Austin fays, facrificed to idols, and did not oppose the Gentile fuperftitions

Upon the whole, this doctrine of the non-obligation of martyrdom, and the practice of facrificing to idols, is fo generally laid to the charge of the Gnoftics, and it is fo confonant to their other principles, that it is impoffible not to give fome credit to the accounts. It is evident, however, that the charge was not univerfally true. Some Marcionites, in particular, had fo great a value for the gospel, and held the obligation of truth fo facred, that they fuffered martyrdom rather than renounce their profeffion of chriftianity. In Eufebius the Marcionites are faid to have boafted of many martyrs and particular mention is made by him of one Afclepius, a Marcionite martyr ‡.

Hi nec ab iis quæ idolis immolantur cibos fuos feparant, et alios ritus gentilium fuperftitionum non adverfantur. Catalogus Hær. vol. 6. p. 14.

+ Και πρώτοι γε οι απο της Μαρκίωνος αιρεσεως Μαρκιωνίσαι καλε μενοι, πλειτ8ς οσες εχειν χρισε μαριερας λεγεσιν· αλλα τον γε χρισον αυτον καλα αλήθειαν εκ ομολογεσι Hill. lib. 5. cap. 16. p. 232.

De Martyribus Paleftinæ, cap. 10. p. 426.

We

We may

learn from the New Teftament, that fome perfons profeffing christianity did not, for fome time at least, refrain from eating things facrificed to idols, or from fornication. But though this might be from want of confideration, rather than from principle, the apoftle Paul does not fail to expoftulate with them with peculiar earneftnefs on the fubject. See 1 Cor. x. 20. 2 Cor. vi. 16. See also what he obferves concerning the neceffity of all who would walk godly in Chrift Jefus, fuffering perfecution, 2 Tim. iii. 10. with the enumeration of his own fufferings in feveral places, which feems to allude to the contrary principles and practices of others.

There are alfo perfons characterized by holding the doctrine of Balaam, both in the fecond epiftle of Peter, the epiftle of Jude, and the book of Revelation; and in this book, chap. ii. 14. they are defcribed as teaching to eat things facrificed to idols, as well as to commit fornication. It is probable, that they were all the fame class of perfons, and that they were Gnoftics, who held these principles. The particular com

mendation

mendation given to the martyr Antipas, in this book, ch. ii. 13. and the reproof given to the church of Thyatira, for fuffering a perfon called Jezebel to teach, and to feduce perfons to eat things facrificed to idols, chap. ii. 20. fhews that there were of thefe Gnoftics when that book was written.

Alfo the folemn promife at the conclufion of each of the epiftles to the feven churches, of efpecial favour to those who fhould overcome, plainly points out the obligation that chriftians were under to maintain the truth at the hazard of their lives. Nothing can more clearly prove this obligation on all chriftians, than our Lord's own doctrine and example, Matt. x. 39. He that findeth his life fhall lofe it, and he that lofeth his life for my fake fhall find it. But his own death, with refpect to which we are particularly exhorted to follow his example, is the strongest sanction that he could give to his precept on this head.

Indeed, nothing but the fenfe of this obligation, to maintain the profeffion of our faith in all events, could have fecured the prevalence of chriftianity in the world,

and

and have enabled it to triumph over all the obftacles that it had to encounter. No

1

thing else could have been fo well calculated to give mankind in general such a full perfuafion of the fincerity of chriftians, and of their high fenfe of the importance of the gospel, and confequently, to procure a proper attention to its principles, and gain converts to it.

The Gnoftics difpelieved the Refurrection.

ALL the Gnoftics, without exception,

from those who made their appearance in the time of the apoftles, down to the Manicheans, difbelieved the refurrection. They held matter and the body in fuch abhorrence, that they could not perfuade themselves that the foul was to be incumbered with it any longer than in this life. But they did not, therefore, give up all belief of future rewards and punishments. They believed the immortality of the foul;

and

and that the foul, divefted of the body, would be rewarded or punished according to the actions performed in it. Without this there could never have been any martyrs at all among them, as we have feen that there were among the Marcionites.

However, as the doctrine of a refurrection makes fo great a figure in the christian scheme, the Gnoftics, or at leaft fome of them, did not venture to deny it in words; but they faid it was a figurative expreffion, and either related to the moral change produced in the minds of men by the preaching of the gospel, or a rising from this mortal life to an immortal one, after the death of the body. According to Epiphanius, Hierax faid that the refurrection related to the foul, not to the body * and the Manicheans faid that the death of which Paul wrote was a ftate of fin, and the refurrection a freedom from fin†.

* Βελείαι γαρ καὶ ελος την σαρκα μη ανατάσθαι το παραπαν, αλλά την ψυχήν μονωίαίην, πνευματικήν δε την αναςασιν φασκει : Hær. 67. vol. 1. p. 709.

+ Θαναλον, ενταυθα φασι, εδεν άλλο λέγει ο παυλη το εν αμαρτια γινεσθαι, και ανατασιν το των αμαρτιων απαλλαγήναι. Chryfoftom, in 1 Cor. 15. Opera. vol. xi, p. 664.

VOL. I.

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This