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SERMON V.

I COR. xii. 12.

As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: fo alfo is Chrift.

THE tenor of the Apostle's argument in this chapter is, that a diversity of spiritual gifts and functions among the feveral members of Chrift's Church is very confiftent with a general union of the whole body. The primitive Christians were careful to obferve in this refpect the Apoftolic model: herefies and fchifms were confined to few perfons; the main body of the Church held a cordial agreement upon fundamental points, in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bond of peace. Unfortunately in modern times there have been serious divifions in Chrift's flock, and controverfies concerning the respective claims of different focieties to a communion with those true and faithful fervants of our Lord, who conftitute what is emphatically termed the Church and body of Christ; which, he has promised, shall never

fail, in this world or in the world to come. With a view of deciding these controversies, the opinions of the primitive authors have been often adduced; and we fhall find the subject particularly illuftrated by St. Cyprian, whose writings, together with those of Origen, remain for our confideration. These two Fathers, the last in order of time, are probably the greateft luminaries of the Chriftian world, during the period to which our views are limited.

Origen was a pupil of Clement of Alexandria, and a prodigy of intellectual powers. Defervedly might the furname Adamantine be conferred on him, whofe life was a continual exertion of fortitude in voluntary poverty'; who, befides collating the original Scriptures, had the daily conduct of a catechetical school, and employed the pens of feven perfons to -write down the dictates of his exuberant mind. The fruit of his ftudies filled feveral thousand volumes or tracts; and St. Jerome, whom few have excelled in learning, afks the Prefbyters of his Church, "Who is there among you, that

can read as many works as he has compofed?" He was the only primitive writer of the times we are confidering, who was educated a Chriftian. His father fuffered martyrdom in the tenth year of the reign of Severus, A. D. 202. Origen, then in his seventeenth year, wrote a letter to comfort his father while

in prifon, of which this fentence, characteristic of the author's fortitude, only remains: “Take "heed, father, that for the fake of your fa"mily you do not change your mind." Tillemont obferves, it is worth many volumes. He himself manifefted unfhaken conftancy and zeal in the cause which he embraced; nor was his modefty lefs confpicuous, notwithstanding his great attainments, and that celebrity of reputation, which induced a Roman Empress and an Arabian Governor to defire a conference with him. Yet all thefe excellencies were fullied by an extravagance in theological opinions, totally incompatible with the fimplicity of Chriftian doctrine.

Origen's most voluminous compofition confifted of commentaries upon every book of Scripture; and his teftimony is juftly deemed of great importance in fupporting the prefent Canon of the New Teftament. Some of thefe remain in the original Greek, and are occa

a See Dr. Lardner's excellent remarks. Credibility, vol. ii. p. 521. and 543.

b His works were edited in two volumes, Rothomag. 1668. by the learned Huet, Bishop of Avranches, whose preliminary differtation upon Origen is one of the most laborious and ingenious pieces of criticism, which ever appeared on the fubject of the Fathers. He thinks that Origen, though he did not, like Arius, confider the Son as a creature, yet places him not on an equality with God the Father. Bishop Bull, with better reafon, defends the ge

fionally fo verbose, as to countenance the opinion that they were delivered extemporaneously. The Author proposes to elucidate Scripture in three ways, in the historical or literal fenfe, in a mystical, and, thirdly, in a moral fignification.

Our Author alfo compofed several treatises on philosophical subjects, the Stromata, which are loft, after the example of his preceptor Clement, and the design of which St. Jerome ftates to have been, a confirmation of Chriftianity from the writings of Plato and Aristotle, and other Greek philofophers. The Gofpel will not bear this mixture; and this is clearly Thewn in Origen's treatife weg apxwv, which is ftill extant in Rufinus's tranflation, and abounds in heterodox notions, chiefly derived from the writings of Plato. For instance, Origen fuppofes the nature of men, of angels, and of demons, to have been originally the fame; and that these different orders of beings have had affigned to them different fituations, on account of the extent of their obedience or difobedience to the laws of the Creator, the effect of their own free-will. He confiders the ftars to be animated, and peopled by fpinuine orthodoxy of this eminent Father, on the subject of the Trinity. See Huet. Origeniana, lib. ii. Quæft. fecunda, ∙S. 5, 24. et Quæft. tert. S. 24. et Bulli Opera, a Grabe, p. 105, 127, 273.

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Rufinus flourished A. D. 390.

rits, fuperior to those who inhabit this earth; and that the moft perfect being, the most attached to the Creator, is the foul of Jefus Christ, who suffered even for Angels and Demons. In his treatise on prayer, he recommends that prayer should be offered only to God the Father, and not to the Son. In his Philocalia, cap. 21. he feems to think that human endeavours, without divine grace, may attain goodness: and his commentaries on the first chapter of St. John's Gospel are not always in orthodox language.

In defence of Origen it is urged, that he brings forward these opinions, not as his own real fentiments, but by way of stating what others have faid; that he writes in a figurative and allegorical ftyle; and that many of his works now exift only in a spurious state or in

d S. 50, 51, 52. Huetius confiders all the errors of Origen to have flowed from these two fources; a belief in the preexistence of fouls before this mortal state, and latitudinarian notions of human liberty, which militate against the doctrines of original fin and free grace. Erasmus thinks that Origen was feduced from orthodoxy by a fondness for Plato's writings: Bishop Bull, that he indulged his inquifitive spirit to wantonnefs. Op. Bulli, p. 127. The Philocalia was a collection from Origen's writings made by St. Bafil and St. Gregory. Fleury, tom. ii. p. 105. juftly fays, that Origen establishes free-will folidly upon the foundations of reason and Scripture, but pushes the confequences too far, in fuppofing the inequality of men to be the effect of merit on their part.

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