the world of sense and beauty, Pantheism, which denies the moral and responsible nature of man, or the Christianity of the Church and of the Bible, is to be the religion and philosophy of our scholars, our reading men and the nation. It is altogether impossible that there should be a literature which is not based upon a system of philosophy known or unknown, avowed or unconsciously held; and it is idle to despise, as a concern of inferior import, what are the literary studies and tastes that pass current among any people. Be it the noble aim of every man, that knows enough to do it, to transmit to posterity the rich inheritance which we have received from our fathers; and be it also his aim to add to its rich stores other wealth of the same ore, in its original purity. In so doing, he also keeps alive the noblest and most perfect style of human excellence which the world has yet beheld. "It is not to be thought of, that the flood ARTICLE VI. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GNOSTICS-ITS ORIGIN, NAture, and InFLUENCE UPON CHRISTIANITY. By Henry T. Cheever, Theol. Seminary, Bangor, Me. THERE were prevalent in the East, in the time of our Saviour, and had been for several centuries, certain opinions, which, though not then reduced to system, were afterwards known as the Oriental Philosophy. These opinions were chiefly concerned with the origin of evil. It being universally conceded, that from nothing nothing could proceed, the existence of every thing was accounted for by supposing it an emanation from one original, eternal Fountain of Being. From this Fountain, or, in other words, from the Supreme Deity, there emanated two contrary principlesLight and Darkness. But, to save the Deity from the direct authorship of darkness, it was metaphysically conceived, that light could no more exist without darkness, than a visible body without its shadow. Subsequently light seems to have been synonymous with, and to have stood for, all those spiritual substances in the universe, which partake of the active nature of fire, and darkness, for the heavy opaque mass of inert matter. These active and passive principles of light and darkness were held to be perpetually at variance; the former tending to produce good, the latter evil. Through the intervention of the Supreme, it was conceived that the contest would finally terminate in favor of the former. It was an advance upon this general, indefinite theory, to suppose various orders of spiritual beings to have emanated from the Deity, more or less perfect, according to their distance in the course of emanation. Among these orders the * We are requested to say, that in the absence of the author, and by his consent, this article has been submitted in manuscript to the Rev. G. B. Cheever of New-York; who has carefully reviewed the discussion and the authorities referred to, and made some valuable additions.-EDITORS. human soul was held to be a particle of light, which would return at length to its source, and partake of the same immortality. Matter was conceived to be the last and most distant emanation from the great Fountain of being, and for this reason, it was supposed to have become opaque, inert, and the cause of evil.* These doctrines had their rise among the Persian or Chaldean Magi, and were probably first formed into something like a system by the Persian Zoroaster, about the year 750 B. C. They became prevalent in Egypt, Asia Minor, and throughout the East generally; and were undoubtedly well known to the learned Jews, especially after the captivity, and the settlement of the Jewish colony in Egypt. They received new and fanciful developments among different nations, and at different times; but through them all was diffused the same primitive idea of emanation. At one time the two opposite principles of light and darkness were impersonated, deified and worshipped, as the antagonist authors of all things; and this was Dualism. At another, the dogma that matter was self-existent, eternal, inherently malignant, and the source of all evil, became ascendant, and its votaries had recourse to vigils, fastings, and self-imposed austerities, to break its power, and deliver the imprisoned soul from bondage. Again, closely applying the doctrine of emanation, they constructed a system of Pantheism, believing a part of the great intelligent soul of the universe-the anima mundi-to reside in animals, plants and the elements, and supposing an immediate action of mind upon matter, and a direct communication, by vigils of contemplation, between the human soul and the Supreme. Thence arose the attractive systems of divination, soothsaying, incantation and magic, "through the intervention of the numerous hierarchy of celestial spirits, disseminated over the theatre of the universe."+ The first of these systems-the Persian and Chaldean Dualism-is referred to in Is. 45. "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. * Brucker's History of Philosophy, p. 27. + Histoire Comparée des Systèmes de Philosophie, par M. Degerando. Tome I. Paris, p. 256. I the Lord do all these things." That the Jews must have been acquainted with this system, is evident from their close connection with the Babylonians, among whom it prevailed, during their captivity; from the settling of a colony of Jews in Egypt under Alexander the Great, and their gradual mingling with foreigners after that epoch; from the introduction of Babylonish rites, and consequently of Babylonish opinions into the mongrel religion of the Samaritans; and lastly, from the character of the Jewish Cabala, which was deeply tinctured with, if not wholly derived from, the Oriental Philosophy. This system, as it existed about the time of our Saviour, may be reduced to seven principles, which Degerando has thus expressed :* 1. God, conceived as the primitive Light. 2. Two principles, the one of good, the other of evil. 3. The divine substance developing itself in progressive emanations. 4. The mystic marriage. 5. Seven genii or superior spirits-personified attributes. 6. The instrument of the creation distinct from the Creator, and emanated from him, called the word, wisdom, the primitive and celestial man. 7. A spiritual region, and the direct communication, of the soul, by rapt contemplation, with the Supreme Intelligence. Perhaps we may add to these, a belief in the pre-existence of souls, a resurrection to a future life, and a limit fixed for the duration of the world."+ ORIGIN OF THE GNOSTIC PHILOSOPHY. Prior to the existence of the Christian heresies bearing this name, and probably at the time the Platonic philosophers of Alexandria visited the Eastern schools, certain professors of the Oriental Philosophy applied to themselves the term Gnastics, to express their more perfect knowledge of the Divine nature. "That they assumed this vaunting appellation, before their tenets were transferred to the Christians"says Brucker-" may be concluded from this circumstance; *Histoire des Systèmes de Philosophie, Vol. III. 325. † For a happy elucidation of the moral causes of the Oriental speculations, see Cook's View of Christianity, Vol. I. 272-282. For a philosophical development of the physical causes of the same, see Mosheim's Commentaries, Vol. II 180-184. that we find it among the Christians, not appropriated as a distinct title to any single sect, but made use of as a general denomination of those sects, which, after the example of the pagan philosophers, professed to have arrived at the perfect knowledge of God. The pagan origin of this appellation seems plainly intimated, in two passages of Paul's Epistles. In one he cautions Timothy against ἀντιθέσεις τῆς ψευδωνύμου voos, the oppositions of false science; in the other he warns the Colossians against a vain and deceitful philosophy which was according to human traditions and the principles of the world, and not according to the doctrine of Christ.* So far the learned are generally agreed. Indeed the use of the term roots in such a manner by Paul would satisfactorily establish the fact, in the absence of other proof, that there were certain philosophical notions then extant under this name. But whether Gnosticism as such, and with the peculiarities that afterwards became more manifest, existed in the first century, is a point about which there has been much dispute. The learned and judicious Mosheim argues, that, "to say nothing of other ancient documents, the Sacred Scriptures themselves put it beyond controversy, that even in the first century, men, infected with the Gnostic leprosy, began to erect societies distinct from other Christians. Yet these stray flocks did not become distinguished for their numbers, or for their fame and notoriety, until the times of Adrian. Under the appellation of Gnostics are included all those in the first ages of the Church, who modified the religion of Christ, by joining with it the Oriental Philosophy in regard to the source of evil, and the origin of this material universe.† Tittmann, on the other hand, in a tract entitled, "Tractatus de vestigiis Gnosticorum in N. T. frustra quæsitis," endeavors to prove that nothing was known of Gnosticism until the second century. Brucker again is of the opinion, that "the tenets, at least, of the Gnostics existed in the Eastern school, long before the rise of the Gnostic sects in the Christian Church under Basilides, Valentinus and others." "The oriental doctrine of emanation seems frequently 1 Tim. 6: 20; Col. 2: 8. † Eccl. Hist. Vol. I. 110, Murdock's Translation. Brucker's Hist. Crit. Phil. by Enfield. London, 1837, 8vo., pp. 670. |