Note 12 — PART I.
Reading edition
P. 155. A model of their own.
The Humanitarians held that God was to be understood as having really a human form.—Vide Clarke’s Sermons, vol. i. page 26, fol. edit.
The drift of Milton’s argument leads him to employ language which would appear, at first sight, to verge upon their doctrine; but it will be seen immediately, that he guards himself against the charge of having adopted one of the most ignorant errors of the dark ages of the Church.—Dr. Sumner’s Notes on Milton’s Christian Doctrine.
This opinion, in spite of many testimonies to the contrary, could never have been very general. Andeus, a Syrian of Mesopotamia, was condemned for the opinion, as heretical. He lived in the beginning of the fourth century. His disciples were called Anthropomorphites.—Vide Du Pin.
Among Milton’s minor poems are these lines:—
“Dicite sacrorum præsides nemorum Deæ, &c. Quis ille primus cujus ex imagine Natura solers finxit humanum genus? Eternus, incorruptus, æquævus polo, Unusque et universus exemplar Dei.”
And afterwards,—
“Non cui profundum Cæcitas lumen dedit Dircæus augur vidit hunc alto sinu,” &c.