1797-] 
ftrong tingture of that myftical fpirir 
which gave birth to the cabbala. His 
allegorical and fanciiul method of writ- 
ing concerning divine powers, might 
contribute towards difleminating “among 
his countrymen, the notion of plurality 
in the divine nature. 
About the commencement of the Chrif- 
tiam era, we find traces of an extrava- 
gant abufe of the doétrine of emanation, 
under the name of Gnoftici{m, fimilar 
tothat of the Jewifh Cabbala. Cerrain 
profeffors of the Ovtental philofophy 
feem to have borrowed fromthe Grecks, 
with whom they had intercourfe in Alex- 
andria, the name of Gnoltics, to exprefs 
their pretenfions to a perfect knowledge 
of the divine nature. From the infinite 
fountain of deity, they conceived various 
orders of fubftantial powers to flow, yet 
&il] to be comprehended within the 
(rrnowan) plenitude of the divine nature : 
to theie they gave the generai name of 
(aiwives) zons, and conceiving them to be 
productive, they defcribed them as male 
and female. Simon Magus, the Sama- 
yitan fanatic, or impolior, perfuaded his 
countrymen, that he wasan zon of high 
rank, when ‘‘he gave out that he was 
“fome Great Qne,’’ and was revered as 
the Great Power of God.”” Weare told, 
that he afcribed a fimilar kind of divine 
nature to his wife, Helena, pretending 
that the was inhabited by a female zon. 
Among tlie early: converts to Chrift-a- 
nity were many who embraced the doc- 
trines of the Gnoftics, and have been 
hence called Gnoftic heretics. The apof- 
tle Paul probably refers to the Gnoftic 
generations of gons, when he cautions 
Timothy againft giving heed to * endlefs 
geneglogies,” and ‘‘old wives’ fables.” 
The firft epiftle of John is expreisly 
pointed againft one fegt of Gnoftic Chrif- 
tians, who, according to the emanative 
fyftem, judging it dithonourable to the 
fonof God tobe conneéted with matter, 
held that the body of Chri had no real 
exiftence, but was a mere phantom. 
Bar, though the early propagators and 
teachers of Chriftianity rejeéted the Gnof- 
tic herefies, they feem not to have been 
altogether free from the influence of the 
Oriental fyftem of emanation, or indeed 
* to have differed,’ materially, « from 
the heretics, in their prime abftract prin. 
ciples and modes of reafoning.”’ Having 
imbibed the notion then {preading in 
the , Jewith, as well as Alexandrian 
fchools, that fubftantial powers were 
produced by emanation in the divine na~ 
ture , and having, many of them, read 
Lhe Enquirer, No. XIV. 
19I 
the writings of Philo, and of Plato, un- 
der the influence of this notion, they 
were eafily led to believe, that the /ogos, 
or divine reafon, had received, by the 
emanative power of the firft principle, 
a fubttantial perfonal exiftence within 
the divine effence, and that this /ggos 
had united himfelf to Jefus. ‘This ap- 
pears evidently to have been the idea of 
Juftin Martyr, who fpeaks of Chrift as 
‘©a certain rational power which God be- 
gat of himf<If before all creatures,’ ana 
calls him **the reafon, of -which the 
whole human race partakes.’’ ‘Tatian, 
Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Tertul- 
lian, who all flourifhed in the fecond, ot 
at the beginning of the third century, 
clearly exprefs the fame notion. ‘Ter- 
tullian, however, takes great pains to 
affure his reader, that by the reafon or 
werd, fent forth from God, he means, 
not an aétor quality, but a fubftance. 
His argument is curious: * What pro- 
ceeded trom {fo great a fubftance, and 
made fuch great fubftances, is not itfelf 
void of fubitance*,”’ © 
If this be ajuft reprefentation of the 
ftate of opjnions on this fubject in the 
fecond century, it may be difficult to af- 
fign a good reafon, why it fhould not 
apply tothe firtt. The evangelift John, 
in particular, whole gofpel was probas 
bly not written till towards the Ae of: 
the firft century, and who, as we have 
wlieady feen, was no ftranger to the doc- 
trine of emanation, might have been 
led, in the fame way as Juftin Martyr 
and others, to a belief, that his mafter~ 
had been animated by the firft divine 
-emanationwithin the effence of Deity, 
the logos; and this notion might have 
led him to write (fuppofing it to be hist) 
the introduction to his gofpel, and might 
«have fuzgefted the expretlion (qooyeves) 
only begotten, and feveral others of the 
fame clafs. Some paffages in the epifto- 
lary parts of the New Teftament may, 
perhaps, admit of a fimilar explanation, 
on the fuppofition, that the apoftles bor- 
rowed + terms from the Gnoftic fyftem, 
or Jewifh cabbala, 
The notion and belief of real fubfitt- 
ences, produced by emanation within the 
divine effence, being in this man.wr in- 


= 
* See the paflages here referred to, cited at 
length in Dr, Morgan’s Inveftigation, p. 111— 
Ps: : 
+ See Mr. Manning’s Affize Se:mons, 
notes. 
{ Dr. Hey’s Lectures in Divinity, wol, ii. p. 
384. 
Coz troduced, 
