III.

CENT. gin; and, proceeding hence, passed through vaPART II, rious forms and modifications according to the genius, turn, and erudition of those who embraced it.

The rise of the mystic

II. The same principles gave rise to another theology. species of theology, which was called mystic. And what must seem at first sight surprising here, is, that this mystic theology, though formed at the same time, and derived from the same source with the scholastic, yet had a natural tendency to overturn and destroy it. The authors of this mystic science are not known; but the principles from whence it sprung are manifest. Its first promoters proceeded from that known doctrine of the Platonic school, which also was adopted by ORIGEN and his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused through all human souls ; or, in other words, that the faculty of reason, from which proceeds the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied that men could, by labour or study, excite this celestial flame in their breasts; and, therefore, they disapproved highly of the attempts of those, who, by definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. On the contrary, they maintained, that silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts of mortification as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct men in the knowledge of divine things. For thus they reasoned: "They who behold with a noble "contempt all human affairs, who turn away "their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut "all the avenues of the outward senses against "the contagious influences of a material world,

"must.

III.

"must necessarily return to God, when the spirit C E N T. "is thus disengaged from the impediments that PART II. prevented that happy union. And, in this "blessed frame, they not only enjoy inexpressible raptures from their communion with the Supreme Being, but also are invested with the in"estimable privilege of contemplating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, "while others behold it in a vitiated and delu"sive form."

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66

monks and

III. This method of reasoning produced strange Hence the effects, and drove many into caves and desarts, rise of where they macerated their bodies with hunger hermits. and thirst, and submitted to all the miseries of the severest discipline that a gloomy imagination could prescribe. And it is not improbable, that PAUL, the first hermit, was rather engaged by this fanatical system, than by the persecution under DECIUS, to fly into the most solitary desarts of Thebais, where he led, during the space of ninety years, a life more worthy of a savage animal than of a rational being [d]. It is, however, to be observed, that though PAUL is placed at the head of the order of Hermits, yet that unsociable manner of life was very common in Egypt, Syria, India, and Mesopotamia, not only long before his time, but even before the coming of CHRIST. And it is still practised among the Mahometans, as well as the Christians, in those arid and burning climates [e]. For the glowing atmosphere that surrounds these countries is a natural cause of that love of solitude and repose, of that indolent and melancholy disposition, that are re.narkably common among their languid inhabitants.

IV. But let us turn away our eyes from these scenes of fanaticism, which are so opprobrious to

[d] The life of this hermit was writen by JEROM. [+] See the travels of LUCAS, in the year 1714, second vo、 lume, 363.

III.

many in

sacred writ

CENT.human nature, and consider some other circumPART II. Stances that belong more or less to the history of the Christian doctrine during this century. And The zeal of here it is proper to mention the useful labours of spreading those who manifested their zeal for the holy scripabroad the tures by the care they took to have accurate ings. copies of them multiplied every where, and that at such moderate prices, as rendered them of easy purchase as also to have them translated into various languages, and published in correct editions. Many of the more opulent among the Christians contributed generously a great part of their substance to the carrying on these pious and excellent undertakings. PIERIUS and HESYCHIUS in Egypt, and LUCIAN at Antioch, employed much pains in correcting the copies of the Septuagint; and PAMPHIDUS of Cæsarea laboured with great diligence and success in works of the same nature, until a glorious martyrdom finished his course. But ORIGEN Surpassed all others in diligence and assiduity; and his famous Hexapla, though almost entirely destroyed by the waste of time, will, even in its fragments, remain an eternal monument of the incredible application with which that great man laboured to remove those obstacles which retarded the progress of the gospel [ƒ].

method of

Origen's V. After the encomiums we have given to interpreting ORIGEN, who has an undoubted right to the first the scrip- place among the interpreters of the scriptures in

tures.

this century, it is not without a deep concern that we are obliged to add, that he also, by an unhappy method, opened a secure retreat for all sorts of errors that a wild and irregular imagination could bring forth. Having entertained a notion that it

was

[f] The fragments that yet remain of ORIGEN's Hexapla, were collected and published, by the learned MONTFAUCON, in folio, at Paris, in 1713. See also upon this head BUDDEI Įsa goge in Theolog. tom. ii. p. 1581; and CARPZOVII Critic. Sacr. Veter. Testam. p. 574

was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to de-C EN T. fend every thing contained in the sacred writings PART II. from the cavils of heretics and infidels, so long as they were explained literally, according to the real import of the terms, he had recourse to the fecundity of a lively imagination, and maintained, that the holy scriptures were to be interpreted in the same allegorical manner that the Platonists explained the history of the gods. In consequence of this pernicious rule of interpretation, he alleged, that the words of scripture were, in many places, absolutely void of sense; and that though in others there were, indeed, certain notions conveyed under the outward terms according to their literal force and import, yet it was not in these that the true meaning of the sacred writers was to be sought, but in a mysterious and hidden sense arising from the nature of the things themselves [g]. This bidden sense he endeavours to investigate throughout his commentaries, neglecting and despising, for the most part, the outward letter; and in this devious path he displays the most ingenious strokes of fancy, though always at the expence of truth, whose divine simplicity is scarcely discernible through the cobweb-veil of allegory [b]. Nor did the inventions of ORIGEN

end

[g] For a further illustration of this matter, the reader may consult the excellent preface of DE LA RUE, to the second volume of the works of ORIGEN, published in folio at Paris, in the year 1733. An accurate and full account of ORIGEN'S method of interpreting the scripture may be found in the work intitled Commentar. de rebus Christian, ante Constantinum M. p. 629; where the philosophy and theology of that great man, and his controversy with DEMETRIUS bishop of Alexandria, are treated of professedly and at large.

26

[b] ORIGEN, in his Stromata, book x. expresses himself in the following manner: "The source of many evils lies in adhering to the carnal or external part of scripture. Those "who do so, shall not attain to the kingdom of God. Let us, therefore, seek after the spirit and the substantial fruit

86

II!.

CENT. end here. He divided this bidden sense, which he PART II. pursued with such eagerness, into moral and mystical, or spiritual. The moral sense of scripture displays those doctrines that relate to the inward state of the soul, and the conduct of life. The mystical, or spiritual sense represents the nature, the laws, and the history, of the spiritual or mystical world. We are not yet at the end of the labyrinth; for he subdivided this mystical world of his own creation into two distinct regions, the one of which he called the superior, i. e. heaven; and the other the inferior, by which he meant the church. This led to another division of the mystical sense into an earthly, or allegorical sense, adapted to the inferior world, and a celestial or anagogetical one, adapted to the superior region. This chimerical method of explaining the scripture was, before ORIGEN, received by many Christians, who were deluded into it by the example of the Jews. But as this learned man reduced it into a system, and founded it upon fixed and determinate rules, he is, on that account, commonly considered as its principal author. VI. A prodigious number of interpreters, both terpreters. in this and the succeeding ages, followed the method of ORIGEN, though with some variations;

Other in

nor

"of the word, which are hidden and mysterious." And again: "The scriptures are of little use to those who under"stand them as they are written." One would think it impossible that such expressions should drop from the pen of a wise man. But the philosophy, which this great man embraced with such zeal, was one of the sources of his delusion. He could not find in the Bible the opinions he had adopted, as Jong as he interpreted that sacred book according to its literal sense. But PLATO, ARISTOTLE, ZENO, and, indeed, the whole philosophical tribe, could not fail to obtain, for their sentiments, a place in the gospel, when it was interpreted by the wanton inventions of fancy, and upon the supposition of a hidden sense, to which it was possible to give all sorts of forms. Hence all who desired to model Christianity according to their fancy, or their favourite system of philosophy, embraced ORIGEN's method of interpretation.