A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

ORGANIST. An ecclesiastical officer, whose business it is to play upon the organ in churches. In ancient times there was no stated organist, the vicars choral being responsible for this duty in turn. In cathedrals and choral foundations, he is, or ought to be, an essential member of the collegiate body. The duty of English cathedral organists is responsible, arduous, and of a sacred character. They are bound to attend twice every day; and in order to be efficient, ought to be skilful musicians, profound harmonists, versed in the knowledge of both instrumental and vocal harmony, and endued with religious feeling. No pains ought to be spared by the governing members of collegiate bodies to render the office not only respectable and efficient, but religious also.

ORIGINAL SIN. “Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk); but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek phronema sarkos, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe, and are baptized,” [renatis, i. e. born again, is the word used in the Latin copy,] “yet the apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.”—Article ix. This article was intended to oppose the notion of the School divines, who maintained that the infection of our nature is not a mental, but a mere corporeal taint; that the body alone receives and transmits the contagion, while the soul proceeds, in all cases, immaculate from the hands of the Creator. Original sin they directly opposed to original righteousness, and this they considered, not as something connatural with man, but as a superinduced habit, or adventitious ornament, the removal of which could not prove detrimental to the native powers of the mind. Thus the School divines maintained, in opposition to our Articles, that the lapse of Adam conveys to us solely imputed guilt, the corporeal infection which they admitted, not being sin itself, but the subject matter; not peccatum, but fomes peccati. The Lutherans taught that original sin is a corruption of our nature in a general sense, the depravation of the mental faculties and the corporeal appetites. The Calvinists maintain that lust and concupiscence are truly and properly sin.

The Scriptures teach us that the sin of Adam not only made him liable to death, but that it also changed the upright nature in which he was originally formed, into one that was prone to wickedness; and that this liability to death, and propensity to sin, were entailed from him upon the whole race of mankind: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Rom. v. 12.) “As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” (ver. 18.) “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” (ver. 19.) “Through the offence of one, many be dead.” (ver. 15.) “By one man’s offence death reigned by one.” (ver. 17.) “By man came death.” (1 Cor. xv. 21.) “In Adam all die.” (ver. 22.) “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Gen. viii. 21.) “There is no man that sinneth not.” (1 Kings viii. 46.) “God made man upright, but they found out many inventions.” (Ecc. vii. 29.) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John i. 8.) “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (Jer. xvii. 9.) “The flesh is weak.” (Matt. xxvi. 41.) “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. v. 17.) “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.” (Rom. vii. 23.) The general corruption of human nature, in consequence of Adam’s disobedience, was acknowledged by the ancient Fathers of the Christian Church. The term Original Sin was first used by Augustine, and before his time it was called the old guilt—the ancient wound—the common curse—the old sin, &c.—Tomline.

In Scripture this is called “the sin that dwelleth in us” (Rom. vii. 17); “the body of sin” (vi. 6); “the law of sin and death” (viii. 2); “lust” (vii. 7); “the sin which so easily besets us” (Heb. xii. 1); “the flesh” (Gal. v. 16); “the old man” (Eph. iv. 22); “the likeness of Adam” (Gen. v. 3).

The corruption of nature called “original sin” is derived by continual descent from father to son; wherewith all the powers of the soul and body are infected, and that in all men equally. And then, actual sin arising from hence, the understanding is blinded with ignorance and infidelity. The memory is prone to forget the good things which the understanding hath conceived. The will is disobedient to the will of God, understood and remembered by us, (the freedom of holiness, which it had at the first, being now lost,) and is wholly bent to sin. The affections are ready to overrule the will, and are subject to all disorder. And the conscience itself is distempered and polluted.—Usher.

Let us look into the world, let us look into ourselves, and we shall see sufficient proofs of this original corruption; even in our infancy it shows itself in many instances of obstinacy and perverseness; and as we grow up it increases with our years; and unless timely checked by our utmost care and diligence, (through the assistance of Divine grace,) produces habits of all manner of iniquity. Let the proud deist boast of the dignity of his nature, the sufficiency of his reason, and the excellency of his moral attainments; but let us Christians not be ashamed to own our own misery and our guilt; that our understandings are darkened, our wills corrupted, and our whole nature depraved: then may we apply to the Physician of our souls for the succours of his grace, which alone can help and relieve us.—Waldo.

ORIGENISTS. Heretics, in the fourth century, so called, because they pretended to draw their opinions from the writings of the famous Origen, a priest of Alexandria.

The Origenists made their first appearance in Italy in 397. Rufinus of Aquileia, a priest of Alexandria, had studied the works of Origen with so much application, that he adopted that writer’s Platonic notions for Catholic truths. Full of these ideas, he went to Jerusalem, where Origen had a great many partisans. There he made his court to Melania, a Roman lady, who had embraced Origen’s opinions. Afterwards he came to Rome with this lady, who was greatly esteemed in that city. Here he set out with an outward show of simplicity, and pretended, after the example of Origen, an universal contempt of all worldly things. This made him looked upon as one who lived up to the highest Christian perfection. Rufinus took advantage of this prejudice in his favour to propagate his opinions, in which the credit of Melania was of great use to him. And now he began to have a great number of followers, and to form a considerable sect. But another Roman lady, named Marcella, having acquainted Pope Anastasius, that Rufinus and Melania were spreading very dangerous opinions in Rome, under the veil of piety, the holy father examined into the fact, and forbade them to teach any more. Rufinus and Melania submitted to the prohibition; Melania returned to Jerusalem, and Rufinus to Aquileia. However, the opinions they had broached continued to be maintained and defended by many learned men, who were therefore distinguished by the name of Origenists.

The errors ascribed to the Origenists are in number nine, and are as follows:—

1. The souls of men were holy intelligences, who enjoyed the presence of God; but being tired with the Divine contemplation, they degenerated; and as their first fervour was greatly abated, the Greeks therefore called the soul νους, from the word νοσεω, which signifies to slacken or grow cold.