SECTION I.

Of the Pride of the Gnoftics.

AS the Gnostics were generally perfons of education, and addicted to the study of philofophy, the most confpicuous feature in their general character, was their pride, their contempt of the vulgar, and of their opinions, boasting of their own knowledge, and being proud of their fuperiority to others. They reprefented their inftitution as more refined than that of other christians, and pretended to a degree of perfection which other chriftians did not claim. This feature is equally marked by the chriftian Fathers, and the apoftles; and it will be feen, in its proper place, that, in oppofition to them, the unitarian chriftians were confidered as weak, and fimple people, in all refpects the very reverse of the Gnoftics.

Irenæus fays, that the Gnoftics pretended to perfection, and called themselves fpi

ritual;

ritual*; and he fays, that they called the orthodox fuxino, carnal †. Clemens Alexandrinus also speaks of the Gnostics "as pretending to perfection, boasting "of more knowledge than the apostles; "whereas Paul himself fays, that he had "not yet attained, nor was already per"fect." But I have no occafion to quote many authorities for 'a circumstance which marks the Gnoftics wherever they appear; and it is equally evident, that there were teachers of christianity pretending to the fame fuperiority of knowledge and perfection in the time of the apoftles.

The first certain evidence of the existence of the Gnoftic doctrine in the chriftian

* Plurimi autem & contemptores facti, quafi jam perfecti, fine reverentia, & in contemptu viventes, femet ipfos fpiritales vocant, & fe noffe jam dicunt eum qui fit intra pleroma ipforum refrigerii locum. P. 237.

+ Δια τετο εν ημας ψυχικός ονομαζεσι. P. 32.

Lib. 3. cap. 15.

Lib. I. chap. I.

† Εμοι δε και θαυμάζειν επεισιν. όπως σφας τελείες τινες τολμώσι καλειν καὶ γνωτικές υπερ τον Αποσόλου φρονενίες, φυσιωμένοι τε καὶ φρυατ Τομενοι . αυτε ομολογενίας τε Παύλε περι εαυλς, εχ οτι ηδη ελαβαν nnon Telexa. Pæd. lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 107.

L 4

church is at the time of Paul's writing his first epiftle to the Corinthians, which was probably in the year 56; and the falfe teachers of that place are diftin&ly marked by the apoftles for their pride, conceit, and high pretenfions to wisdom. In oppofition to their pretended deep knowledge, the apoftle says, 1 Cor. i. 18. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that perish, but to us who are faved it is the power of God. iii. 18. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you feem to be wife in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wife. He seems to allude to their pretendedspirituality and refinement, when he says, I could not speak unto you as unto Spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as to babes in Chrift. He likewife fpeaks ironically of their pretenfions to wisdom, 1 Cor. iv. 10. We are fools for Chrift's fake, but ye are wife in Chrift, and x. 15. I speak as unto wife men, judge ye what I fay. That they were Gnoftics who corrupted the gospel at Corinth, is evidenț from the 15th chapter of this epiftle, where it appears, that they explained away the doctrine of the refurrection.

Thefe

These teachers are diftinguished by the fame features at Ephefus not long after this, as we find, 1 Tim. vi. 3. If any man teach otherwife, and confent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about queftions and frifes of words, &c. In the epiftle to the Coloffians, chap. ii. 18. the apostle cautions the christians against those who intruded into things which they had not feen, being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, which could be no other than the fame defcription of men. It is alfo probable that they were the fame perfons that the apostle James alluded to, chap. iii. 13. Who is a wife man, and indued with knowledge among you; Let him fhew, out of a good converfation, his works with meekness of wisdom. Let us now see what kind of knowledge thefe Gnoftics had to be fo proud of.

SEC

SECTION II.

Tenets of the Gnoftics.--Of the Origin of Evil, and the Doctrine of Æons.

ALL the Gnoftics were perfuaded, that

evil had fome other cause than the su

preme being, but, perhaps, none of them before Manes held that it arose from a principle abfolutely independent of him. Bardefanes maintained that evil was not made by God*. Marcion, Cerdon, and Manes, all held that the devil and demons were unbegotten. Valentinus held that matter was self-existent, and the cause of evil ‡. But the great boast of the Gnoftics was their profound and intricate doctrine con

* Αλοπον ηγέμαι το λεγειν υμας το κακόν υπο τι θες γεγενήθαι. O Deos rap xanov avail. Origen Contra Marcionitas, p. 70, 71.

+ Τον δε διαβολον και τις υπ' εκείνω τελωνίας δαίμονας, καλα της Μαρκιωνος, και Κερδωνος, και τες Μανενίος μύθος, εκ αγεννήτες είναι φαμεν. Theodoret Hær. Fab. lib. 5. cap. 8. vol. 4. p. 268.

* Διοπερ εδοξεν μοι, συνυπάρχειν τε αύλω, ω τένομα υλη: εξ ης τα ονία εδημιέργησε, τεχνη σοφη διακρίνας, καὶ διακόσμησας καλως, εξ ns n ta nana eivai dox. Origen Contra Marcionitas, p. 88.

cerning