state, while their main object, according to the Abbé Barruel, was to subvert christianity, by circulating the writings of Voltaire, Diderot, and other infidels.

France, and its chief object was neither learning nor theology;"-but to cultivate the virtues of the ecclesiastical life."+

OPHIANS, OPHITES, or SERPENTARIANS, seems to be the name of several sects, so called from their reverence, and in many cases worship, of the serpent. Mr. Bryant thinks this almost universally prevailed in the heathen world, and names many countries which adopted it, particularly Egypt.* The cause seems to have had its origin in the opinion, that the serpent was "more subtle than any other beast of the field." It is not difficult to account, therefore, for the serpent's being an early emblem of wisdom.

There were also Ophites who were a sort of mongrel christians, and perhaps revered the serpent as a type of Christ, as the brazen serpent is still considered. (John iii. 14, 16.) The Ophites are considered by many authors, as a kind of Gnostics. *ORATORY, priests of the. There were two religious congregations which assumed this name; the one founded in Italy by Philip de Neri in 1548; who also founded an hospital for pilgrims to Rome so large that in the year 1600, it lodged successively 470,000 persons. The other, called "the oratory of Jesus," was founded in

* Holwell's Mytholog. Diet: p.803. # Scotch Theolog. Dict.

ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY. The oriental philosophers endeavoured to explain the nature and origin of all things, by the principle of emanation from an eternal fountain of being. The formation of this philosophy into a regular system has been attributed to Zoroaster, an ancient Persian philosopher, who adopted the principle, generally held by the ancients, that "from nothing nothing can be produced." He supposed spirit and matter, light and darkness, to be emanations from one eternal source.

The active and passive principles he conceived to be perpetually at variance; the former tending to produce good, the latter, evil: but that through the intervention of the supreme Being the contest would at last terminate in favour of the good principle. According to Zoroaster, various orders of spiritual beings, gods, or demons, have proceeded from the Deity, which are more or less perfect, as they are at a greater or less distance, in the course of emanation, from the eternal fountain of intelligence; among those, the human soul is a particle of divine light, which will return to its source and partake of its immortality: and matter

† Lardner's Heretics, p. 352:

is the last, or most distant emanation from the first source of being, which, on account of its distance from the fountain of light, becomes opaque and inert, and whilst it remains in that state is the cause of evil : but, being gradually refined, it will at last return to the fountain from whence it flowed.*

ORIGENISTS, a denomination in the third century, who derived their opinions from Origen, a very learned presbyter of Alexandria, and a man of uncommon abilities, who interpreted the divine truths of religion according to the tenour of the Platonic philosophy. He pretended that many evils arise from adhering to the literal and external part of scripture; and that the true meaning of the sacred writers was to be sought in a mysterious and hidden

III. That the soul of Christ was created before the beginning of the world, and united to the divine word in a state of pristine glory. See Phil. ii. 5-7. This text, he thought, 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 splendour and felicity. See Pre-existents.

IV. That at the resurrection mankind will be again clothed with ethereal bodies. For the elements of our terrestrial composition are such as most 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 good at first; and therefore his recovery of us to our lost happiness (which is the design of the gospel) must restore us to far better

* Enfield

bodies and happier habitations; which is evident from 1 Cor. xv. 42. 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. 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 created spirits are emanations from God, and as self-existent power must needs subject all beings to itself, the Deity could not but impress upon the souls of men a central tendency towards himself an essential principle of re-union to their great original.

conflagration shall become habitable again, and be the mansion of men and other animals, and that in eternal vicissitudes. Heb. i. 10-12, where speaking both of the heavens and earth, the inspired writer says, "as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed," &c. 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.* See Millenarians.

Origen is also charged with Arianism. See Arians.

*ORTHODOX, sound in the faith; a term generally applied by the established church in every age and country to its own creed; and denied to all doctrinal dissenters from it.

OSIANDRIANS, a denomination among the Lutherans, founded in 1550, by Andrew Osiander, a celebrated German divine, of high Calvinistic principles, similar to Crisp, Hussey, and others, charged with leaning to Antinomianism. One of his positions was-that believers being made partakers of Christ's divine righteousness by faith, God can behold no sin in them, though in themselves the chief of sinners.†

OSSENIANS, or OssENs.

*PAGANS, heathens, and particularly those who worship idols. The term came into use after the establishment of christianity; the cities and great towns affording the first converts, the heathens were called Pagans, (from Pagus, a Village,) because they were then found chiefly in remote country places; but we use the term commonly for all who do not receive the Jewish, Christian, or Mahometan religions. The Pagans may be divided into the following classes

I. The Greeks and Romans, and others who admit their refined system of mythology.

II. The more ancient nations, as the Chaldeans, Phenicians, Sabians, &c.

III. The Chinese, Hindoos, Japanese, &c.

IV. The Barbarians, as the Indians of North and South America, and the Negroes of Africa.

The objects of worship among the Pagans are various and diverse, as 1. The heavenly bodies, and particularly the Sun and Moon. 2. Imaginary beings, as Demons, Genii, &c. 3. The spirits of departed princes, heroes, and philosophers: or, lastly, almost every object of the animate and inanimate creation. The more refined, indeed considered animals or

images as only the representa-⚫ tions of their gods, who were supposed to reside in them; or as the medium of their worship. But the vulgar, the multitude, looked no farther than the material images: " and it must be remarked, that however high they might look, if not to the great Supreme, they were equally idolaters, whether they worshipped the sun, or Apollo, or a departed ghost; or an ox, a tree, or a stone.”

The rites of Paganism were as various as the objects of their worship. In general they had some idea of the necessity of an atonement for their sins, and that" without shedding of blood there is no remission;" in many cases, and on all emergencies, they were apprehensive that the sacrifice must be of equal dignity with the sinner; and hence among many nations both ancient and modern, from the worshippers of Moloch, to the South-sea Islanders, the practice (sometimes carried to great enormity) of human sacrifices, which have stained the altars of almost all the nations upon the earth.*

The peculiarities of many nations have been already noticed in these pages, and others are to follow. See the articles Celts, Chinese, Druids, Gaurs, Grecians, Egyptians, Hindoos,