History. through them, very generally with the Jews of all parts, the experiment which was now to be tried on the Christians had been made, and that with eminent success. Long before the establishment of the Eclectic Sect in Egypt, the principles on which it was formed had influenced the Philosophical speculations at Alexandria; and several tenets of the Greek Wisdom had been admitted into the Oriental schools, and still more of Orientalism into those of the Grecian Philosophy. Plato's system, from its fanciful assemblage of Ideas, was the most readily identified or amalgamated with the Eastern Theory of Emanations. But the Peripatetic and Stoic were soon found equally pliant and yielding to the ingenuity of men once practised in the method of harmonizing and reconciling. Both, no less than the Academic, agreed indeed in the fundamental point of Theology with the Eastern creed, viz. that the Deity was the Soul of the World or the Universe itself. The Epicurean system was the most stubborn, but even this was gradually tortured, until it was made to furnish some evidence to the shifting views of these Theorists. Meanwhile, in this rage for Philosophic liberality, the ancient and august character of the Mosaic Revelation, and the reverence with which it was observed by so large a portion of the inhabitants of Alexandria especially,—the great laboratory in which all these experimentalists were at work,-could not but tempt them to tamper with this institution also. Many of the Jews were persuaded into a notion, that part of the Gentile Theories must have been portions of Patriarchal Revelation, and worthy of being believed and applied to the elucidation of the Mosaic. The infection had spread far and wide through the nation at the period of the Messiah's coming; and many of those Jews who became converts to Christianity, carried with them into the Church the tenets and the spirit of Gnosticism. Even during the Ministry of St. Paul we recognise the early use of the word Gnosis, (yvŵots,) applied as it began to be to an esoteric doctrine, a refined and Cabbalistic interpretation of the Gospela system which in the Apostle's own words was "falsely called Gnosis or Knowledge."* Before the close of the Ist century, however, the warning voice of Paul required the support of the last survivor of the Apostles. The "foolish questions" and the "endless genealogies," from which the former had endeavoured to divert the attention of the Christian inquirer, were becoming more and more objects of interest. Foolish inquiries or questions into the absolute nature of God, led (as it must ever lead men, to absurdity and impiety) to those wild speculations concerning the successive generations of Eons,-the emanations of the Divine Essence, and all the Metaphysical subtilties of Orientalism, to which St. John briefly, and in the spirit of one dismissing idle discussion by a few authoritative assertions, adverts in the commencement of his Gospel.† The authors of this progressive Heresy are stated by Historians to have been Simon Magus, Menander, Dositheus, Cerinthus, and others of inferior note.

authors.

Whatever mischief, however, these may have caused to the Church, all of them cannot properly be called Heretics. To begin with Simon Magus. The character

*Tim. ch. iv. v. 1; ch. vi. 20. Tit. ch. iii. v. 9. Colos. ch. ii. v. 8. Such is the assertion of Irenæus, Tertullian, and others. See Tilemont's Mémoires, tom. i. p. 936. See also a small work by G. L. Oeder, de Scopo Evangelii Johannis, published at Leipsic in

1732.

the other

of this Impostor is decidedly not that of a Heretic, but Apostolic of an Infidel and Blasphemer.* Supposing him to be Age. the same named in the Acts, (which supposition rests Ministry of on uncontradicted tradition,) he was by birth a Samari- Apostles and tan, who, having travelled to Egypt, came home imbued Ministers. with the Oriental Philosophy, which he taught to his countrymen, claiming for himself the rank of Eon or Simon superior Emanation from the Deity. When Christ was Magus. preached abroad, he found no difficulty in admitting the divine authority of his Mission; and merely contended that he himself was a superior Eon, who with his wife or concubine Helena had become incarnate since the Messiah. With such an object, supported by blasphemy and imposture like this, Simon was rather the first of the false Christs whom our Lord foretold, than a heretical follower. It is well known, that in order to make it seem that his authority was, like that of Jesus, divine, he practised Magic, and performed false Miracles; nor, with this general view of his character and manners, is the story in itself improbable which Historians tell of his death at Rome, by a fall, namely, in attempting to fly from the Capitol. No Miracle would have been more worthy of the Impostor's ambition, than that which should make him seem to the Jews to fulfil the desired sign of the Son of Man descending from the clouds of heaven. Notwithstanding the glaring absurdity of his pretensions, it is no slight proof of the prevailing bias of men's minds towards the Oriental and Gnostic fancies, that he not only was attended during his life by a numerous train of adherents, but that as late as the IIId and even the IVth century there continued to exist a sect who claimed him as their founder, still believed in his doctrine, and paid him the honours and worship due to his assumed nature. The assertion that a Statue was erected to him at Rome has been doubted, and the fact ascribed to the ignorance or credulity of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and others. The story is improbable, but the testimony is strong, because derived from so many consenting witnesses.

The next place in the list of Heretics is assigned to Menander. Menander; by some supposed to have been a disciple of Simon. As far as any clear and plausible account of him can be collected from the notices of Irenæus, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr, he has been as improperly ranked among the disciples of that famous Magician, as among the Christian Heretics. Like Simon, he is said to have been by birth a Samaritan, and, like Simon, to have taken advantage of the reigning taste of the times, to make himself appear to his countrymen and the world "some great one," and "the power of God." Thus, he might have introduced himself into notice by admitting the divine nature of Jesus, as Simon did; and even of that Impostor also, reserving for himself the character of an Æon still nearer than either to the fountain of Deity. The doctrine of Emanations was obviously suited to the spirit of Imposture, and was naturally the doctrine of each false Christ in succession. Yet was it not the prevalence of that doctrine alone which caused such numbers to submit to similar delusions one after another. This must be sought for in the universal expectation of a great deliverer, which those who were

*So Justin Martyr, as quoted by Eusebius, "nai perà Tùv ¿váληψιν τοῦ κυρίου εἰς οὐρανὸν, προεβάλοντο οἱ δαίμονες ἀνθρώπους τινὰς, λίγοντας ἑαυτοὺς εἶναι θεούς. Σίμωνα μέν τινα Σαμαρία, . . . Justin, Ap. 1. Euseb. lib. ii. c. 13.

History. dissatisfied with the kind of deliverance offered by Jesus and his followers, continued fondly to look for. Love of novelty might account for the formation of one such sect as these; but the ready obedience of new disciples to the call of every similar pretender, could only have arisen from the fullness of the time. Menander's talent for supporting his imposture was probably not equal to that of Simon; for he is less famous in Ecclesiastical legends, and his sect soon ceased to be noticed by Historians.

Dositheus.

Another of these Impostors, whose name has been connected with the History of the early Church, is Dositheus. His life and tenets are still more obscure than those of the preceding, but his main object appears to have been the same. By some he has been made a disciple, by others, the preceptor of Simon. Neither is likely; as far as we can trace his course, it evinced more enthusiasm than knavery, such as Simon's was, and was quickly terminated. Having failed to obtain credit with the Jews, he proclaimed himself to the Samaritans as the Messiah, and an attempt having been made by the High Priest to apprehend him, he took refuge in a cave, wherein he perished.† Still, the same cause which prolonged the existence of the Magian sect, kept alive for centuries the faith and the hopes of his party, if, at least, from him was derived the sect of Dositheans, whose existence in Egypt as late as the VIth century is well attested.

Cerinthus. Of Heretics, properly so named, Cerinthus was perhaps the first. By some he is said to have flourished in the beginning of the IInd century; but the assertions of the early writers, that the rise of his sect was one cause for the publication of St. John's Gospel, together with the internal evidence contained in that Gospel to the fact, makes it more than probable, that his proper place in Ecclesiastical record is the close of the Ist century. In the romantic and fabling spirit of the times, some have ventured to represent him as the great antagonist on whom the spiritual prowess of Christ's champion, St. John, was proved; as that of St. Peter had been on Simon Magus.§ This may, perhaps, afford an additional ground for presuming that they were contemporary, however decidedly we reject the stories themselves.

Cerinthus was a Jew, and one of those who had deeply imbibed the tenets of Orientalism. He became a convert to Christianity, with his fancy over-excited, his judgment perplexed, and his very affections, which the Gospel was calculated to arrest and sober, so misguided by his previous habits of Religious meditation, that he looked on his new system of Faith with the same nervous and irritable view, with which the great Arithmetician was said to perceive only number in all the variety of scenes he beheld. The visionary pleroma, filled with the divine essence, emanating from its source with gradually decreasing brightness, and passing thus through.all Nature until it was traced imperceptibly to Matter, and as such losing its original character of excellence, and assuming that of Evil-all this haunted his mind like an enchantment; and he thought on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, only to find their respective places in this emblazonry of fancy. In the

Ministry of

the other

ingenious attempts to harmonize Judaism and Orienta- Apostolic lism, the most revolting part of the process had already Age. settled in his mind. Much of the grosser and more offensive tenets of the Eastern Wisdom had been sof- Apostlesand tened down, to effect an union with the faith of the Ministers Mosaic Revelation. The Creator of the world, for instance, was no longer, as formerly, represented as an evil and opposite principle to Good, but only as a subordinate on, whose work was imperfect, and now become so corrupt that there was need of a superior

on to restore it. Such a one he beheld in Christ, the Word incarnate. How far he pursued his system of adapting the various doctrines of Christianity to Philosophy is uncertain; but, doubtless, much of the Valentinian Heresy, which arose immediately after, existed in his theory. Considering the Spiritual and Material Worlds as both derived from the same origin, he supposes two classes of Principles, (avvapes,) the one Active, the other Passive, the one consisting of Male Eons, the other of Female. From the source of Deity, by a union with Thought or Silence, were produced successive pairs of these Eons, the first of which was Mind and Truth; lower in the scale, the Word, Man, and the Church; and far lower still, the Creator, whose imperfect Power and Wisdom had produced the necessity of an Incarnation, and of all the Christian Scheme. From all these idle and impious fancies, engendered, as it would seem, in the full sunshine of Truth, we should turn aside with little remembrance, if recorded of an individual alone; but the attention is detained, and Reason is staggered, at the record of numbers joining in a view of Revelation such as this; combining through centuries, like the successful builders of a Spiritual Babel; and so established in their creed, as to branch out into subdivisions and sects, all maintaining the great principles of Gnosticism. It is the feeling of each Age, to be amazed and scandalized at the absurdities or impieties of notions worn out by Time; even while it is itself, perhaps, affording matter for the scorn and reprehension of future generations. Scarce less contempt and censure do we pass on the Gnostics of old, than did those Gnostics on the Idol-worshippers, from whose impurities and vanities they had extricated themselves. On us, and on every Age, the Moral presses strongly and beneficially. Other prejudices, than those of a "vain Philosophy," may betray the Christian of the XIXth Century, and of Ages more enlightened still, into errors equally unworthy of the name he bears, and of the God whom he worships. Collectively as a Church, no less than as individuals, we are to the end of time in a state of trial; and it is well to look back on these monstrous pictures of the past, if the retrospect suggests to us, that the best safeguard which we now possess, the aid of the Holy Spirit, was theirs no less than ours.

directed

against the

Cerinthian

It was against the Heresy of Cerinthus that St. John The opening is said to have asserted in the beginning of his Gospel, of St. Jos Gospel the Eternity of the Word-that the Word which was made flesh was no emanation, but was originally with God, and was God. To other features of this Heresy, he is supposed occasionally to point in his writings, the whole tone of which, of the Gospel especially, indicates a design to inculcate the doctrine of Christ's real Divinity, in opposition to the conclusions which were drawn from these principles of Cerinthus; as, that He was inferior to God the Father, that He was a mere Man while on the cross, and separated from the Eon

History. who possessed His frame, &c. Even those, accordingly, who do not name Cerinthus and his sect as the occasion of the new Gospel by the Apostle in his latter days, point to its Spiritual character, and relate that it was composed with a view to represent Christ more in His Divine nature, and especially in that early part of His History which had been hitherto chiefly occupied with His Earthly birth and parentage.

Reason for

of Gnosti

cism.

If it be asked how it happened, that errors like those the progress above described should have passed current with men accustomed to Scriptural Religion founded on Miraculous evidence; with Jews who had received the Law on the testimony of Moses and his Miracles; with Christians whose belief was grounded on a similar foundation, the reason assigned is the following. The artful founders of Gnosticism, in recommending the Oriental Philosophy to the Jews originally, were sensible of the difficulty: They perceived that it was not enough in this case, as in the attempt to reconcile their system with that of Plato, or Aristotle, or Zeno, to make its several parts harmonize and represent those of the other. There was one ingredient wanting, which neither Orientalism nor any Human system of Religion claimed or rested on-an ingredient peculiar to the Truth, and that was Evidence. In order to supply this want, it was found expedient to challenge as authority the very same source to which the Jews themselves were accustomed to ap.

peal. These secrets of Revelation they pretended had Apostolic Age. been given from the first of Time, together with what was contained in the Jewish Scripture. Adam they the other Ministry of said received it, the Patriarchs received it, and through Apostles and them it was communicated to certain ancient Sages, the Ministers. especial confidants and guardians of Holy Wisdom. Whilst Divine Faith was presented to mankind in a homely garb, suited to vulgar apprehensions, this key to its real nature was thus preserved in the keeping of a few. In short, this, according to their representation, was the Esoteric doctrine of Religion, as that contained in Scripture had been the Exoteric. Recalled for testimony to an early Age, to names of whom a blind reverence made it nearly blasphemy to doubt ought; and probably so bewildered in their view of the question as to confound Scepticism, concerning the fact of these holy men having received the communications pretended, with doubt as to the validity of their evidence, if given to such a fact, what wonder that many should fall into the snare? The experience of every Age justifies the great Historian of Greece, in the conclusion to which he was led, by his attempt to ascertain the grounds on which so much idle Fable had been received as truth by his Countrymen. Men will not take the trouble to search after Truth, if any thing like it is ready provided to their hands; and from this fate Religious Truth itself is not exempted.

VOL. X.

History.

From

A. D. 100.

to

167. Clement.

CLEMENT is more certainly identified with him whom St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Philippians, names as one of " his fellow-labourers ;"* and from the great number of writings which were made popular by the authority of his assumed name, he may be considered as the most distinguished among the Apostolical Fathers. He was Bishop of Rome by the appointment of St. Peter, and on the death of Anacletus he appears to have united in his person the dignity which was before divided between St. Paul's successor and St. Peter's. Like most of the Bishops of that dangerous See, he suffered marHisEpistles. tyrdom. Of his writings only one Epistle has come down to us, the authenticity of which can be clearly made out. It is addressed from the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth. His Second Epistle, as it is called, if originally his, is confessedly very much changed from its original character. But, in truth, there is good reason to believe that no Epistle corresponding to this was ever written by Clement. Irenæust was not acquainted with more than one, and his quotations prove that one to have been the First. Eusebius mentions the Second, but expressly states, that he could discover no ancient authority for it, and rejects it. Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, all bear testimony to one only, the First. Two more have been found of late years, attached to a Syriac version of the New Testament, and are published by Wetstein in his folio edition of the Sacred volume. Allowing the full force of the evidence in favour of the genuineness of these, arising out of their Scriptural language, and the absence of terms and topics which belong to a later period, still, this is counterbalanced by other internal evidence which is no less strong against it; and no trace of them is to be found in ancient writers.§ About the spuriousness of the other pieces to which his name has been attached, there is no controversy.||

Ignatius.

The remains of IGNATIUS are less scanty, and yet His Epistles. these are confined to seven Epistles, written during a hasty and harassing journey from Antioch to Rome, for the purpose of being put to death at a public exhibition. No ancient writings have been more the subject of fraud and corruption than these. Eusebius mentions seven genuine Epistles, which Pearson, in his Vindicia Ignatianæ, has very ably identified with that collection which is now emphatically called The genuine Epistles.** There is another collection of Ignatius's Epistles, of which the former are the basis, but they are most grossly altered and interpolated. A third set appears with his name, which are altogether a forgery. After all, too, although no one can deny the force of Bishop Pearson's arguments in disproving the

*Philipp. ch. iv. v. 3, "Clement also, and other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life." +Adv. Hareses. lib. iii. c. 3.

Fathers.

From

A. D. 100.

authenticity of the longer Epistles, and establishing the Age of the Apostolica! preferable claims of the shorter, still, it is by no means clear, that the imposture practised on what we call the Interpolated Epistles was not an after attempt to carry too far, what had been more sparingly, more skilfully, and more successfully effected in the shorter Epistles; and that the genuine Epistles themselves have been tampered with. The temptation to such a proceeding was strong, and there are certainly not a few internal marks that it was practised. It would, however, lead us too far out of our way to enter into this particular inquiry. Ignatius was the disciple of St. John, and Bishop of Antioch, and suffered martyrdom under Trajan, î. D. 108.

to 167.

A. D. 108.

A. D. 167.

The history of POLYCARP brings us much later into the Polycarp. annals of the Church. He suffered beyond the middle of the IInd century, and, like Ignatius, self-devoted for the purpose of diverting persecution from his brethren in Christ. He was that Bishop or "Angel" of the Church of Smyrna, of whom St. John makes so honourable mention in the Book of Revelations; and the narrative of his death, which was drawn up by that Church, is peculiarly valuable. According to Irenæus* he left behind him various writings. All that now remains, however, is an Epistle to the Philippians, and even of this the original Greek is imperfect, and the remainder only known through a Latin translation.

However worthy of pious contemplation a more de- Inquiries tailed Biography of these holy men may be, the most suggested important, and the most interesting object after all, by the lives of the Aposwhich is to be obtained from the study of their lives and tolical Fawritings, is, to ascertain how Christians behaved when thers. first left to themselves; or, to speak more accurately, when for the first time left without any extraordinary Divine instruction and superintendence. However famous in their generation might be the names of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp, to us they are most interesting as specimens of that generation; as representing in their lives and writings, the opinions and the manners, the practice and the Faith, which enjoyed the approbation of the Primitive Church. Taking this, then, as the main object of our inquiry, we shall not confine our view to their individual histories, but enlarge it from all sources of collateral information which may tend to make the sketch of Primitive Christianity more complete or more faithful.

The leading questions to which we may expect such an inquiry to furnish replies, are

I. What parts of the Apostolic Ministry were intended for the mere foundation of Christianity? II. What parts were intended for the preservation of it?

III. How were these intentions fulfilled in the Ministry of the Apostolical Fathers and their contemporaries?

ἴσμεν.

For all the arguments against their authenticity, Lardner's Dissertation on the Two Epistles may be consulted.

These are

for the mere foundation of Christianity?