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ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF GNOSTICISM, DURING THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
is the obligation on all true Christians of promoting , not only in legislative enactment , but in social intercourse , that mutual toleration , without which there can neither be liberality nor liberty . There are many observations in the volume before us , which tend directly to this point ; and many others which do so incidentally . On that and many other accounts we regard it as a valuable contribution to the cause of rational piety and useful practice .
Untitled Article
' Una superstitio , quamvis non concolor error . ' Prudentius . One of the earliest expedients adopted by the human mind to extend and perpetuate its knowledge , is classification . But the
distinctions thus introduced , however necessary to assist and direct the first stages of its intellectual progress , have no exact counterpart in the reality of things , and require to be softened down , and sometimes almost disappear , when the mind is brought by more enlarged observation to a juster conception of the infinite variety of truth . Nature executes nothing per saltum : throughout the universe every change is graduated , every transition
imperceptible . This remark is equally true of the history of man , and of the classification of human characters , parties , and opinions . Here , as in the kingdom of nature , the lines of demarcation between the several species are often traced with too much abruptness and precision ; and the facility with which the mind yields itself to an established distribution , and embraces the moral associations attached to it , offers a perpetual hinderance to the impartial administration of historical justice .
The proof of this statement we rest on the general history of sects , philosophical and religious : a more particular and a very curious illustration of it may be found in the rise and influence of those singular speculations , which , under the general title of
Gnosticism , introduced a new variety into the multifarious aspects of human opinion during the first ages of our era , and marked by imperceptible gradations every shade of belief and speculation , that claimed any kindred with Christianity , from Judaism on the one hand to the very verge of Polytheism on the other . * Our
* The works that we have followed as our authorities in the foil owing sketch of the Gnostic schools , in addition to what may be found in Lardner ( History of HereticsJ and Priestley ( History of Early Opinions , Sfc ., J are Histoire Critique du Gnostietsme ,
2 tome * avec planehet , par M . Jacques Matter , and Allgemtine Geschichte der Christlichen Religion und Kirche von Dr . August Neander . lsten band . 2 te Abtheilung , p . 414—540 . This last writer has devoted a particular work to the subject of Gnosticism , which we have not seen , Gmetische Entwiklvng , 8 fc . ; but as his general history appeared subsequently to that work , it may be supposed to exhibit in a condensed form his latest opinions and final corrections .
On The Influence Of The Spirit Of Gnosticism, During The First Centuries Of The Christian Era.
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF GNOSTICISM , DURING THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA .
Untitled Article
564 On the Influence of the
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 564, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/52/
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