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PART II.

most powerful of the divine cons; that another CENT. con of the female sex, the mother of all human souls, dwelt in the person of his mistress Helena [b], and that he came, by the command of God upon earth, to abolish the empire of those that had formed this material world, and to deliver Helena from their power and dominion.

XIV. Another wrong-headed teacher, named Menander. Menander, a Samaritan also by birth, appeared in this century. He is said to have been instructed by Simon; though this opinion has no other foundation than the general notion, that all the various sects of the Gnostics derived their origin from that magician; and this notion is entirely groundless. Be that as it will, Menander should rather be ranked with the lunatics, than with the heretics of antiquity, seeing he also took it into his head to exhibit himself to the world as the promised Saviour. For it appears, by the testimonies of Irenæus, Justin, and Tertullian, that he pretended to be one of the cons, sent from the pleroma, or celestial regions, to succour the souls that lay groaning under bodily oppression and servitude, and to maintain them against the violence and stratagems of the dæmons that hold the reins of empire in this sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon the same foundation with that of Simon Magus, therefore the ancient writers looked upon him as the instructor of Menander.

XV. If then we separate these three persons Nicolaitans. now successively mentioned, from the heretics of the first century, we may rank among the chief of the Christian sectaries, and particularly of those

that

[6] Some very learned men have given an allegorical explication of what the ancient writers say concerning Helena, the ministers of this magician, and imagine, that by the name Helena, is signified, either matter, or spirit. But nothing is more easy than to shew upon what slight foundations this opinion is built.

PART II.

CENT. that bear the general name of Gnostics, the NicoI. laitans, whom Christ himself mentions with abhorrence by the mouth of his apostle [c]. It is true, indeed, that the divine Saviour does not reproach them with erroneous opinions concerning the deity, but with the licentiousness of their practice, and the contempt of that solemn law which the apostles had enacted (Acts xv. 29.) against fornication, and the use of meats offered to idols. It is, however, certain, that the writers of the second and the following centuries, Irenæus, Tertullian, Clemens, and others, affirm, that the Nicolaitans adopted the sentiments of the Gnostics concerning the two principles of all things, the cons, and the origin of this terrestrial globe. The authority of these writers would be entirely satisfactory in this matter, were there not some reason to imagine, that they confounded, in their narrations, two sects very different from each other; that of the Nicolaitans, mentioned in the Revelations; and another, founded by a certain Nicolaus, in the second century, upon the principles of the Gnostics. But this is a matter of too doubtful a nature to justify a positive decision on either side.

Cerinthus,

rinthians.

XVI. There is no sort of doubt, but that Ceand the Ce-rinthus may be placed with propriety among the Gnostics, though the learned are not entirely agreed whether he belongs to the heretics of the first or the second century [d]. This man was by birth a Jew, and having applied himself to letters and philosophy at Alexandria [e], attempted, at length, to form a new and singular system of doc

[c] Rev. ii. 6, 14, 15.

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[d] See Sam. Basnage, Annal. Polit. Eccles. tom. ii. p. Faydit, Eclaircissemens sur l'Histoire Eccles. de deux premiers Siecles, cap. v. p. 64. The opinion of these two learned men is opposed by Buddeus, De Eccles. Apostolica, cap. v. p. 412. [e] Theodoret. Fabul. Hæret. lib. ii. cap. iii. p. 219. tom. iii. opp.

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PART II.

trine and discipline by a monstrous combination CENT. of the doctrines of Christ, with the opinions and errors of the Jews and Gnostics. From the latter he borrowed their pleroma, their cons, their demiurge, &c. and so modified and tempered these fictions, as to give them an air of Judaism, which must have considerably favoured the progress of his heresy. He taught "that the Creator of this world, whom he considered also as the sove"reign and lawgiver of the Jewish people, was a being endowed with the greatest virtues, and "derived his birth from the Supreme God; that "this being fell, by degrees, from his native virtue, and his primitive dignity; that the Supreme God, in consequence of this, determined to destroy his empire, and sent upon earth, for this purpose, one of the ever happy and glorious "cons, whose name was Christ, that this Christ "chose for his habitation the person of Jesus, a "man of the most illustrious sanctity and justice, "the son of Joseph and Mary, and descending "in the form of a dove, entered into him while "he was receiving the baptism of John in the "waters of Jordan; that Jesus, after his union with Christ, opposed himself with vigour to the "God of the Jews, and was, by his instigation, "seized and crucified by the Hebrew chiefs; that "when Jesus was taken captive, Christ ascended up on high, so that the man Jesus alone was

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subjected to the pains of an ignominious death." Cerinthus required of his followers, that they should worship the Father of Christ, even the Supreme God, in conjunction with the Son; that they should abandon the law-giver of the Jews, whom he looked upon as the Creator of the world; that they should retain a part of the law given by Moses, but should, nevertheless, employ their principal attention and care to regulate their lives by the precepts of Christ. To encourage them

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PART II.

CENT. to this, he promised them the resurrection of this mortal body, after which was to commence a scene of the most exquisite delights, during Christ's earthly reign of a thousand years, which was to be succeeded by an happy and never ending life in the celestial world. For Cerinthus held, that Christ will one day return upon earth, and, renewing his former union with the man Jesus, will reign with his people in the land of Palestine during a thousand years.

The Nazarenes and Ebionites

XVII. It has been already observed, that the church was troubled with early disputes concernproperly ing the law of Moses, and the Jewish rites. belong to thend Those, however, who considered the observance century. of the Mosaic rites as necessary to salvation, had

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not, in this first century, proceeded so far as to break off all communion with such as differed from them in this matter. Therefore they were still regarded as brethren, though of the weaker sort. But when, after the second destruction of Jerusalem, under the emperor Adrian, these zealots for the Jewish rites deserted the ordinary assemblies of Christians, and established separate meetings among themselves, when they were numbered with those sects who had departed from the pure doctrine of Christ. Hence the name Nazarenes and Ebionites, by which the judaizing Christians were distinguished from those who looked upon the Mosaic worship and ceremonies as entirely abolished by the appearance of Christ upon earth. We shall only observe further under this head, that, though the Nazarenes and Ebionites are generally placed among the sects of the apostolic age, yet they really belong to the second century, which was the earliest period of their existence as a sect.

THE

SECOND CENTURY.

PART I.

The EXTERNAL HISTORY of the CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the prosperous events that happened to the church during this century.

I. IN this century, the Roman sceptre was, for CENT.

II.

PART I.

the most part, swayed by princes of a mild and moderate turn. Trajan, though too eagerly bent upon the pursuit of glory, and not always The state sufficiently attentive to his conduct, nor prudent of the rein his measures, was nevertheless endowed with public. many virtues, and the predominant lines of his character were clemency and benevolence. Adrian was of a more harsh and untractable temper; yet very far from deserving the reputation of a wicked or unjust prince. He was of a mixed character, chargeable with several vices, and estimable on account of many excellent qualities. The Antonines were illustrious models of humanity, goodness, and sublime virtue. Severus himself, in whose character and disposition such an unexpected and disadvantageous change was effected, was, in the beginning of his reign, unjust towards none, and even the Christians were treated by him with equity and mildness. II. This

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