XXI. CHAP. Greece; and the theological system of Plato was taught with less reserve, and perhaps with some improvements, in the celebrated school of Alexandria." A numerous colony of Jews had been invited, by the favour of the Ptolemies, to settle in their new capital. While the bulk of the nation practised the legal ceremonies, and pursued the lucrative occupations of commerce, a few Hebrews, of a more liberal spirit, devoted their lives to religious and philosophical contemplation. They cultivated with diligence, and embraced with ardour, the theological system of the Athenian sage. But their national pride would have been mortified by a fair confession of their former poverty: and they boldly marked, as the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the gold and jewels which they had so lately stolen from their Egyptian masters. One hundred years before the birth of Christ, a philosophical treatise, which manifestly betrays the style and sentiments of the school of Plato, was produced by the Alexandrian Jews, and unanimously received as a genuine and valuable relic of the inspired wisdom of Solomon. A similar union of the mosaic faith, and Before Christ 100.. " Brucker, Hist. Philosoph. tom. i, p. 1349-1357. The Alexan drian school is celebrated by Strabo (1. xvii) and Ammianus (xxii, 6). • Joseph. Antiquitat. 1. xii, c. 1-3; Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, 1. vii, c. 7. P For the origin of the Jewish philosophy, see Eusebius, Præparat. Evangel. vili, 9, 10. According to Philo, the Therapeutæ studied philosophy; and Brucker has proved (Hist. Philosoph. tom. i, p, 787) that they gave the preference to that of Plato. 4 See Calmet, Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. ii, p. 277. The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon was received by many of the fathers XXI. the Grecian philosophy, distinguishes the works CHAP. of Philo, which were composed, for the most part, under the reign of Augustus." The material soul of the universe' might offend the piety of the Hebrews: but they applied the character of the logos to the Jehovah of Moses and the patriarchs; and the son of God was introduced upon earth under a visible, and even human appearance, to perform those familiar offices which seem incompatible with the nature and attributes of the universal cause.* The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, Revealed the authority of the school of Alexandria, and the by the as the work of that monarch; and although rejected by the protestants for want of a Hebrew original, it has obtained, with the rest of the Vulgate, the sanction of the council of Trent. The platonism of Philo, which was famous to a proverb, is proved beyond a doubt by Le Clerc (Epist. Crit. viii, p. 211-228). Basnage (Hist. des Juifs, 1. iv, c. 5) has clearly ascertained, that the theological works of Philo were composed before the death, and most probably before the birth, of Christ. In such a time of darkness, the knowledge of Philo is more astonishing than his errors. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. s. i, c. 1, p. 12. • Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpori miscet. Besides this material soul, Cudworth has discovered (p. 562), in Amelius, Porphyry, Plotinus, and, as he thinks, in Plato himself, a superior, spiritual, supercosmian soul of the universe. But this double soul is exploded by Brucker, Basnage, and Le Clerc, as an idle fancy of the latter platonists. * Petav. Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii, 1. viii, c, 2, p. 791, Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. s. i, c. 1, p. 8-13. This notion, till it was abused by the arians, was freely adopted in the christian theology. Tertullian (adv. Praxeam, c. 16) has a remarkable and dangerous passage. After contrasting, with indiscreet wit, the nature of God, and the actions of Jehovah, he concludes: Scilicet ut hæc de filio Dei non credenda fuisse, si non scripta essent; fortasse non. credenda de patre licet scripta. apostle St. John, A, D. 97. CHAP. Consent of the Jews and Greeks, were insufficient XXI. to establish the truth of a mysterious doctrine, ཟ་་་་་་་་་ which might please, but could not satisfy, a rational mind. A prophet, or apostle, inspired by the deity, can alone exercise a lawful dominion over the faith of mankind; and the theology of Plato might have been for ever confounded with the philosophical visions of the academy, the porch, and the lycæum, if the name and divine attributes of the logos had not been confirmed by the celestial pen of the last and most sublime of the evangelists." The christian revelation, which was consummated under the reign of Nerva, disclosed to the world the amazing secret, that the logos, who was with God from the beginning, and was God, who had made all things, and for whom all things had been made, was incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth; who had been born of a virgin, and suffered death on the cross. Besides the general design of fixing on a perpetual basis the divine honours of Christ, the most ancient and respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have ascribed to the evangelic theologian, a particular intention to confute two opposite heresies, which disturbed the peace of the primitive church. → The platonists admired the beginning of the gospel of St. John, as containing an exact transcript of their own principles. Augustin, de Civitat. Dei, x, 29. Amelius apud Cyril. advers. Julian, 1. viii, p. 283. But in the third and fourth centuries, the platonists of Alexandria might improve their trinity, by the secret study of the christian theology. * See Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i, p. 377. The gospel according to St. John is supposed to have been published about seventy years after the death of Christ. XXI. ites and 1. The faith of the ebionites, perhaps of the CHAP. nazarenes, was gross and imperfect. They revered Jesus as the greatest of the prophets, The ebion endowed with supernatural virtue and power.docetes. They ascribed to his person and to his future reign all the predictions of the Hebrew oracles which relate to the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of the promised Messiah. Some of them might confess that he was born of a virgin; but they obstinately rejected the preceding existence and divine perfections of the logos, or son of God, which are so clearly defined in the gospel of St. John. About fifty years afterwards, the ebionites, whose errors are mentioned by Justin Martyr with less severity than they seem to deserve, formed a very inconsiderable portion of the christian name. II. The gnostics, who were distinguished by the epithet of docetes, deviated into the contrary extreme; and betrayed the human, while they The sentiments of the ebionites are fairly stated by Mosheim (p. 331) and Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 535). The Clementines, published among the apostolical fathers, are attributed by the critics to one of these sectaries. 2 Staunch polemics, like Bull (Judicium Eccles. Cathol. c. 2), insist on the orthodoxy of the nazarenes; which appears less pure and certain in the eyes of Mosheim (p. 330). a The humble condition and sufferings of Jesus have always been a stumbling block to the Jews. "Deus... contrariis coloribus "Messiam depinxerat; futurus erat rex, judex, pastor," &c. See Limborch et Orobio Amica Collat. p. 8-19, 53-76, 192–234. But this objection has obliged the believing christians to lift up their eyes to a spiritual and everlasting kingdom. Justin. Martyr. Dialog. cum Tryphonte, p. 143, 144. See Le Clerc, Hist. Eccles. p. 615. Bull, and his editor Grabe (Judicium Eccles. Cathol. c. 7, and appendix) attempt to distort either the sentiments or the words of Justin; but their violent correction of the text is rejected even by the benedictine editors. CHAP. asserted the divine nature of Christ. XXI. Educated in the school of Plato, accustomed to the sublime idea of the logos, they readily conceived that the brightest con, or emanation of the deity, might assume the outward shape and visible appearances of a mortal; but they vainly pretended that the imperfections of matter are incompatible with the purity of a celestial substance. While the blood of Christ yet smoked on mount Calvary, the docetes invented the impious and extravagant hypothesis, that instead of issuing from the womb of the virgin, he had descended on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; that he had imposed on the senses of his enemies, and of his disciples; and that the ministers of Pilate had wasted their impotent rage on an airy phantom, who seemed to expire on the cross, and, after three days to rise from the dead.o Mysterious The divine sanction, which the apostle had the trinity.bestowed on the fundamental principle of the nature of d The arians reproached the orthodox party with borrowing their trinity from the valentinians and marcionites. See Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, 1. iii, c. 5-7. & Non dignum est ex utero credere Deum, et Deum Christum ... non dignum est ut tanta majestas per sordes et squalores mulieris transire credatur. The gnostics asserted the impurity of matter, and of marriage; and they were scandalized by the gross interpreta tions of the fathers, and even of Augustin himself. See Beausobre, tom. ii, p. 523. e Apostolis adhuc in sæculo superstitibus apud Judæum Christi sanguine recente, et phantasma corpus Domini asserebatur. Cotelerius thinks (Patres Apostol. tom. ii, p. 24) that those who will not allow the docetes to have arisen in the time of the apostles, may with equal reason deny that the sun shines at noon day. These docetes, who formed the most considerable party among the gnostics, were se called, because they granted only a seeming body to Christ. |