Note 282 — LECTURE VI. The Lines of Development of Primitive Religions.

This explains what Dr. Robertson Smith, in his Religion of the Semites, p. 140, says is so difficult to grasp,—that the primitive idea of holiness is apart from personal character, and even shameful wretches could lay claim to it. Entirely parallel instances are found in the history of Christian heresies, as the Anomians and Anabaptists, who were so holy that they could commit no sin, and hence allowed themselves the wildest licence.