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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
tnde > and the future dwelling-place of emancipated souls . The origin of evil was variously accounted for j sometimes a succession of evil spirits wsjs supposed * emanating from God , in an order correspondent to that of the good spirits ! as in the amshaipandM and dews of the system of Zoroaster ; sometimes th $ corruption was
gradual * as the spirits in the order of emanation approached the confines of the world of darkness , and came within reach of its influences ; sometimes the envy , jealousy , or ambition , of a subordinate spirit was the exeiting cause ; sometimes evil was regarded as an inherent property of matter , which the Creator could modify but not exterminate ,
These successive emanations from the supreme mind appear , at first view , to be nothing more than personified abstractions , inerely allegorical representations of the attributes and operations of the Divine intellect ; and their names favour this suppositiondepth , silence , truth , wisdom , man , grace , life ; but they were regarded as real beings , and invoked as such . Man , that is the
primitive type and general idea of man , as formed in the image of God and the visible representation of his perfections , was one of the most remarkable of these emanations : it figures in the Cabbala , and was thence transferred to some of the Gnostic systems .
Creation has ever seemed one of the deepest mysteries to the human mind . In reasoning from the visible and finite to the invisible and infinite , human conceptions necessarily intervene ; and the distinction of sex , with which the great law of production is connected in the natural world , suggested a gro 69 theory to the
first speculations on creation , and formed the basis of the earliest fictions of njythology . This essentiall y heathenish idea was not excluded from the Gnostic systems , which sometimes represented the emanations as proceeding in syzygics or coupler , with a recognition of the sexual distinction . The souls of individuals were
supposed to have their corresponding partners in the angelic world , with whom they were to be finally united . In the system of Valentinus , the consummation of all things was described as a great marriage festival ; in which SwrnQ and £ o $ kk will be joined in the bands of an everlasting union , with the pairs of flrvtc / jiugrucot and angels under them , in the pleromaj and lastly the demiurgue , with his - \ uy } Koi , will bring up the train of this celestial company , as the friend of the bridegroom , who rejoices greatly at his voice .
Such was the interpretation given to the words of the Baptist , ( John iii . 29 , ) as the representative of the demiurgus . By some of the Gnostics , baptism was considered as a mystic union with the spiritual partner in the unseen world , and celebrated as a kind of bridal feast- In fact , the Gnostics invented a system of Christian mythology , peopled heaven and earth with spirits , and wrought out the plain and simple facts of the gospel history into a wild tissue of dreamy speculations .
Untitled Article
spiritqf Qfno * tic $ m , & 71
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 571, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/59/
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