From the motley and incoherent system which we have now attempted to describe, certain practical con sequences arose. First of all, it led the Gnostics to the incessant study of magic, in order to avert the influence, or weaken the power of the malignant genii. And, se condly, they were taught by it to practice all the va rieties of mortification and modes of austerity. The body was the scarce and centre of evil, and it was not to be supported or cherished, lest the soul, the ethereal part, should be still farther degraded and enslaved. Hence the more rigid of the sect abstained from the most innocent gratifications ; they rejected marriage and the society of women, and spent their whole lives in a com plete abstraction from the world, in penitence, obinutes eence, and 'rarer. Who does not sec that the celibacy of the Romish clergy, and the penances which the Ro mish church enjoins upon her votaries, may be traced to the heresy of the Gnostics, and especially to that part of it which respects the malignity of matter? Monastic institutions had their origin in the same error. Simon Stylites must be regarded as a practical disciple of the Gnostic school. St DUnstan, if there be any truth in the history which is given of him, may be classed with Si mon Stylites; and the race of pilgrims and flagellants will complete the catalogue of deluded individuals, and the triumph of philosophical speculation over the sim plicity of genuine Christianity, and the obvious applica tion of its precepts. What we have stated above was the practice of the more numerous and rigid of the Gnostics ; others of them, however, made a different use of their favourite notion, the malignity of matter ; for they re garded the soul as utterly unaffected by the actions of the body, asserted the innocency and the propriety of yielding to every dictate of nature, and indulged them selves in every species of vice. This division of the Gnostics could not possibly have any great respect for the decalogue or the authority of Moses ; and we may not perhaps be very far mistaken, if we suppose them to have been the chief admirers of the serpent.
The tenets of the later Platonists were scarcely less pernicious than the reveries of the Gnostics. Besides their philosophical opinions, which were those of the Eclectics, they maintained that the morality of the sa cred scriptures was of two sorts, one more gross for the multitude, and another more refined, for Christians of superior merit and sanctity. Hence the counsels of our religion were distinguished from its precepts ; the for mer being meant for those who, by contemplative ab straction, aspired to an immediate intercourse with the Divinity, and the latter for such as were disposed to sa tisfy themselves with discharging the ordinary duties of life. They maintained likewise the pernicious dogma, that the end, if good, justifies the means which are em ployed in order to attain it, of whatever description those means may be. It is true, this sentiment was propagated at first with great caution, and with many explanations ; but it soon spread abroad, and was generally received, and it gave birth to all that train of imposture, and all those pretended miracles and legends, which, in suc ceeding ages, brought disgrace upon the Christian church. Alexandria was the chief scat of the later Pla
tonists. Ammonius Saccus is regarded as the founder of the sect ; and it ranks among its adherents no less a man than the respectable Origen himself.
For an account of the primitive order and government of the church, the reader may consult the history of the following period, where the rise and progress of the pa pacy is traced.
THE order established and recognized in the primi tire church, was exceedingly simple. The care of each congregation was entrusted to its pastor or bishop, along with a certain number of assistants ; and these last were particularly consulted in matters of government and dis cipline. To the pastor or bishop, and his assistants, were added the deacons, whose business it way to take charge of the poor. The office of pastor continued for life, unless it was forfeited by some instance of miscon duct on the part of him who enjoyed it. l le %tits com monly styled the bishop or overseer, and sometimes the angel of the congregation to which lie belonged: (See Bisnor.) In the first age, the ecclesiastical Junction:t ries were supported by the voluntary contributions of the people attached to them. The whole society was join ed together in one principle of love, and its menthe's were distinguished by a " simplicity and godly sincerity," which we shall look for in vain in the succeeding ages of the church.
Out of this primeval simplicity, the hierarchy and the papacy arose ; but they arose by gradual steps, and con secutive and sometimes imperceptible deviations, front the apostolical pattern. memo fit repcnte turpissimus, is a maxim which applies not only to individuals, but to societies. The interest and the splendour of an order of men may be promoted and secured by unjustifiable means, as well as the interest and the splendour of any one man. But in both cases, the changes are commonly slow, and the encroachments gradual and successive. Let us trace, as shortly and distinctly as we can, the steps by which the usurpations of the hierarchy reached their unwarrant able and criminal height.
First of all, the distinction between the bishop and his assistants was rendered more obvious and considerable. Next, an idea began to prevail, that these assistants were only the representatives of the bishop, deriving their powers exclusively from him, and subject, in the exer cise of those powers, to his superintendence, inspection, and controul. He ordained the functionaries in question to the clerical office, and they were tried in what may be called, even at this early period, his consistory court. The property of the church, arising from the liberal donations of the Christian brethren, was now regarded as belonging, in a great degree, to the bishop, and in the disposal and use of it, he not unfrequently consulted his own importance and splendour. This property Was sometimes in land; but whether in land, or in money, or in cups and vestments, when once consigned to the church, it remained forever in her possession. She could acquire property, but she could not lose it ; no in dividual could deteriorate it to the injury of his succes sor ; no deed or settlement could alienate it, to the inju ry of the community.