[Page 264].—“It was to preserve, he said,” &c.—The brief sketch here given of the Jewish dispensation agrees very much with the view taken of it by Dr. Sumner, the present Bishop of Llandaff, in the first chapters of his eloquent and luminous work, the “Records of the Creation.”
[Page 266].—“In vain did I seek the promise of immortality.”—“It is impossible to deny,” says the Bishop of Llandaff, “that the sanctions of the Mosaic Law are altogether temporal.... It is, indeed, one of the facts that can only be explained by acknowledging that he really acted under a divine commission, promulgating a temporary law for a peculiar purpose,”—a much more candid and sensible way of treating this very difficult point, than by either endeavouring, like Warburton, to escape from it into a paradox, or still worse, contriving, like Dr. Graves, to increase its difficulty by explanation. v. “On the Pentateuch.” See also Horne’s Introduction, &c. vol. I. p. 226.
[Page 268].—“All are of the dust,” &c.—While Voltaire, Volney, &c. refer to the Ecclesiastes, as abounding with tenets of materialism and Epicurism, Mr. Des Voeux and others find in it strong proofs of belief in a future state. The chief difficulty lies in the chapter from [pg 329]which this text is quoted; and the mode of construction by which some writers attempt to get rid of it,—namely, by putting these texts into the mouth of a foolish reasoner,—appears forced and gratuitous. v. Dr. Hales’s Analysis.
[Page 270].—“The noblest and first-created,” &c.—This opinion of the Hermit may be supposed to have been derived from his master, Origen; but it is not easy to ascertain the exact doctrine of Origen on this subject. In the Treatise on Prayer attributed to him, he asserts that God the Father alone should be invoked,—which, says Bayle, is “encherir sur les Hérésies des Sociniens.” Notwithstanding this, however, and some other indications of, what was afterwards called, Arianism, (such as the opinion of the divinity being received by communication, which Milner asserts to have been held by this Father,) Origen was one of the authorities quoted by Athanasius in support of his high doctrines of co-eternity and co-essentiality. What Priestley says is, perhaps, the best solution of these inconsistencies;—“Origen, as well as Clemens Alexandrinus, has been thought to favour the Arian principle; but he did it only in words and not in ideas.” Early Opinions, &c. Whatever uncertainty, however, there may exist with respect to the opinion of Origen himself on this subject, there is no doubt that the doctrines of his immediate followers were, at least, Anti-Athanasian. “So many Bishops of Africa,” says Priestley, “were, at this period (between the years 255 and 258), Unitarians, that Athanasius says, ‘The Son of God,’—meaning his divinity,—‘was scarcely any longer preached in the churches.’ ”
[Page 271].—“The restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”—This benevolent doc[pg 330]trine,—which not only goes far to solve the great problem of moral and physical evil, but which would, if received more generally, tend to soften the spirit of uncharitableness, so fatally prevalent among Christian sects,—was maintained by that great light of the early Church, Origen, and has not wanted supporters among more modern Theologians. That Tillotson was inclined to the opinion appears from his sermon preached before the queen. Paley is supposed to have held the same amiable doctrine; and Newton (the author of the work on the Prophecies) is also among the supporters of it. For a full account of the arguments in favour of this opinion, derived both from reason and the express language of Scripture, see Dr. Southwood Smith’s very interesting work, “On the Divine Government.” See also Magee on the Atonement, where the doctrine of the advocates of Universal Restoration is thus briefly and fairly explained:—“Beginning with the existence of an infinitely powerful, wise, and good Being, as the first and fundamental principle of rational religion, they pronounce the essence of this Being to be love, and from this infer, as a demonstrable consequence, that none of the creatures formed by such a Being will ever be made eternally miserable.... Since God (they say) would act unjustly in inflicting eternal misery for temporary crimes, the sufferings of the wicked can be but remedial, and will terminate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness.”
[Page 273].—“Fruit of the desert shrub.”—v. Hamilton’s Ægyptiaca.
[Page 278].—“The white garment she wore, and the ring of gold on her finger.”—See, for the custom among the early Christians of wearing white for a few days after [pg 331]baptism, Ambros. de Myst.—With respect to the ring, the Bishop of Lincoln says, in his work on Tertullian, “The natural inference from these words (Tertull. de Pudicitiâ) appears to be that a ring used to be given in baptism; but I have found no other trace of such a custom.”
[Page 280].—“Pebbles of jasper.”—v. Clarke.
[Ib.]—“Stunted marigold,” &c.—“Les Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum et Zygophyllum coccineum, plantes grasses des déserts, rejetées à cause de leur âcreté par les chameaux, les chèvres, et les gazelles.” M. Delile upon the plants of Egypt.
[Page 281].—“Antinoë.”—v. Savary and Quatremere.