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PART II.

"inhabitants of the lowest heavens, which CENT. "touched upon the borders of the eternal, malignant, and self-animated matter, conceived the design of forming a world from that con"fused mass, and of creating an order of beings "to people it. This design was carried into "execution, and was approved by the Supreme "God, who, to the animal life, with which only "the inhabitants of this new world were at first "endowed, added a reasonable soul, giving, at "the same time, to the angels, the empire over "them."

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XII. "These angelic beings, advanced to the The enorgovernment of the world which they had created, mous errors "fell, by degrees, from their original purity, and system. "manifested soon the fatal marks of their depra

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vity and corruption. They not only endea"voured to efface in the minds of men the knowledge of the Supreme Being, that they might "be worshipped in his stead, but also began to "war against one another, with an ambitious "view to enlarge, every one, the bounds of his respective dominion. The most arrogant and "turbulent of all these angelic spirits, was that "which presided over the Jewish nation. Hence "the Supreme God, beholding with compassion "the miserable state of rational beings, who groaned under the contests of these jarring powers, sent from heaven his son Nus, or "Christ, the chief of the cons, that, joined in "a substantial union with the man Jesus, he might restore the knowledge of the Supreme God, destroy the empire of those angelic na

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VOL. I.

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venturers. Here, however, this learned man seems to go too far, since he himself acknowledges (p. 225.) that he had some times found, on these gems, vestiges of the errors of Basilides. These famous monuments stand yet in need of an interpreter, but of such an one as can join circumspection to diligence and erudition.

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tures which presided over the world, and particularly that of the arrogant leader of the JewPART II." ish people. The god of the Jews, alarmed at "this, sent forth his ministers to seize the man Jesus, and put him to death. They executed "his commands, but their cruelty could not "extend to Christ, against whom their efforts "were vain [s]. Those souls, who obey the precepts of the Son of God, shall, after the dissolu❝tion of their mortal frame, ascend to the Father, "while their bodies return to the corrupt mass of "matter from whence they were formed. Diso"bedient spirits, on the contrary, shall pass successively into other bodies."

The moral

doctrine of

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XIII. The doctrine of Basilides, in point of Basilides morals, if we may credit the account of most ancient writers, was favourable to the lusts and passions of mankind, and permitted the practice of all sorts of wickedness. But those whose testimonies are the most worthy of regard, give a quite different account of this teacher, and represent him as recommending the practice of virtue and piety in the strongest manner, and as having condemned not only the actual commission of iniquity, but even every inward propensity of the mind to a vicious conduct. It is true, there were, in his precepts relating to the conduct of life, some things which gave great offence to all true Christians. For he affirmed it to be lawful for them to conceal their religion, to deny Christ, when their lives

were

[s] Many of the ancients have, upon the authority of Irenæus, accused Basilides of denying the reality of Christ's body, and of maintaining that Simon the Cyrenian was crucified in his stead. But this accusation is entirely groundless, as may be seen by consulting the Commentar. de rebus. Christian. ante Constant. p. 354, &c. &c. where it is demonstrated, that Basilides considered the divine Saviour as compounded of the man Jesus, and Christ the Son of God. It may be, indeed, that some of the disciples of Basilides entertained the opinion that is here unjustly attributed to their master.

PART II.

were in danger, and to partake of the feasts of CENT. the Gentiles that were instituted in consequence II. of the sacrifices offered to idols. He endeavoured also to diminish the glory of those who suffered martyrdom for the cause of Christ; impiously maintained, that they were more heinous sinners than others, and that their sufferings were to be looked upon as a punishment inflicted upon them by the divine justice. Though he was led into this enormous error, by an absurd notion that all the calamities of this life were of a penal nature, and that men never suffered but in consequence of their iniquities, yet this rendered his principles greatly suspected, and the irregular lives of some of his disciples seemed to justify the unfavourable opinion that was entertained concerning their master [t].

XIV. But whatever may be said of Basilides, Carpoit is certain, that he was far surpassed in impiety c by Carpocrates, who was also of Alexandria, and who carried the Gnostic blasphemies to a more enormous degree of extravagance than they had ever been brought by any of that sect. His philosophical tenets agree, in general, with those of the Egyptian Gnostics. He acknowledged the existence of a Supreme God, and of the cons derived from him by successive generations. He maintained the eternity of a corrupt matter, and the creation of the world from thence by angelic powers, as also the divine origin of souls unhappily imprisoned in mortal bodies, &c. But, beside these, he propagated other sentiments and maxims of a horrid kind. He asserted, that Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary, according to the ordinary course of nature, and was distinguished from the Q 2

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[] For a farther account of Basilides, the reader may consult Ren, Massuet, Dissert. in Irenæum, and Beausobre, Hist. du Municheisme, vol. ii. p. 8.

PART II.

CENT. rest of mankind by nothing but his superior fortiII. tude and greatness of soul. His doctrine, also, with respect to practice, was licentious in the highest degree; for he not only allowed his disciples a full liberty to sin, but recommended to them a vicious course of life, as a matter both of obligation and necessity; asserting, that eternal salvation was only attainable by those who had committed all sorts of crimes, and had daringly filled up the measure of iniquity. It is almost incredible, that one who maintained the existence of a Supreme Being, who acknowledged Christ as the Saviour of mankind, could entertain such monstrous opinions as these. One would infer, indeed, from certain tenets of tenets of Carpocrates, that he adopted the common doctrine of the Gnostics concerning Christ, and acknowledged also the laws which this divine Saviour imposed upon his disciples. But, notwithstanding this, it is beyond all doubt, that the precepts and opinions of this Gnostic are full of impiety; since he held, that lusts and passions, being implanted in our nature by God himself, were consequently void of guilt, and had nothing criminal in them; that all actions were indifferent in their own nature, and were rendered good or evil only by the opinions of men, or by the laws of the state; that it was the will of God, that all things should be possessed in common, the female sect not excepted; but that human laws, by an arbitrary tyranny, branded those as robbers and adulterers, who only used their natural rights. It is easy to perceive, that by these tenets, all the principles of virtue were destroyed, and a door opened to the most horrid licentiousness, and to the most profligate and enormous wickedness [u].

XV. Va

[u] See Iren. Contra Hæres. cap. xxv. Stromata. lib. iii. p. 511.

Clemens Alex.

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Valentine.

XV. Valentine, who was likewise an Egyp- CENT. tian by birth, was eminently distinguished from all his brethren by the extent of his fame, and the multitude of his followers. His sect, which took rise at Rome, grew up to a state of consistence and vigour in the isle of Cyprus, and spread itself through Asia, Africa and Europe, with an amazing rapidity. The principles of Valentine were, generally speaking, the same with those of the Gnostics, whose name he assumed, yet in many things he entertained opinions that were particular to himself." He placed, for instance, in the pleroma (so the Gnostics called the habitation "of the Deity) thirty cons, of which the one half "were male and the other female. To these he "added four others, which were of neither sex, "viz. Horus, who guarded the borders of the pleroma, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and Jesus, The youngest of the cons, called Sophia (i. e. wisdom,) conceived an ardent desire of comprehending the nature of the Supreme Being, and, by the force of this propensity, brought "forth a daughter, named Achamoth. Achamoth being exiled from the pleroma, fell down into the rude and undigested mass of matter, to which she gave a certain arrangement; and, by the assistance of Jesus, produced the demiurge, the lord and creator of all things. This "demiurge separated the subtle, or animal matter, from that of the grosser, or more terrestrial "kind; out of the former he created the superior world, or the visible heavens; and out of the latter he formed the inferior world, or this "terraqueous globe. He also made man, in "whose composition the subtle, and also the grosser matter were both united, and that in equal portions; but Achamoth, the mother of "demiurge, added to these two substances, of which the human race was formed, a spiritual

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