fame System; and spoke of Works of God proceeding from his Nature, as the Light proceeds from the Son, () and that fome went even fo far as to entertain the fame Opinion of the Souls of Men, (I fuppofe they excepted the Souls of Heretics.) and to say they are a Part of the Divinity, (m) a Portion (n) of God; that the Seed of Man is (o) a Divine Part of the Creating Power: That the Soul is (p) of the fame Subftance with God, &c. Here is the whole Mystery. The Heretics, efpecially thofe that were born in the Eaft, made Ufe of the Syriac Tongue, which the Fathers did not understand; and thefe greedily took hold of this Opportunity to abuse their Antagonists. They imagined, or feigned to imagine, there was a Mystery of Iniquity concealed under thofe Words. A kind and generous Suppofition! What Opinion it gives of the moral Character of those who made it, I need not tell, I am fure it will make on my Readers, at leaft, the greatest Part of them, the fame Impreffion it made upon me, and that they will conclude, I did not

(1) Ibid.

171.

venture

(m) Fuftin. Martyr. Dial. c. Tryph. p. (n) Tatian Oratr cont. Gr. p. 147. (0) Me

thod. fymph. Virg. p. 74. (p) Clem. Hom. xv. No. ib. Lactant. Inftit. Lib. II. cap. 13. Lib. vii. c. 5. Tertull. de anima c. 11. vid. et Beauf. Hift. du Manich. T. 11. P. 350.

venture too far when I faid, "That the "Herefiologifts invented and promoted

Stories, which they must have known, or "at least strongly fufpected, to be false, "&c."

Of MEN ANDER.

Much is faid of him in few Words. Juftin Martyr, (q) Irenæus, (r) and after them Eufebius, (s) and Epiphanius, (t) declare that his Principles were ftill worse than thofe of his Friend Simon the Magician. It were very difficult for them to make this out; for what can be worse, than to affume the Dignity of the Supreme God, as they fay Simon did, whereas they accuse Menander only of having given himself the Title of Saviour, fent from Heaven to rescue Men from the Power of the wicked Angels. I hope no Body will infist upon both these Accounts to be true; one of them muft undeniably be false; and I humbly afk the Reader what, in Juftice, we are to think of Hiftorians that fall into fuch Contradictions? The preeminency affigned to Menander over Simon cannot be grounded

on

* See Lit. Journ. Vol. II. Par. II. P. 82. (9) Apol. I. c. 34. (r) Lib. I. c. 21. (s) Lib. IÏÏ. c. 26.

(t) Hæref, xxii.

on his being a greater proficient in Magical Arts, for they are both allowed to have been as great Conjurors as ever lived. This Accufation always made a great Impreffion on the Multitude; That is, I fuppofe, the Reason why it is so often repeated by the Fathers and applied by them to every one of the Heretics, they speak of,and it really was of a dreadful Confequence, in those Times of exemplary Mercy and fhining Judgment, when pretended Sorcerers never efcaped been burned or racked. Now a days it only exposes the Accufer, nay, it is reputed an Honour, fince it was proved that the greatest Men, in all Ages, were accounted Magicians.

There is another Accufation laid, by the above quoted Herefiologifts, to Menander's Charge. They fay he promifed Immortality upon Earth, to thofe that were baptifed by him, but I cannot help thinking they were mistaken. Had he promised Heaven to Baptism administered by his Hands, this should not appear fo extraordinary to those, who know that the like hath been dreamed of fince, tho' they might, perhaps, be forry, that an Heretic should have the Honour of the Invention. Befides, he might have been fure none of those poor deluded Creatures would have come back to give him the Lye; but that he was mad enough to flatter his Difciples with the

Hopes

Hopes of living for ever upon Earth, Body and Soul together, and thus have exposed himself to be proved an Impoftor every Day of his Life, no Body can believe it, who hath not an implicit Faith in the Fathers. I conjecture he was fomething more than a Millenarian, that is, he imagined that Jefus Christ, at his second coming, would stay above a thousand Years upon Earth, and this was enough to provoke his Enemies, to father fuch a grofs Abfurdity upon him.

Of SATURNINUS,

Saturninus, according to Irenæus (a), or Saturnilus (b), according to feveral others, was a Philofopher, and (c) a Difciple of Me nander. Eufebe (d) confiders him as fent by the Devil, as all other Herefiarchs were, to destroy Souls, and fays his Doctrine widely differed from Bafilides his Syftem of Divinity, but he does not tell us in what that Difference confifted. Irenæus affirms the fame, though in another Place (e) he only fays, that Bafilides enlarged and explained what Saturninus had broached, and this the other Herefiologifts confirm. They all agree

(a) L. I. c. 22. (b) Epiphan. Hæref.

to

(d) H. E. Lib. IV. c. 7.

xxiii. Thee(c) Tertul. (e) Cap. 23.

doret. Hær. Fab. Lib. I. c. 2. & alii..

Præf. c. 46.

to tell us, that Saturninus erected a School in Syria, wherein he taught the following Herefies. 1. That God the Father had created the Angels only, and was unknown to all other Beings. 2. That this World, with what it contains, and especially Man, had been created by feven Angels. 3. That Jefus Chrift had only the Appearance of a Body. 4. That the God of the Jews, (or their Angel) was wicked, and that Jefus Chrift came to deftroy both him and all wicked Men, and to fave the good. 5. That Marriage and the Procreation of Children proceeded from Satan. 6. Lastly, that our Bodies were to be destroyed, and confequent. ly that there fhould be no fuch thing as a Refurrection. I intended to fpeak at large of all these Principles, which at first Sight feem fo fhocking; but I think it more adviseable to keep my Thoughts on that Subject, till I come to Bafilides, whofe Doctrine is more fully explained by our Church Historians, and I do, for the prefent, confine myself to the following Obfervations.

It was ufual for the ancient Philofophers, especially the Arabs (f), to fay that God is ineffable, or make use of Words of the

(f) Vid. Menafs. Ben. Ifr, de Creatione Probl. xiii. p. 52. Annib. Rofel. Comment. in Mercur. Trifmegift. Lib. 1. Quæft. 3. p. 20..