time upon earth, to answer the ends of his CHAP. miffion. His apoftles and difciples, ani- I. mated with the fame zeal, continued to preach the fame doctrines of mental purity and abftraction, in defiance of the oppofition, that they every where encountered from the wretched tools of the Prince of darkness. Hence arofe bloody perfecutions, which nevertheless were entirely disregarded by the true convert; because, though they might injure his contemptible and material part, yet they tended only to refine and purify his foul, rendering it more fit to be received into the fulness of God. The natural confequence of these fantaftic and impious tenets, was the entire rejection of the Old Testament; not indeed fo much as an impofture of human contrivance, but as being the invention of their profeffed enemy, the author of evil, and as tending therefore to reduce the foul under the dominion of corrupt matter. They likewife were obliged to reject all thofe parts of the Gofpel, which contradicted this prepofterous doctrine, as if they were only traps laid, to infnare their faith, S. Aug. Conf. lib. v. & Iren. lib. iii. c. 12. by SECT. by the cunning of the Prince of darkness *. I. In order to preferve confiftency in their notions, they traduced the most illuftrious perfonages that flourished under the Law'; while they confidered with the highest degree of veneration those characters, whom the Old Teftament reprobates as abominable. Thus the ferpent, that feduced Eve, was a benignant fpirit, whose only aim was to free our firft parents from the tyranny of the Prince of darkness. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who oppofed Mofes the inftrument of the God of the Jews, and perifhed in confequence of it, were courageous affertors of the truth, and martyrs in the cause of virtue. Nay, even the most abandoned and profligate characters recorded in Scripture", fome of whom suffered a dreadful and exemplary punishment", were extolled by this perverfe and wrong-headed fect, as mirrors of goodness, and patterns fit for imitation °. k Iren. lib. i. c. 29. 1 S. Aug. Conf. lib. iii. m Iren. lib. i. c. 29. Gen. xix. 24. • Notwithstanding the vaunted fpirituality of their doctrines, many of these heretics, acting up to this idea, were immerfed in the groffeft profligacy of manners; a melan choly There are the principal outlines of Gno- CHAP. sticism, or Christianity, if it can be called Ι. by that holy and reverend name, adapted to the vagaries of the Oriental philosophy. Some of the features did indeed occafionally vary, according to the depraved fancy and vain imagination of different herefiarchs, who started up during the two or three first centuries after Chrift, but the substance remained nearly unaltered. Truth alone can boast of abfolute unity; error is ever various and changeable". σε choly proof of the tendency of human nature to evil, when it fets up its own fpeculations above Scripture. Εισιν δ ̓ οἱ την πανδημον Αφροδίτην κοινωνίαν μυσικην αναγορευεσιν-φασι γ' εν τινα αυτών, ημετέρα παρθένω, ωραία την οψιν, προσελθοντα φαναι, Γεγραπίαι, Πανι τω αλλυντι διδε. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. iii. Theodoret likewise reprobates in ftrong terms their abominable corruptions. Την δε και νενομοθετημένην παρ' αυτών και πραττομενην λαγνειαν, εδε των εν σκηνῃ τις τεθραμμένων ανασχοιτ' αν η φράσαι, η λεγοντων αλλων ακεσαι τοσετον απολείπει και τους επίσημους της ασελγειας εργατας. Hæret. Fab. Ded. The impurities of this detestable sect are detailed with so disgusting an accuracy by Epiphanius, that I refrain from quoting his words. PA more particular account of this fect may be found in Epiphanius, under its various branches and denominations, for the word Gnoftic is a generic term. Και παντες Γνωσικές ἑαυτες ωνόμασαν, Ουαλεντινος τε, φημι, και οἱ προ αυτε Γνωςικοι. Αλλα και Βασιλείδης, και Σατορνιλος, και Κολοβασος, Πτολεμαίος τε και Σεκενδος, Καρποκρας, και άλλοι πλείους. EPIPH. adv. Hæref. lib. i. See alfo Iren. lib. i. paffim. SECT. 1. 2. 2. Cerinthus fupposed, that the God of the Jews was not the eternal and independent principle of evil, but a created Cerinthus. being, who, although the Author of the univerfe, was at the fame time ignorant of his own origin. The Almighty fent Chrift to rescue mankind, and especially the Jews, from his tyranny. This celeftial being, defcending in the form of a dove, chose for his mortal habitation the person of Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, a Jew eminent for his piety, and the devotion, to which he had elevated his foul, by abftracting it from the taint of malignant matter. The God of the Jews, enraged at the doctrines which he taught, as tending to fubvert his empire, stirred up the rulers against him, who, in conjunction with the Roman power, crucified him. Then it was that the celeftial Spirit quitted its temporary abode, and returned into the bofom of God, while the man Jefus alone was left to fuffer a painful and ignominious death. Notwithstanding the low opinion, which Cerinthus entertained of the God of the Jews, yet he prefcribed to his followers the obfervance of part of the Mofaical Law; herein differing most abfurdly from the other Gnoftics, who at least had the the merit of being confiftent in error, how- CHAP. ever grofs might be their mistakes. 3. Manes, who flourished in the third century, mixed the philofophical fpeculation of the doctrine of two principles, with the Persian theology of a middle God. That character he applied to Christ, and adopted, in addition to his other opinions, the tenets which the Mithratic mysteries taught respecting a purification, to be obtained only by the tranfmigration of fouls, and by their fuffering the pains of two fucceffive purgatories of water and fire'. Theodoret. Hæret. Fab. lib. ii. c. 3.-Epiph. adv. Hæret. lib. i.-Eufeb. Hift. Ecclef. lib. iii. c. 28.-Iren. lib. i. c. 25. * The Eleufinian mysteries, in which these doctrines were maintained, appear to have been much the fame as the Mithratic. See Porphyr. de Antro Nympharum, and Warburton's Divine Legation, b. ii. fect. 4. According to the latter of thefe Authors, the fixth book of the Æneid contains a poetical delineation of them. There is certainly one paffage, which fingularly agrees with the Manichean notion of penance. "Aliis fub gurgite vasto Æneid. lib. vi. ver. 741. It is not improbable, that the notion of a kind of purgatory after death, equally adopted by the ancient Perfians, Manicheans, and Papists, may have been derived from Hindoftan. In the Inftitutes of Menu, the foul is faid to fuffer torments after VOL. II. C I. 3. Manes. |