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throughout the world, is all along intermingled with the better principle, καὶ μὴ πᾶν εἶναι ἔργον τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν yuxǹv, so that neither the soul of the universe, nor that of men and demons, was wholly the workmanship of God, but the lower, brutish, and disorderly part of them the effect of the evil principle.

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Plutarch endeavours to persuade us, that this was the constant belief of all the pagan nations, and of all the wisest men and philosophers that ever were amongst them. "For this," saith he, in his book de Iside et Osiride," is a most ancient opinion, that hath been delivered down from theologers and lawmakers, all along to poets and philosophers; and though the first author thereof be unknown, yet hath it been so firmly believed every where, that the footsteps of it have been imprinted upon the sacrifices and mysteries, or religious rites, both of barbarians and Greeks; viz. that the world is neither wholly ungoverned by any mind or reason, as if all things floated in the streams of chance and fortune, nor yet that there is any one principle steering and guiding all, without resistance or control; because there is a confused mixture of good and evil in every thing, and nothing is produced by nature sincere. Wherefore, it is not only the Dispenser of things, who as it were out of several vessels distributeth those several liquors of good and evil, mingling them together and dashing them as he pleaseth; but there are two distinct and contrary powers or principles in the world, one of them always leading as it were to the right hand, but the other tugging a contrary way. Insomuch that our whole life and the whole world is a certain mixture

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and confusion of these two; at least the terrestrial world below the moon is such, all being every where full of irregularity and disorder. For if nothing can be made without a cause, and that which is good cannot be the cause of evil, there must needs be a distinct principle in nature for the production of evil as well as good. And this hath been the opinion of the most and wisest men, some of them affirming, θεοὺς εἶναι δυὸ καθάπερ ἀντιτέκνους, that there are two gods, as it were, of contrary crafts and trades, one whereof is the maker of all good, and the other of all evil; but others calling the good principle only a God, and the evil principle a demon, as Zoroaster the magician."

Besides which Zoroaster and the Persian Magi, Plutarch pretends that the footsteps of this opinion were to be found also in the astrology of the Chaldeans, and in the mysteries and religious rites, not only of the Egyptians, but also of the Grecians themselves; and lastly, he particularly imparts the same to all the most famous of the Greek philosophers, as Pythagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Plato, and Aristotle; though his chief endeavour of all be to prove, that Plato was an undoubted champion for it.

Cudworth, book i. cap. iv. p. 217.

St. Athanasius speaks also of some degenerate Christians who fell into this error.

Οἱ θε ἀπὸ τῶν αἱρέσεων εκπεσόντες τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς δι δασκαλίας, καὶ περὶ τὴν πίστιν ναυαγήσαντες, καὶ οὗτοι μεν ὑπόστασιν τοῦ κακοῦ περαφρονοῦσιν εἶναι. Some heretics, forsaking the ecclesiastical doctrine, and making shipwreck of the faith, have, in like manner, falsely attributed a real nature and essence to evil. Of

which heretics there were several sects before the Manicheans, sometimes taken notice of and censured by pagan philosophers themselves. As by Celsus, where he charges Christians with holding this opinion, that there is ἐναντίος τῷ μεγάλῳ Θεῳ θεὸς κατηραμévos, an execrable god contrary to the great God, and by Plotinus, writing a whole book against such Christians, the ninth of his second Ennead, which by Porphirius was inscribed, πρὸς τοὺς Γνωστικούς, against the Gnostics.

Cudworth, book i. cap. iv. p. 224.

The Gnostics, in Plotinus' time, asserted the world to have been made, not so much from a principle essentially evil and eterna, as from a lapsed soul.

Cudworth, l. i. c. 4. p. 291.

No. 3.

(AMMONIUS SACCUus.)

Ammonius Saccus, who taught in the school at Alexandria towards the close of the second century, adopted the doctrines of the Egyptians concerning the universe and the Deity, as constituting one great whole; the eternity of the world, the nature of souls, the empire of providence, and the government of the world by demons. These sentiments he associated with the doctrines of Plato, by adulterating some of the opinions of that philosopher, and forcing his expressions from their obvious and literal sense; and to complete his conciliatory scheme for the restoration of true philosophy and the union of its professors, he interpreted so artfully the doctrines of the other philosophical and religious sects, that they

appeared closely to resemble the Egyptian and Platonic systems.

This philosophical system was soon embraced by those among the Alexandrian Christians, who were desirous to unite the profession of the Gospel with the dignity, the title, and the habit of philosophers. The school of Ammonius extended itself from Egypt over the whole Roman empire; but its disciples were soon divided into various sects. Ammonius laid the foundation of that sect which was distinguished by the name of the New Platonics. See Mosheim, Gregory, and Burrowe's Encyc.

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In the second century, Cerdo and Marcion erected, on the foundation of the Gnostics, a structure of considerable extent.

To the two principles of good and evil, admitted by the Gnostics, they added a third, whom they conceived to be the Creator of the world and the God of the Jews; and asserted, that he was in a state of continual hostility with the evil principle, but desirous of usurping the place of the Supreme Being. Mankind, they asserted, were governed despotically by the two former of these beings; but added, that the Great Supreme had sent down his own Son for the deliverance of all, who, by selfdenial and austerity, sought to obtain that happi

ness.

The followers of Cerdo and Marcion were distinguished by the name of the latter. They entirely rejected the Old Testament, and the whole of the New, except part of the Gospel of St. Luke, and

ten Epistles of St. Paul, which were greatly interpolated. This sect was diffused, not only through Rome and Italy, but extended itself over Palestine, Syria, and Egypt.

See Tertullian's five books against the Marcionites, Tillemont's Mémoires, and Beausobre's Histoire du Manicheisme.

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