[voûs, mind], and Christ; that he, joining himself to the man Jesus, might restore the lost knowledge of his Father, and overturn the empire of the angels who governed the world, and especially of the insolent Lord of the Jews. The God of the Jews perceiving this, ordered his subjects to seize the man Jesus, and put him to death: but against Christ he had no power. The souls that obey the precepts of the Son of God, when their bodies die, will ascend to God; the rest will pass into other bodies. All bodies return back to vicious matter, whence they originated. § 13. The moral system of Basilides, if we believe most of the ancients, favoured concupiscence, and allowed every species of iniquity. But from much surer testimony it appears that he recommended purity of life and the practice of piety, and condemned even an inclination to sin. Still there were some things in his moral precepts which greatly offended other Christians. For he taught that it is lawful to conceal our religion, to deny Christ when our life is in danger, to participate in the pagan feasts which followed their sacrifices; and he detracted much from the estimation and honour in which the martyrs were held, maintaining, that, being greater sinners than other men, they were visited by divine justice for their iniquities. For it was a principle with him, that none but sinners suffer any evil in this life. And hence arose the suspicions entertained respecting his system of morals, which seemed to be confirmed by the flagitious lives of some of his disciples. 8 § 14. But much viler than ́he, and the worst of all the Gnostics, was Carpocrates, also of Alexandria. His philosophy did not differ in its general principles from that of the other Egyptian Gnostics. For he admitted one supreme God, Eons, the offspring of God, eternal and malignant matter, Many of the ancients tell us, on the authority of Irenæus, that our Saviour, according to Basilides' opinion, had not a real body; and that Simon the Cyrenian was crucified in place of him. But that Basilides supposed the man Jesus and Christ, united, to constitute the Saviour, is demonstrated in the Comment. de Rebus Christianorum, &c. p. 354, &c. It may be, that here and there a follower of Basilides held otherwisc. 8 Besides the ancient writers on the heresies, Basilides is particularly treated of by Ben. Massuet, Dissert. in Irenæum; and Is. de Beausobre, Histoire du Manichéisme, vol. ii. p. 8, &c. [C. W. F. Walch, Historie der Ketzereyen, vol. i. p. 281-309; Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. &c. p. 342-361; and A. Neander, Kirchengesch. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 679–704. Tr.] 9 [Who lived in the reign of Adrian. Tr.] the creation of the world from evil matter by angels, divine souls unfortunately enclosed in bodies, and the like. But he maintained that Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary in the ordinary course of nature, and that he was superior to other men in nothing but fortitude and greatness of soul. He also not only gave his disciples licence to sin, but imposed on them, besides, a necessity of sinning, by teaching that the way to eternal salvation was open to those souls only which had committed all kinds of enormity and wickedness. It is, however, utterly beyond credibility, that any man who believes that there is a God, that Christ is the Saviour of mankind, and who inculcates any sort of religion, should hold such sentiments. Besides, there are grounds to believe, that Carpocrates, like the other Gnostics, held the Saviour to be composed of the man Jesus, and a certain Æon called Christ; and that he imposed some laws of conduct on his disciples. Yet undoubtedly, there was something in his opinions and precepts that rendered his piety very suspicious. For he held that concupiscence was implanted in the soul by the Deity, and is therefore perfectly innocent; that all actions are in themselves indifferent, and become good or evil only according to the opinions and laws of men; that in the purpose of God all things are common property, even the women, but that such as use their rights, are by human laws accounted thieves and adulterers. Now if he did not add some corrective to the enormity of these principles, it must be acknowledged that he wholly swept away the foundations of all virtue, and gave full licence to all iniquity.1 § 15. Valentinus, also an Egyptian, exceeded all his fellow heresiarchs, both in fame and in the multitude of his followers.2 25. See Irenæus, contra Hæres. 1. i. c. Clemens Alex. Stromat. 1. iii. p. 511, and the others. [Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. &c. p. 361-371. C. W. F. Walch, Historie der Ketzer. vol. i. p. 309-327. A. Neander, Kirchengesch. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 767-773.-Carpocrates left a young son, Epiphanes, to propagate his system and this son, though he died at the age of 17, wrote a book, from which the world have had to learn what they could of the tenets of Carpocrates. It is doubtful whether he ought to be called a Christian. He was an Egyptian philosopher, who had perhaps borrowed : His sect had its birth at Rome, grew to maturity in the island of Cyprus, and with wonderful celerity traversed Asia, Africa, and Europe. Valentinus held the general principles common with his brother Gnostics, and assumed the title of a Gnostic; yet he held several principles peculiar to himself. In the Pleroma (which is the Gnostic name for the habitation of God), he supposed thirty Æons, fifteen males and as many females. Besides these there were four unmarried; namely, Horus Opos], the guardian of the confines of the Pleroma3, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. The youngest of the Eons, Sophia (Wisdom), fired with vast desire of comprehending the nature of the supreme Deity, in her agitation brought forth a daughter called Achamoth; who being excluded from the Pleroma, descended to the rude and shapeless mass of matter, reduced it to some degree of order, and by the aid of Jesus brought forth the Demiurge", the king and artificer of all things. This Demiurge separated the more subtile, or animal matter, from the grosser, or material; and out of the former he framed the world above us, or the visible heavens; out of the latter, the lower world, or this earth. Men he compounded of both kinds of matter; and his mother, Achamoth, added to them a third substance, which was celestial and spiritual. This is a brief outline of the complicated and tedious fable of Valentinus. It appears that he explained the origin of the world, and of the human race, in a more subtle manner than the other Gnostics; yet, that he did not differ from them in reality. And the same is true of the other parts of his system. § 16. The Architect of the world gradually became so inflated, that he either thought himself, or at least wished men to think him, to be the only God; and by his prophets, sent among the Jews, he arrogated to himself the honours of the supreme God. And the other angels, who presided over parts of the created universe, imitated his example. To repress this insolence of the Demiurge, and imbue souls with a knowledge of the true God, Christ descended, being composed of an animal and spiritual substance, and moreover, clothed with an ethereal body. He passed through the body of Mary, just as water! through a canal; and to him Jesus, one of the highest Æons, joined himself, when he was baptized in Jordan by John. The Architect of the world, who perceived that his dominion would be shaken by this divine man, caused him to be seized and crucified. But before Christ came to execution, not only Jesus the Son of God, but also the rational soul of Christ, forsook him; so that only his sentient soul and his ethereal body were suspended on the cross. Those who, according to the precepts of Christ, renounce the worship not only of the pagan deitics, but likewise of the Jewish God, and submit to have their sentient and concupiscent soul chastised and reformed by reason, shall with both their souls, the rational and the sentient, be admitted to the mansions of the blessed, near to the Pleroma. And when all particles of the divine nature, or all souls, shall be separated from matter and purified, then a raging fire shall spread through this material universe, and destroy the whole fabric of nature. For the whole oriental philosophy and the system of the Gnostics, may be reduced to this epitome: This world is composed of both good and evil. Whatever of good there is in it was derived from the supreme God, the parent of light, and will return to him again; and when this takes place, this world will be destroyed." § 17. The ancients represent the school of Valentinus as divided into many branches. Among these were; the Ptolomaitic sect, whose author, Ptolomy, differed from his master 6 Of the Valentinian system, we have a full account in Irenæus, contra Hæres. lib. i. c. 1-7. Tertullian, Liber contra Valentinianos; Clemens. Alex. passim; and in all the ancient writers on the heresies. Among the moderns, see Jo. Fr. Buddeus, Diss. de Hæresi Valentiniana; subjoined to his Introductio in Historiam Philosoph. Ebræorum: which Diss. has occasioned much discussion respecting the origin of this heresy. Some of the moderns have attempted to give a rational explanation of the intricate and absurd system of Valentinus. See Souverain, Platonisme dévoilé, cap. viii. p. 64. Camp. Vitringa, Observatt. Sacra, lib. i. c. ii. p. 131. Beausobre, Histoire du Manichéisme, p. 548, &c. Ja. Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tome iii. p. 729, &c. Peter Faydit, Eclairciss. sur l'Hist. Ecclés. des II. premiers siècles, p. 12, who also contemplated writing an apology for Valentinus. I pass by Godfrey Arnold, the patron of all the heretics. But how vain all such attempts must be, is proved by this, that Valentinus himself professed that his religion differed fundamentally from that of the other Christians. [Besides the authors above referred to, see Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. &c. p. 371-389; C. W. F. Walch, Hist. der Ketzereyen, vol. i. p. 335–386. Tr. -A full account of the Valentinian system will be found in Bp. Kaye's Tertullian, 509; and in Rose's Neander, ii. 70. Ed.] respecting the number and nature of the ons; the Secundian sect, established by Secundus, one of the principal followers of Valentinus, who seems to have kept more closely to the oriental philosophy, and to have held to two first causes of all things, light and darkness, or a Prince of good, and a Prince of evil; the sect of Heracleon, from whose books Clement and Origen quote much; the sect of Marcus and Calarbasus, called Marcosians, who, according to Irenæus, added much that was senseless and absurd to the fictions of Valentinus; though it is certain that they did not maintain all that is attributed to them. I pass by other sects, which appear to have originated from the Valentinian system. But whether all the sects which are called Valentinian actually originated from disciples and followers of Valentinus, appears very doubtful to such as consider how great mistakes the ancients have made in stating the origins of the heretics." § 18. Of the smaller and more obscure Gnostic sects, of which the ancients tell us little more than the names, and perhaps one or two detached sentiments, it is unnecessary to say any thing. Such were the Adamites, who are said to have wished to imitate the state of innocences: the Cainites, who are represented as paying respect to the memory of Cain, Corah, Dathan, the inhabitants of Sodom, and Judas the traitor": Besides Irenæus, and the other ancient writers, see, concerning these sects, Jo. Ern. Grabe, Spicilegium Patrum et Hæreticorum, sæcul. ii. p. 69, 82, &c. On the Marcosians, Irenæus is copious, lib. i. cap. 14. That Marcus was out of his senses, is unquestionable; for he must have been deranged, if he could hold even the greater part of the strange fancies which are said to belong to his system. [Among the moderns who have treated of these sects, see C. W. F. Walch, Historie der Ketzereyen, vol. i. p. 387-401, and A. Neander, Kirchengeschichte, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 731-746. Tr.] 8 [See, for an account of them, Clemens Alex. Stromat. lib. i. p. 357; lib. ii. p. 525; lib. vii. p. 854. Tertullian, Scorpiace, in Opp. p. 633, and contra Prax. cap. iii. Epiphanius, Hares. lii. Opp. tom. i. p. 459. Theodoret, Hæret. Fabul, lib. i. c. 6. Augustine, de Hæres. c. 31. John Demascen, Opp. tom. i. p. 88; and, among the moderns, C. W. F. Walch, Hist. der Ketzereyen, vol. i. p. 327-335. P. Bayle, Dictionnaire His torique, Art. Adamites and Prodicus. Tillemont, Mémoires, &c. tom. ii. p. 256, Beausobre, Diss. sur les Adamites; subjoined to Lenfant's Histoire des Hussites. -The accounts of the ancients are contradictory; and several of the moderns doubt whether there ever was a sect who performed their worship in a state of nudity. Tr.] 9 [All the ancient writers, mentioned in the preceding note, except John Damascen, speak of the Cainites; but what they state is very brief and contradictory. The correctness of their accounts is justly doubted by Bayle, (Dictionnaire Historique, art. Cainites,) and others. Origen (contra Celsum, lib. iii. p. 119,) did not regard them as Christians. Yet they might be a sect of Gnostics, who, holding the God of the Jews for a revolter from the true God, regarded Cain, Dathan, Corah, and others who resisted him, as being very praiseworthy. Tr.-"Of the more obscure Gnostic sects enumerated by Mosheim, Tertullian mentions only the Cainites, |