And

His good pleasure, from whom all things proceed. 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.

II. 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 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. Therefore, 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 felicity, until, 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 terrestrial men.

III. That the sol of Christ was united to the Word before the incarnation.†

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

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

For the Scriptures teach us, that the soul of the Messiah was created before the beginning of the world. See Phil. ii. 5, 6, 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. It 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 splendor and felicity.

IV. 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 all things best at first; and therefore, his recovery of us to our lost happiness (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.

V. 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 disparagement. Expiatory pains are a part of his adorable plan. For this sharper kind of favor 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 sensual 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 something 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 natures and substances, a central tendency towards himself, an essential principle of reunion to their great original.

VI. That the earth, after its conflagration, shall become habitable again, and be the mansion of men and other animals, and that in eternal vicissitudes.

For it is thus expressed in Isaiah: "Behold, I make new heavens and a new earth;" and in Heb. i. 10-12 "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth: As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." 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.

QUIETISTS.

THIS name has been generally applied to a class of enthusiasts, who conceive the great object of religion to be the absorption of all human sentiments and passions into devout contemplation and love of God. This idea has found its admirers and encomiasts in all ages. A sect called by this name (in Greek Hesychaste) existed among the religious of Mount Athos; and in the 17th century it was given in France to a peculiar class of devout persons with a tendency towards a higher spiritual devotion,

which seems to have arisen, in a great measure, out of a natural oposition to the hierarchical coldness and positive immorality of the Roman Catholic religion at that time, especially under the influence of the Jesuits.

A Spanish priest, Molinos, published at Rome a work entitled The Spiritual Guide (1657), of which the ardent language attracted a multitude of partisans. Its leading feature was the description of the happiness of a soul re- 1 posing in perfect quiet on God, so as to become conscious of his presence only, and untroubled by external things. He even advanced so far as to maintain that the soul, in its highest state of perfection, is removed even beyond the contemplation of God himself, and is solely occupied in the passive reception of divine influences. The work of Molinos was afterwards condemned on the application of the Jesuits.

Akin to the ideas of Molinos seems to have been those of the French Quietists, of whom Madame de la Motte Guyon and Fenelon are the most celebrated names. The former was at one time treated as insane, on account of some strange delusions which led her to represent herself (unless she was calumniated) as the mystical woman of the Apocalypse; at another she was admitted to the intimacy of Madame de Maintenon, and high in court favor. Fenelon praised her in his treatise Sur la Vie Interieure (1691), in which many of the most dangerous tenets of Quietism were contained. The writings of the latter upon this subject were finally condemned by Innocent XII; and the example of the Archbishop in submitting to the decision, and declaring himself satisfied and convinced by the opinion of the church, has been dwelt on by pious writers as a signal triumph of a truly religious mind.

The dissolute conduct of some hypocritical priests, under the pretence of inculcating the tenets and practice of Quietism, brought it eventually into disrepute more than the repeated condemnations of the head of the Roman Catholic church.

MANICHEISTS.

THESE were the followers of Manes, an Oriental heretic of the third century, who, having been ordained a Christian presbyter, attempted to effect a combination between. the religion which he was appointed to preach, and the current philosophical systems of the East. He pursued herein the same course as the Valentinians, Basilidians, and many others, whose leading ideas may be denominated Gnostic. He maintained a dualism of principles governing the world, and a succession of dualisms generated from them, like the Gnostic æons.

All things were effected by the combination or repulsion of the good and the bad; men had a double soul, good and evil; even their bodies were supposed to be formed, the upper half by God, the lower by the devil. The Old Testament was referred to the inspiration of the evil principle, the New to that of the good. In the latter, however, Manes proposed many alterations, and maintained also the authenticity of various apocryphal Scriptures. A great part of his system related to cosmogony and psychology, in which fields of speculation he expatiated with the most arbitrary freedom. Like most other Oriental systems, the Manichean heresy was celebrated alike for the austerities which it enjoined, and for the scandalous excesses which were attributed to its most zealous votaries. The charge of Manicheism, which in latter times becomes. scarcely intelligible, was frequently brought against the early reforming sects, such as the Albigenses, Waldenses, and Picards.

Manes commanded his followers to mortify and macerate the body, which he looked upon as essentially corrupt; to deprive it of all those objects which could contribute either to its convenience or delight; to extirpate all those desires which lead to the pursuit of external objects; and to divest themselves of all the passions and instincts of nature.