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The

LOGOS

taught in the School of Alexandria Before Christ 300

induce Plato to consider the divine nature under the threefold modification of the first cause, the reason or Logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe. His poetical imagination sometimes fixed and animated these metaphysical abstractions; the three archical or original principles were represented in the Platonic system of three Gods, united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable generation; and the Logos was particularly considered under the more accessible character of the Son of an Eternal Father, and the Creator and Governor of the world. Such appear to have been the secret doctrines which were cautiously whispered in the gardens of the academy; and which, according to the more recent disciples of Plato, could not be perfectly understood, till after an assiduous study of thirty years, 12

The arms of the Macedonians diffused over Asia and Egypt the language and learning of Greece; and the theological system of Plato was taught with less reserve, and perhaps with some improvements, in the celebrated school of Alexandria. 13 A numerous colony of Jews had been invited, by the favour of the Ptolemies, to settle in their new capital.14 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.15 They cultivated with diligence, and embraced with ardour, the theological system of the Athenian sage. 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 Before Christ they had so lately stolen from their Egyptian masters.

100

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

12 The modern guides who lead me to the knowledge of the Platonic System are Cudworth (Intellectual System, p. 568-620), Basnage (Hist. des Juifs, 1. iv. c. iv. p. 53-86), Le Clerc (Epist. Crit. vii. p. 194-209), and Brucker (Hist. Philos. tom. p. 675-706). As the learning of these writers was equal, and their intention different, an inquisitive observer may derive instruction from their disputes, and certainty from their agreement.

13 Brucker, Hist. Philosoph. tom. i. p. 1349-1357. The Alexandrian school is celebrated by Strabo (1. xvii.) and Ammianus (xxii. 6). [Cp. Vacherot, Ecole d'Alexandrie.]

14 Joseph. Antiquitat. 1. xii. c. 1. 3. Basnage, Hist. des Juifs. 1. vii. c. 7.

15 For the origin of the Jewish philosophv, see Eusebius, Præparat. Evangel. viii. 9, 10. According to Philo, the Therapeutæ studied philosophy; and Brucker has proved (Hist. Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 787) that they gave the preference to that of Plato.

unanimously received as a genuine and valuable relic of the inspired Wisdom of Solomon. 16 A similar union of the Mosaic faith and the Grecian philosophy distinguishes the works of Philo, which were composed, for the most part, under the reign of Augustus. 17 The material soul of the universe 18 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. 19

A.D. 97

The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, the authority Revealed by the Apostle of the school of Alexandria, and the consent of the Jews and st. John. Greeks, were insufficient to establish the truth of a mysterious doctrine 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 Lyceum, 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.20 The Christian Revelation, which was

16 See Calmet, Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. ii. p, 277. The book of the Wisdom of Solomon was received by many of the fathers 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.

17 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. i. p. 12. [Philo may have been about 25 years old at birth of Christ. For chronol. of his works see Masseb.eau, Le classement des œuvres de Philon.]

18 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, hupercosmian soul
of the universe. But this double soul is exploded by Brucker, Basnage, and Le
Clerc, as an idle fancy of the latter Platonists.

19 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. 20 The Platonists admired the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, as containing an exact transcript of their own principles. Augustin. de Čivitat. 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.

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The Ebionites and Docetes

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 per-
petual 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.21 I. The faith of the Ebionites,22 perhaps of the Naza-
renes, 23
was gross and imperfect. They revered Jesus as the
greatest of the prophets, endowed with supernatural virtue and
power. 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.24
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,25 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
asserted the divine, nature of Christ. Educated in the school

The Gospel

21 See Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manichéisme, tom. i. p. 377. according to St. John is supposed to have been published about seventy years after the death of Christ. [The controversy as to the date and the authorsn.p is still hot. It betrays the influence of Alexandrian theology. The influence of Pla.o, which Gibbon dwells on, is more particularly that of the Jew Philo. His view of the Logos as the eixov eoû, image of God, &c. may be considered the origin of the doctrine of the Word, developed by Christian theologians.]

22 The sentiments of the Ebionites are fairly sta.ed by Mosheim (p. 331) and Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 535). The Clementines pub.ished among the apostolical Fathers, are attributed by the critics to one of these sectaries. [See above, p. 10, note 22.] 23 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).

24 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, 5376, 192-234. But this objection has obliged the believing Christians to lift up their eyes to a spiritual and everlasting kingdom.

25 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.

of Plato, accustomed to the sublime idea of the Logos, they readily conceived that the brightest Eon, or Emanation of the Deity, might assume the outward shape and visible appearances of a mortal; 26 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,27 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.28

nature of

The divine sanction which the Apostle had bestowed on the Mysterious fundamental principle of the theology of Plato encouraged the the Trinity learned proselytes of the second and third centuries to admire and study the writings of the Athenian sage, who had thus marvellously anticipated one of the most surprising discoveries of the Christian revelation. The respectable name of Plato was used by the orthodox,29 and abused by the heretics,30 as the common support of truth and error: the authority of his

26 The Arians reproached the orthodox party with borrowing their Trinity from the Valentinians and Maicionites. See Beausobre, Hist. du Manichéisme, 1. iii. c. 5, 7: 27 Non dignum est ex utero credere Deum, et Deum Christum . . . non dignum est ut tauta 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 interpretations of the fathers, and even of Augustin himself. See Beausobre, tom. ii. p. 523. [That Christ was not born was the view of Marcion, not that of the early Docetæ, who accepted the incarnation by Mary, but regarded her as passive, and not contributing her substance,-like a pipe through which water flows.]

28 Apostolis adhuc in sæculo superstitibus apud Judæam 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 so called because they granted only a seeming body to Christ.

29 Some proofs of the respect which the Christians entertained for the person and doctrine of Plato may be found in De la Mothe le Vayer, tom. v. p. 135, &c. edit. 1757; and Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. iv. p. 29, 79, &c.

30 Doleo bona fide, Platonem omnium hæreticorum condimentarium factum. Tertullian. de Anima, c. 23. Petavius (Dogm. Theolog. tom. iii. proleg. 2) shews that this was a general complaint. Beausobre (tom. i. 1. iii. c. 9, 10) has deduced the Gnostic errors from Platonic principles; and, as in the school of Alexandria those principles were blended with the oriental philosophy (Brucker, tom. i. p. 1356), the sentiment of Beausobre may be reconciled with the opinion of Mosheim (General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 37).

Zeal of the
Christians

skilful commentators, and the science of dialects, were employed to justify the remote consequences of his opinions, and to supply the discreet silence of the inspired writers. The same subtle and profound questions concerning the nature, the generation, the distinction, and the equality of the three divine persons of the mysterious Triad, or Trinity,31 were agitated in the philosophical, and in the Christian, schools of Alexandria. An eager spirit of curiosity urged them to explore the secrets of the abyss; and the pride of the professors and of their disciples was satisfied with the science of words. But the most sagacious of the Christian theologians, the great Athanasius himself, has candidly confessed 32 that, whenever he forced his understanding to meditate on the divinity of the Logos, his toilsome and unavailing efforts recoiled on themselves; that the more he thought, the less he comprehended; and the more he wrote, the less capable was he of expressing his thoughts. In every step of the enquiry, we are compelled to feel and acknowledge the immeasurable disproportion between the size of the object and the capacity of the human mind. We may strive to abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter, which so closely adhere to all the perceptions of our experimental knowledge. But, as soon as we presume to reason of infinite substance, of spiritual generation; as often as we deduce any positive conclusions from a negative idea, we are involved in darkness, perplexity, and inevitable contradiction. As these difficulties arise from the nature of the subject, they oppress, with the same insuperable weight, the philosophic and the theological disputant; but we may observe two essential and peculiar circumstances which discriminated the doctrines of the Catholic church from the opinions of the Platonic school.

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I. A chosen society of philosophers, men of a liberal education and curious disposition, might silently meditate, and temperately discuss, in the gardens of Athens or the library of Alexandria, the abstruse questions of metaphysical science. The lofty speculations which neither convinced the understanding, nor agitated the passions, of the Platonists themselves were carelessly overlooked by the idle, the busy, and even the studious

31 If Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, (see Dupin, Bibliothèque Ecclésiastique, tom. i. p. 66) was the first who employed the word Triad, Trinity, that abstract term, which was already familiar to the schools of philosophy, must have been introduced into the theology of the Christians after the middle of the second century.

32 Athanasius, tom. i. p. 808. His expressions have an uncommon energy; and, as he was writing to Monks, there could not be any occasion for him to affect a rational language.

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