By the comets who were cast
From their pride and from their throne
To be drudges till the last –
To be carriers of fire
(The red fire of their heart)
With speed that may not tire
And with pain that shall not part –
Who livest – that we know –
In Eternity – we feel –
But the shadow of whose brow
What spirit shall reveal?
Tho' the beings whom thy Nesace,
Thy messenger, hath known
Have dream'd for thy Infinity
[1]A model of their own –
- ↑ 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. 1, 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. Audeus, a Syrian of Messopotamia, was condemned for the opinion, as heretical. He lived in the beginning of the 4th century. His disciples were called Anthropomorphites. — Vide Du Pin.Among Milton's 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 Cæcius lumen dedit
Dircæus augur vidit hunc alto sinu, &c.
