II.

PART II.

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CENT." highest order. These angels formed an heaven "for their habitation, and brought forth other angelic beings, of a nature somewhat inferior "to their own. Many other generations of angels followed these, new heavens were also created, until the number of angelic orders, "and of their respective heavens, amounted to "three hundred and sixty-five, and thus equalled "the days of the year. All these are under the

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empire of an omnipotent Lord, whom BASILI"DES called Abraxas." This word (which was certainly in use among the Egyptians before his time) contains numeral letters to the amount of 365, and thereby expresses the number of heavens and angelic orders above mentioned [r]." The “inha

[r] We have remaining a great number of gems, and receive more from Egypt from time to time, on which, beside other figures of Egyptian taste, we find the word ABRAXAS engraved. See, for this purpose, a work entitled, Macarii Abraxas, seu de gemmis Basilidianis disquisitio, which was published at Antwerp, with several improvements by Jo. CHIFLE TIUS, in 4to, in 1657. See also MONTFAUCON, Palæograph. Græc. lib. ii. cap. viii. p. 177. All these gems are supposed to come from BASILIDES, and therefore bear his name. Most of them, however, contain the marks of a superstition too gross to be attributed even to an half Christian, and bear also emblematic characters of the Egyptian theology. It is not, therefore, just to attribute them all to BASILIDES, (who, though erroneous in many of his opinions, was yet a follower of CHRIST), but such of them only as carry some mark of the Christian doctrine and discipline.-There is no doubt, but that the old Egyptian word ABRAXAS was appropriated to the governor or lord of the heavens, and that BASILIDES, having learned it from the philosophy of his nation, retained it in his religious system. See BEAUSOBRE, Hist. du Manicheisme, vol. ii. p. 51. and also Jo. BAPT. PASSERI, in his Dissert. de gemmis Basilidianis, which makes a part of that splendid work which he published at Florence, 1750, De gemmis stelliferis, tom. ii. P. 221. See also the sentiments of the learned JABLONSKI, concerning the signification of the word ABRAXAS, as they are delivered in a dissertation inserted in the seventh volume of the Miscell. LEIPS. Nova. PASSERIUS affirms, that none of these gems relate to BASILIDES, but that they concern only magicians, i. e. sorcerers, fortune-tellers, and such like ad

venturers.

II.

"inhabitants of the lowest heavens, which C E N T. "touched upon the borders of the eternal, ma-PART II. lignant, 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 ex"ecution, 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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mous errors

of his

system.

XII. "These angelic beings, advanced to the The cnorgovernment of the world which they had created, fell, by degrees, from their original purity, and manifested soon the fatal marks of their depravity 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 naVol. 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 sometimes 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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CEN T." tures which presided over the world, and particularly that of the arrogant leader of the Jew"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 pre"cepts 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

may

were

[] Many of the ancients have, upon the authority of IRENEUS, 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 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.

II.

were in danger, and to partake of the feasts ofC EN T. the Gentiles that were instituted in consequence PART 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].

crates.

XIV. But whatever may be said of BASILIDES, Carpoit is certain, that he was far surpassed in impiety 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 Q2

rest

[1] For a farther account of BASILIDES, the reader may consult REN. MASSUET, Dissert. in Irenæum, and BEAUSOBRE, Hist. du Manicheisme, vol. ii. p. S.

II.

CEN T. rest of mankind by nothing but his superior fortiPART II. 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 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 sex 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. CLEMENS ALEX. Stromata, lib. iii. p. 511.