SECT. Like the other Gnoftics, he fuppofed matI. ter to be inveterately ftubborn and corrupt; but, instead of afferting the world to be the work of the evil principle, he conceived that God was compelled to form it out of this matter, because a certain portion of divine light had become entangled with it. According to his fyftem, the end, which God propofed in creating the world, was to make it a receptacle for mankind, whose first parents had been created by the prince after death, in order that it may be rendered fufficiently pure from the corruptions of the flesh, to enjoy the happiness of heaven. "By the vital fouls of those men, who have com"mitted fins in the body reduced to afhes, another body composed of nerves with five fenfations, in order to be "fufceptible of torment, fhall certainly be affumed after "death; and being intimately united with those minute. "nervous particles, according to their diftribution, they "fhall feel in that new body the pangs inflicted in each "cafe by the fentence of Yama. When the vital foul has gathered the fruit of fins, which arife from a love of fen"fual pleasure, but muft produce mifery, and then its taint "has been thus removed, it approaches again those two moft "effulgent effences, the intellectual foul, and the divine 'fpirit." Inftit. of Menu, c. xii. 16. S Προσκείμενη δε εκεινη (fc. ύλη) και ύπερ αυτο (fc. φως) πρω θεισα, κατεπιε το πεμψεν, και προσεδέθη, και καθαπερ τιν περιε παρη παγή εντευθεν αναγκασθήναι, φασι, τον θεον δημιουργησαν THEOD. Hæret, Fab. lib. i. c. 26. τον κόσμον. of of darkness. That malignant being, whom CHAP. he denominated Sacla, exercised this act of I. his power, by inclofing within a material body a fpark of the divine light; which, during the confufion and tumult of the battle between the rival principles, had been plunged and entangled in the subftance of corrupt matter. Hence it is, that, while the divine and immortal part of man preffes eagerly towards its native fkies, it is clogged and impeded by the grofs terreftrial particles, which compofe the body'. To enable the foul gradually to extricate itself from the gloomy dungeon, in which it is imprisoned, God placed man in the world which he had created, as a probationer for heaven. During his refidence here, it is his duty to wage unceasing war with the appetites of the flesh and the grofs propenfities of matter, and to endeavour to fubdue his corporeal frame, by the feverest penances and mortifications. God, willing to grant him every affiftance requifite for this purpose, produced t Epift. Marcelli apud Epiph. adv. Hær. lib. ii. SECT. an emanation from his own fubstance of I. two exalted beings, Chrift and the Holy As for the fentiments of Manes refpecting the Holy Ghoft, they are not unlike thofe, which many of the Greek and Roman philofophers entertained of the foul of the world; an energetic and vivifying principle, which pervades all nature, from man himself, down to the loweft modification of matter*. Principio, cœlum, ac terras, campofque liquentes, "Lucentemque globum lunæ, Titaniaque aftra "Spiritus intus alit, totamque infufa per artus "Mens agitat molem, et magno fe corpore mifcet. "Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitæque vo<< lantum, บ "Et que marmoreo fert monftra fub æquore pontus. Epiph. adv. Hæref. lib. ii, * The Pantheistical fentiments of the Gnoftics, the predeceffors of Manes, appear from the following paffage of Epiphanius. Φασκουσι γαρ ούτως, (fc. Gnoftici) ότι στην επι ορους ύψηλες και είδον ανθρωπον μακρον, και αλλον κολοβον, και ηκουσα ὡσεὶ φωνην βροντης, και ήγγισα το ακέσαι, και ελάλησε προς με, και ειπεν' εγώ συ, και συ εγω και εγω συ, και συ εγω" και όπε εαν ης, εγω εκει ειμι, και εν άπασιν ειμι εσπαρμενος και όθεν εαν θελης συλλέγεις με, εμε δε συλλέγων, ἑαυτον συλλεγεις. ΕΡΙΡΗ. adv. Hæref. lib. i. See also S. Auguft. Conf. lib. iv. "Igneus "Igneus eft ollis vigor, et cœleftis origo "Seminibus: quantum non noxia corpora tardant, "Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque mem"bray." With equal propriety, we may describe, in the words of Virgil which immediately follow this paffage, the Manichean doctrine respecting the fituation of the human foul; the penances it is to undergo in order to extricate itself from its grofs material prifon; and the final beatitude to which it will attain, provided it perfevere in the road to purification. "Hinc metuunt, cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque necc que auras "Refpiciunt, claufæ tenebris et carcere cæco. "Quin et fupremo cum lumine vita reliquit ; "Non tamen omne malum miferis, nec funditus "Corporeæ excedunt peftes; penitufque necesse est СНАР. I. SECT. Manes, in his fentiments concerning the 1. perfon of Chrift, refembled the other Gnoftics. He supposed, that our Saviour was not invested with a real body, but was merely a vifionary appearance; confequently, although the fpectators imagined that he fuffered death upon the cross, yet they were entirely deceived, fince the whole was an illusion, and nothing of the fort truly happened". His doctrine of purification is manifeftly borrowed from the rites of Mithra. He fupposed the foul to pafs fucceffively through a sphere of water, and another of fire, by which every taint of fin was eradicated; the violence of the folar heat burning out those inveterate impurities, which the mild ablution of the lunar water was unable to remove 2. So fevere a penance were even Theod. Hæret. Fab. lib. i. c. 26. S. Auguft. Conf. lib. v. Epiph. adv. Hær. lib. ii. • Ποτε δε πλοια λεγοντες είναι (fc. τον ήλιον και την σεληνην) τας των τελευτωντων ψυχας, απο της ύλης μεταγοντα προς το φως. οὕτω γαρ φησι κατα μέρος της πονηράς απαλλατίεται κράσεως. Theodor. Hæret. Fab. lib. i. c. 26. The Pantheism of Manes, and the purification of the foul, are thus fpoken of by Epiphanius. Είναι γαρ φησι αυτος, και οἱ απ' αυτε Μανιχαίοι, την ψυχήν μέρος θεου, και απ' αυτε αποσπασθείσαν, εν αιχμα λωτιά αρχοντών της αντικειμένης αρχης τε και ρίζης, καταβεβλήθαι. |