552 MANICIIEANS. 
suji, appeared in due time among the Jews, clothed with tl^e shadowy 
form of a human bodjj to disengage the rational soul from the bbrrhpf 
body, and to conquer the violence of malignant matter. The Jevvsj 
incited by the prince of darkness, put him to an ignominious death, 
which he suffered, notin reality, but only in appearance, and accord- 
ing to the reality of men. When the purposes of Christ were accom- 
plished, he returned to his throne in the sun, appointing his apos- 
tles to propagate his religion, and leaving to his followers the pro- 
mise of the Paraclete or Comforter, who is Manes the Persian. 
Those souls who believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, renounce 
the worship of the God of the Jews, who is the prince of darkness, 
and obey the laws delivered by Christ, and illustrated by Manes the 
Comforter, are gradually purified from the contagion of matter, and 
their purification being comj)let€d, after having passed through the 
two states of trial, by fire and w'ater, tirst in the moon and then in the 
sun, their bodies return to the original mass, (for the Manicheans 
denied the resurrection of bodies,) and their souls ascend to the re- 
gions of light ; but the souls of those who have neglected the salutary 
work of purification, pass after death into the bodies of other animals, 
or natures, w'here they remain till they have accomplished their pro- 
bation. Some, however, more perverse and obstinate, are assigned 
to a severe course of trial, being delivered over for a time to the 
power of malignant spirits, W'ho torment them in various ways. 
After this, a fire shall break forth and consume the world ; and the 
prince and powers of darkness shall return to their primitive seats of 
anguish and misery, in which they shall dwell for ever. These mani- 
sions shall be surrounded by an invincible guard, to prevent their ever 
renew ing a war in the regions of light. 
Manes borrowed many things from the ancient Gnostics; on which 
account many consider the Manicheans as a branch of the Gnostics. 
In truth the Manichean doctrine was a system of philosophy rather 
than of religion. They made use of amulets, in imitation of the Basi- 
lidians, and are said to have made profession of astronomy and astro-, 
logy. They denied that Jesus Christ, who w'as only God, assumed a 
true human body, and maintained that it was imaginary ; and there- 
fore they denied his incarnation, death, &c. They pretended that 
the law of Moses did not come from G6d, or the good principle, but 
from the evil one ; and that for this reason it w^as abrogated. They 
rejected almost all the sacred books, in which Christians look for the 
sublime truths of their holy religion. They affirmed that the Old 
Testament w as not the word of God, but of the prince of darkness, 
who was constituted by the Jews in the place of the true God. They 
abstained entirely from eating the flesh of any animal ; following 
herein the doctrine of the ancient Pythagoreans : they also condemn- 
ed marriages. The rest of their errors may be seen in St. Epiphanius 
and St. Augustine ; which last having been of their sect, may b6 pre- 
sumed to have been thoroughly acquainted with them. 
Though the Matiichees professed to receive the books of the 
Testament, yet in effect they only took So much of them as suited 
wjth their owm opinion. They first formed to themselves a certain 
idea or schepie of Christianity; and to this adjusted the writings 
