of this divine righteousness by faith, since it is in consequence of this uniting principle that Christ dwells in the heart of man with his divine righteousness. Now, wherever this divine righteousnessdwells. there God can behold no sin: therefore, when it is present with Christ in the hearts of the regenerate, they are on its account considered by the Deity as righteous, although they be sinners. Moreover: this divine and justifying righteousness of Christ excites the faithful to the pursuit of holiness, and to the practice of virtue.*

OSSENIANS, a denomination in the first century, which taught that faith may and ought to be dissembled.†

open the gates of heaven to repentant sinners, and to excommunicate obstinate offenders. And he wears the triple crown, to inform the christian world that he is constituted with spiritual jurisdiction over priests, emperors, and kings.

This denomination suppose that the bishops of Rome are the descendants of St. Peter, and in that quality have from the beginning exercised jurisdiction over the churches. On the other hand, many protes *Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 46. + Dufresnoy's Chronological Tables, vol. ii. p. 195.

tant writers have dated the rise of the papal power from the year 606, when Pope Boniface the third assumed the title of Universal Bishop, conferred upon him by Phocas, ending A. D. 1866. Others fix it about the middle of the eighth century, A. D. 756, when Pepin invested Pope Stephen with the temporal dominion of Rome, and the neighbouring territories, upon the ceasing of the exarchate of Ravenna. They suppose in the primitive church the jurisdiction of bishops was equal and co-ordinate. They derived perhaps some degree of pre-eminence from the dignity of the see in which they presided. They possess ed, however, no real authoriy or pre-eminence, but what they acquired by superior abilities, or superior sanctity. As Rome had been so long the seat of empire, and capital of the world, its bishops were on that account entitled to respect. They received it but during several ages, they claimed and received nothing more. From these humble beginnings they advanced with such an adventurous and well directed ambition, that they

established a spiritual dominion over the minds and consciences of men, to which all Europe submitted with implicit obedience, till at length their formidable power was weakened by the reformation.

The principal points which distinguished the papists from the protestants, together with a few of the reasons they bring to support their sentiments, are comprised in the following summary :

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1. That St. Peter was designed by Christ to be the head of the church; and the bishops of Rome, being his successors, have the same apostolic authority. For our Saviour declares in Matt. xi. 18, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church: therefore the church is built upon Peter.* cession in the church is now necessary in the new testament, as Aaron had his succession in the old; but there can be no certain succession now shewn only in the chair of St. Peter at Rome; therefore the bishops of Rome are the true successors of Peter. The church of the old testament was a figure of the church under the new; but they had a high priest above the rest: therefore the

The general doctrine of the church of Rome is, that Peter was not only appointed by our Saviour the chief of the apostles and head of the universal church; but that, after having been seven years bishop at Antioch, he came to Rome, where he was bishop twenty-five years, and suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Nero,

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