CENT. II. PART II. His idle dreams. "and celestial substance." This is the sum of that intricate and tedious fable, that the extravagant brain of Valentine imposed upon the world for a system of religious philosophy; and from this it appears, that, though he explained the origin of the world, and of the human race in a more subtle manner than the other Gnostics, yet he did not differ from them in reality. His imagination was more wild and inventive than that of his brethren; and this is manifest in the whole of his doctrine, which is no more than Gnosticism, set out with some supernumerary fringes, as will further appear from what follows. XVI. "The creator of this world, according to "Valentine, arrived, by degrees, to that pitch "of arrogance, that he either imagined himself "to be God alone, or, at least, was desirous that "mankind should consider him as such. For this purpose, he sent forth prophets to the Jewish "nation, to declare his claim to the honour that "is due to the Supreme Being, and in this also "the other angels that preside over the different 66 66 parts of the universe immediately set them"selves to imitate his ambition. To chastise this "lawless arrogance of demiurge, and to illuminate "the minds of rational beings with the knowledge "of the true and Supreme Deity, Christ appeared 66 66 66 upon earth, composed of an animal and spi"ritual substance, and clothed, moreover, with "an ærial body. This Redeemer, in descending upon earth, passed through the womb of Mary, as the pure water flows through the untainted "conduit. Jesus, one of the supreme cons, was substantially united to him, when he was baptized by John in the waters of Jordan. "The creator of this world, when he perceived "that the foundations of his empire were shaken by this divine man, caused him to be appre"hended and nailed to the cross. But be 66 66 "fore 46 66 66 46 46 II. PART II. "fore Christ submitted to this punishment, not CENT. only Jesus the Son of God, but also the ra❝tional soul of Christ ascended up on high, so that only the animal soul and the etherial 'body suffered crucifixion. Those who, abandoning the service of false deities, and the worship of the God of the Jews, live according to "the precepts of Christ, and submit the ani"mal and sensual soul to the discipline of reason, "shall be truly happy; their rational, and also their "sensual souls shall ascend to those glorious seats "of bliss which border on the pleroma; and when "all the parts of the divine nature, or all souls are purified thoroughly, and separated from matter, "then a raging fire, let loose from its prison, shall spread its flames throughout the universe, and "dissolve the frame of this corporeal world." Such is the doctrine of Valentine and the Gnostics; such also are the tenets of the oriental philosophy, and they may be summed up in the following propositions; This world is a compound of good and evil. Whatever is good in it, comes down from the Supreme God, the Father of lights, and to him it shall return: and then the world shall be entirely destroyed [w]. 46 66 Q 4 XVII. [w] It is proper to observe, for the information of those who desire a more copious account of the Valentinian heresy, that almost all the ancient writers have written upon this subject, especially Irenæus, Libro primo contra Hæres. Tertullian, in a particular treatise upon that matter; Clemens Alex. &c. Among the moderns, see Jo. Franc. Buddæus, Dissert. de hæresi Valentiniana, in his introduction to his history of the Hebrew philosophers, which dissertation gave occasion to many disputes concerning the origin of this heresy. Some of the moderns have endeavoured to reconcile, with reason, this obscure and absurd doctrine of the Valentinians. See, for this purpose, the following authors: Souverain Platonisme devoilé, chap. viii. p. 68. Camp. Vitringa, Observ. Sacr. lib. i. cap. ii. p. 131. Beausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme, p. 548. Jac. Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. iii. p. 729. Petr. Faydit, Eclaircissemens sur l'Hist. Ecclesiast. des deux premiers, CENT. Various ans. The great er. XVII. We learn from ancient writers, that the sect of the Valentinians was divided into many PART II. branches. One of these was the sect of the Ptolemaites, so called from their chief Ptolemy, sects of the Who differed in opinion from his master ValenValentini- tine, with respect both to the number and nature of the cons. Another of these was the sect of the Secundians, whose chief, Secundus, one of the principal followers of Valentine, maintained the doctrine of two eternal principles, viz. light and darkness, from whence arose the good and the evil that are observable in the universe. From the same source arose the sect of Heracleon, from whose writings Clemens and Origen have made many extracts; as also that of the Marcosians, whose leaders, Marc and Colobarsus, added many absurd fictions to those of Valentine; though it is certain, at the same time, that many errors were attributed to them, which they did not maintain [x]. I omit the mention of some other sects, to which the Valentinian heresy is said to have given rise. Whether, in reality they all sprung from this source, is a question of a very doubtful kind, especially if we consider the errors into which the ancients have fallen, in tracing out the origin of the various sects which divided the church [y]. XVIII. premiers Siecles. How vain all such endeavours are, might easily be shewn; nay, Valentine himself has determined the matter, by acknowledging that his doctrine is absolutely and entirely different from that of other Christians. [x] Marc did not certainly entertain all the opinions that are attributed to him. Those, however, which we are certain, that he adopted, are sufficient to convince us that he was out of his senses. He maintained, among other crude fancies, that the plenitude and perfection of truth resided in the Greek alphabet; and alleges that as the reason why Jesus Christ was called the Alpha and the Omega. [y] Concerning these sects, the reader will find something fuller in Irenæus, and the other ancient writers; and a yet more learned and satisfactory account in Grabe's Spicilegium Patr. II. The less XVIII. It is not necessary to take any particu- CENT. lar notice of the more obscure and less considerable of the Gnostic sects, of which the ancient PART II. writers scarcely mention any thing but the name, and one or two of their distinguishing tenets. considerSuch were the Adamites, who are said to have able. professed an exact imitation of the primitive state of innocence; the Cainites, who treated as saints, with the utmost marks of admiration and respect, Cain, Cora, Dathan, the inhabitants of Sodom, and even the traitor Judas. Such also were the Abelites, who entered into the bonds of matrimony, but neglected to fulfil its principal end, even the procreation of offspring; the Sethites, who honoured Seth in a particular manner, and looked upon him as the same person with Christ; the Florinians, who had Florinus and Blastus for their chiefs [*], and several others. It is highly probable that the ancient doctors, deceived by the variety of names that distinguished the hereties, may with too much precipitation have divided one sect into many; nay, it may be further questioned, whether they have, at all times, represented accurately the nature and true meaning of several opinions concerning which they have written. XIX. The Ophites, or Serpentinians, a ridicu- Ophites lous sort of heretics, who had for their leader a man called Euphrates, deserve not the lowest place among the Egyptian Gnostics. This sect which had its origin among the Jews, was of a more Patr. et Hæreticor. sect. 2. p. 69. 82. There is an ample account of the Marcossians in Irenæus, Contr. Hær. lib. i. cap. xiv. p. 70. [*] Here Dr. Mosheim has fallen into a slight inaccuracy in confounding the opinions of these two heretics; since it is certain, that Blastus was for restoring the Jewish religion, and celebrated the passover on the fourteenth day; whereas Florinus was a Valentinian, and maintained the doctrine of the two principles, with other Gnostic errors, II. CENT. more ancient date than the Christian religion. A part of its followers embraced the gospel, while the PART II. other retained their primitive superstition, and from Monarchi tropassians. hence arose the division of the Ophites into Christian and Anti-christian. The Christian Ophites entertained almost the same fantastic opinions that were held by the other Egyptian Gnostics, concerning the cons, the eternal matter, the creation of the world in opposition to the will of God, the rulers of the seven planets that presided over this world, the tyranny of demiurge, and also concerning Christ united to the man Jesus, in order to destroy the empire of this usurper. But besides these, they maintained the following particular tenet, from whence also they received the name of Ophites, viz. "That the serpent, by which our first parents "were deceived, was either Christ himself, or Sophia, concealed under the form of that ani"mal;" and, in consequence of this opinion, they are said to have nourished a certain number of serpents, which they looked upon as sacred, and to which they offered a sort of worship, a subordinate kind of divine honours. It was no difficult matter for those, who made a distinction between the Supreme Being and the Creator of the world, and who looked upon every thing as divine, which was in opposition to demiurge, to fall into these extravagant notions. 66 XX. The schisms and commotions that arose ans and Pa- in the church, from a mixture of the oriental and Egyptian philosophy with the Christian religion, were in the second century, increased by those Grecian philosophers who embraced the doctrine of Christ. The Christian doctrine, concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the two natures united in our blessed Saviour, were, by no means, reconcileable with the tenets of the sages and doctors of Greece, who therefore endeavoured to explain them in such a manner as to render them |