54 Difcipline of the Primitive Church. [CENT. 1: the civil and facred communion of the church, for a period of thirty days; to be renewed at the difcretion of the elders, &c. The other was termed anathema, or " the delivering of a convict to Satan," which was a ftill more complete exclufion; and it appears that it was thus termed, because the offender was in that cafe fuppofed to be delivered up defenceless to his fpiritual enemy, unprotected by the prayers of the church, or the benefit of the holy facrament, This last species of excommunication was reserved for very flagrant and obftinate finners, generally indeed inflicted upon those who were found incorrigible by the former means.

* Rom. xvi. 17.

+ 1 Cor. v. 5.

1 Cor. v. 7, 9. Tit. iii. 1o. 1 Tim. i. 20.

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

OF THE SECTS WHICH EXISTED IN THE FIRST

CENTURY.

Jewish Chriftians-Gnoftics-Cerinthus-Simon Magus and Menander.

WERE we to expect that so confiderable a

number of men, as those who embraced Christianity in the first century, would be actuated exactly by the fame opinions, we should form an expectation not warranted by our own experience, or the conduct of mankind in every age. The doctrines and precepts of Chriftianity, fo easily to be comprehended and understood, were indeed, at a very early period, blended with the most fantaftical opinions. The pure ftream of religious truth was polluted by error even during the lives of the Apostles. The fcrupulous adherence of the Jewish converts to the Mofaical law, occafioned feveral of them obftinately to contend for the ceremonies of their ancestors, and rendered them defirous of impofing them on the Gentile Chriftians. A large party separated from the church, and regarded thofe whom they had been long accustomed to confider as a people rejected by God, with a de

1 Tim. vi. 20. Col. xi. 8.

E 4

gree

56

Judaizing Chriftians.

[CENT. I. gree of contempt and hatred, which naturally produced reciprocal diflike; each indulged difpofitions inimical to brotherly love, together with certain peculiar religious opinions refulting from former practices and opinions.

Thefe Judaizing Chriftians were first known by the general appellation of Nazarenes; but a divifion of them was afterwards distinguished, though it is uncertain at what time, by the name of Ebionites, which according to Origen and Eufebius is derived from Ebion, a poor or despicable man, from the mean opinion they entertained of Chrift*. Befides their adherence to the Jewish law, Theodoret afcribes to them other opinions. They contended, it is faid, moft ftrenuously for the unity of the Godhead in the perfon of the Father, and afferted that Jefus was a mere man, born after the common course of nature, of human parents, Jofeph and Mary, but that the Holy Ghoft defcended upon him at his baptifm, and continued to actuate and infpire him till his death. They obferved both the Jewish and the Chriftian fabbath.

From the imperfections of the Jewish difpenfation, the Gnoftics (wife or knowing) hastily inferred that it was not inftituted by the Supreme Being; and,

* Orig. de Princip. 1. iv. c. 2, Eufeb. 1.iii. c. 21. Others however affert that this name was bestowed upon them in allusion to the poverty of the fect itfelf, both as to their temporal condition and that of their understandings. Others again fpeak of a person of that name as their chief or founder.

affuming

CENT. 1.]

Gnoftic Chriftians.

57

affuming that pompous appellation, boasted their
ability to restore to mankind that knowledge of his
nature which had so long been loft. They blended
with the faith of Chrift many fublime but obfcure
tenets, which they derived from the Oriental phi-
lofophy. The fages of the East had long expected
a heavenly meffenger, endued with fufficient
powers to release them from their bondage to cor-
rupt matter, which they held to be the fource of all
evil. The miracles of Chrift and his Apoftles in-
duced them readily to accept him as this heavenly
meffenger, and they interpreted all the precepts of
Christianity in the manner most agreeable to the
abfurd opinions they had previously conceived.
They introduced amongst their followers a multi-
tude of abfurd legends refpecting the actions and
precepts of Chrift, and of the creation of the
world by inferior beings. Thefe opinions were fo
entirely diffonant to many parts both of the Old
and New Testament, that they rejected much of
these books, though they admitted the validity of
a few
parts. From the belief that whatever is cor-
poreal is in itself intrinfically evil, they denied that
Christ was invested with a real body, or that he
really fuffered for the fake of mankind. As the
fon of the Supreme God, they indeed confented
to regard him; but regarded him as inferior in
his nature, and believed that his miffion upon
earth was designed to rescue the virtuous foul from
the tyranny of wicked fpirits, whofe empire he was

to

58

Gnoftic Chriftians.

[CENT. I. to destroy, and to inftruct men to raife the mind from its corporeal impurity, to a bleffed union with the Supreme God.

Far removed from the path of truth, it is not furprising that, having no certain rule to guide their steps, they should separate, and wander into the manifold intricacies of error. Accordingly, we find the Gnoftic heretics were not only divided into many fects, differing in their various rules of religious faith, but in matters which related to practice. Whilft the more rigid fects rejected the moft innocent gratifications, that the body might not be fo nourished as to degrade the foul; their more relaxed brethren confidered the foul as entirely unaffected by the actions of the body, afferted the innocence of complying with every dictate of nature, and abandoned themselves without any reftraint to the impulfe of the paffions. Their perfuafion that evil refided in matter, led them to reject the doctrine of the refurrection of the body; and their belief in the power of malevolent genii, the fources of every earthly calamity, induced them to have recourfe to the ftudy of magic to weaken or avert the influence of thofe malignant agents. A very confiderable fect of Gnoftics diftinguished themselves by the name of Doceta*, but their peculiar opinions are not accurately known.

* From Sox (dokeo, Gr.,to appear) because they held that Chrift fuffered in appearance only.

Cerinthus,