Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

of Egyptian Gnostics, of the second century, were formed on the basis of the Ephesian letters."-Clarke. We here give a fac simile specimen of some of the figures and characters, cut in the amulets and charmed stones of those ages of Gnosticism, which were worn about their persons, ready for use when they wished to operate supernaturally, and were thus used by the Gnostics, a set of spurious Christians, whose extravagant opinions spread over all the east at a very early period, vestiges of which are yet remaining, and are often found beneath the soil, in many parts of Asia and Africa. (See the Plate.)

Simon Magus, is, by many writers, considered as the father of all the Gnostic heresies. He had been a wizard by profession; and so persuaded were the people of Samaria that he was some extraordinary person, that they affirmed him to be the great power of God. Acts, viii. 9, 10. But being converted by Phillip's preaching, he believed and was baptized; but relapsing soon after into his old ways, we see him offering money to Peter and John, to be endued like them with the power of working miracles. The terrible rebuke this impious proposal met with, brought him for a season, to a penitent frame of mind: here, however, the Apostolic narrative leaves him, and to complete his history we must refer to other sources of information.

We learn from Origen, of the second century, one of the fathers of Ecclesiastical history, that Simon Magus was at Rome during the persecutions under Nero, and taught his followers that they might conform to the rites of paganism without sin; and that, by this latitudinarian doctrine he saved them from martyrdom. This wretched man went so far as to announce himself to be the Saviour of the world. Nor was this enough: he united in his own nature all the persons of the Trinity; in Samaria, his native country, he was the Father, in Judea, the Son, amongst the Gentiles, the Holy Ghost. All the enormities of this odious magician need not be related; one, however, is too singular to be omitted: he carried about with him a lady named Helena, and announced her as the identical person whose fatal beauty had occasioned the Trojan war, (a thousand years before.) She had passed, by a hundred transmigrations, into her present form; she was the first conception, he said, of his own eternal mind; by her he had begotten angels and archangels, and by these had the world been created. This heresy was not much ahead of that of the Shakers of the present day, who believe that Ann Lee, the wife of a blacksmith in England, and the mother of many children, was the bride of the Lamb, or the Lamb's wife; and that she was the woman of the Revelations, who was clothed with the sun, and had the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and that by her, not only the door of complete and finished salvation was opened to this world, but the world to come; and that she suffered in like manner for

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][graphic][graphic][subsumed][graphic][graphic][graphic][graphic]

ship. The animal they succeeded to tame, by enticing it from its retreat with such food as pleased its appetite. This done, they would place the clements of the eucharist, so that the tongue of the serpent might be extended to them, after which they partook of them as from the hand of the Redeemer. On this gem is shown a serpent, with the head of a lion encompassed with rays, and is supposed to signify Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah. The right line traversed by three curved ones, on the other face of this gem, remains unexplained. The upper inscription is the mystic term ABRAXAS, or God. The lower characters have been generally taken as a Greek corruption of the awful tetragrammaton of the Jews, or Jehovah of the Gnostics; one of their most remarkable tenets was that malevolent spirits ruled the world, presided over all nature, and caused all the diseases and sufferings of the human race. But by knowledge, which is the meaning of the word Gnostic, they believed these spirits could be controlled, their power suspended, and even made subservient to the use and benefit of man. Of this science they boasted of being masters; which consisted chiefly in the efficacy of numbers, and certain mysterious hieroglyphics, and emblematic characters, adopted chiefly from the Egyptians. Hence they made systems of what they called monads, tryads, and decads; and formed figures of the dog Anubis, the serpent Serapis, and other idols, combined in a thousand varieties, with the forms of serpents and other animals of mythological renown. These compositions of mystic numbers and figures, they sculptured on gems and stones of different kinds, and maintained that whoever bore one of them upon his person, was secured by it from the particular evil it was construc ted to guard against.

Amulets against diseases were formed of materials having an imaginary connection with the distemper; as read against all morbid affections of an inflamatory character; chrystal, glass, or some pale colored stone, against those that were watery or dropsical; and so of all others.

No. 5 is a gem with a charm engraved upon it, to guard against the ague, constructed by an eminent follower of Bassillides, the Egyptian leader of the Gnostics. On one side is a human figure, with a head of a cock, the legs are serpents, and between them is the mystic word IAw. On the opposite are the elements of an ABRACADABRA, showing the process of the deity through the corporeal world, formed in this manner:

A EHIO Y

EHIO Y

HIOY

ΙΟΥ

O Y

Y

But lastly, in pursuit of evidence of the being of evil spirits, we bring the case of the Phillippian girl, which is recorded in the book of Acts, chap. xvi. who was possessed of a devil. This account, were it the only one in the whole Bible, would prove beyond all decent contradiction, that the belief is according to the truth. The account is as follows: The Apostles Paul and Silas, being in the city of Phillippi, in Macedonia, went out on a certain Sabbath day, by the side of a river, where was a place to which the Jews in that city resorted to pray, and to worship. But as they went, a certain young woman, who had for several. days before followed Paul and Silas, as they went about teaching the new doctrine of Christianity, crying with a loud voice, "these are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation;" so she continued to do on this day also. But Paul being grieved with her crying this thing continually, as he did not wish the testimony of one who was possessed with a devil to aid the cause of truth, which he was preaching, he turned to her "and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her; and he came out of her the same hour." This girl, it appears, was possessed with a spirit of divination, by which means the persons with whom she lived got much money, as by the spirit she could tell fortunes, and discover things that were lost. But by a mere word spoken by the Apostle, not to the girl, but to the spirit, by which she could divine, this power or gift at once forsook her, so that her masters perceived that the hope of their gain was gone. On which account a mob was soon collected, and both Paul and Silas cast. into prison. But the same night which followed the day in which those things took place, the whole city was shaken by an earthquake. The prison in which they were put trembled to its foundations; when the fetters and chains of all the prisoners were broken loose, a thing which a common earthquake could not have done, without breaking the limbs of the prisoners and causing their immediate death.

Now respecting this young woman, it is not said that she was sick or in any way afflicted with disease, or that she was mad, or distrated, or in any way outrageous: but that she simply answered questions as they were put to her, by those who wished to profit by what she could tell them. Yet the Apostle, by the power which he had of discerning spirits, saw that a devil had possession of her, and that this same devil knew the character and business of Paul and Silas, and from whence they derived it.. This spirit knew those men, as all the devils knew the Messiah before he came into the world, to be the dreadful Son of God, the Messiah, by whose power they had been driven down from heaven; and by whose power a hell of fire and brimstone had been created for them, into which they knew they were finally and permanently to be cast at the day of judgment. And for

this same reason, the devils spoken of in Matth. viii. 29, who were cast out of the men who had their dwelling among the tombs, adjured the Saviour, by the living God, not to torment them before the time of that judgment. And when this spirit which had possession of the girl, heard Paul and Silas preaching in the name of the Son of God, knew them to be his ministers, and immediately incited this poor ignorant young woman to cry out, "these are the servants of the most high God," or of Jesus Christ, which is the same; and proves that Christ was God, for Paul and Silas were the servants of Christ.

But possibly, it may be said by some who do not believe in the being of devils, otherwise than shown in the human heart, that as the girl had for several days heard the Apostles preach, she might take it into her head to hallo after them in this manner, saying, these are the servants of the most high God, &c. and therefore there was nothing supernatural about it. If this should be said, it is replied, that it appears the girl, however, was correct, and evinced by far a greater knowledge of the Messiah's kingdom than the disciples themselves, who had been with him several years before his death; and especially Thomas, who did not find out that he was his Lord and his God till after his resurrection, and even then with considerable difficulty. This is more than should be expected of the poor heathen girl, who did not know there was a most high God, having been taught, if taught at all, to believe in the existence of many gods, as images, the sun, moon, and stars, &c. That she was possessed, therefore, by a power superior to herself, is clear; and knew more than even the wisest citizens of Phillippi, which is the proof of Satanic influence.

But some may wish to know why St. Paul was displeased with the testimony which the girl gave, as it went to establish the truth of his preaching? This question is answered by Adam Clarke, and appears to be sufficient, who says: "Mark the deep design and artifice of this evil spirit. 1st. He well knew that the Jewish law abhored all magic, incantations, and dealings with familiar spirits; he therefore bears testimony to what was in itself true, that by it he might destroy their credit, and ruin their usefulness; as the Jews would at once be led to believe that the Apostles were in compact with demons, and that the miracle which had been wrought on the girl, was done by the aid of wicked spirits, and that the whole was the effect of magic. This conclusion of course, would have hardened their hearts against their preaching. 2d. The Gentiles finding that their own demon bore testimony to the Apostles, would most naturally consider that the whole was one system, and that they had nothing to learn, nothing to correct, and thus their preaching would have proved useless in that part of the country. In this predica ment, nothing could have saved the credit of the Apostles by

« ForrigeFortsæt »