New-York tribune., 1872-04-22


GNOSTICS-MODERN COUNIERPARTs.
The Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson, d. d.,
Rector OF Christ Church. Fifthave, delivered the
lecture in a course upon Bible History yesterday
afternoon, his subject being, "AntChrstan systems OF
the Early Centuries" He said:
God never builds church, they say. but tho Devil
builds chapel opposite it and Just as soon % az a Gon s
Church sent out into the world the Devil lad us
church ready to go with it, to stand OPPOSITE neLoss @
spoken OF Gods Church and its work. and propose ts
to speak Of the Devils cnre Sars Of the New
Testament ST. Paul sad THE spirit OF AnchIist even
nSw Is to in II the nTss Tord m snd oS% is s' SUPPOSED to have
written his Gospel and Epistes especially TO meet ,ee
the anti Christian Church OF In the early days,
this called the Gnostic system Y0u may stu ma %
system originated in the East and came into the west
Empire after 1t had conquered The East with all Tue
aspects 1t was either Eastern dreams Of Pantheisn
Of Duasm il either believed that all things & were nd
bad one. And whatever belief it had i, II agreed reed
verse Va % was @ in TITS Itself esSenay evil not divine but
devsh and these extreme opinions either Panheistc
with the thought of the West and finding Christianity
to find place for It under those systems.
cordng they Pauthestic or Dualistc and each
took up Christianity ard fitted 1t somewhere into the
claimed to penetrate all secrets of the universe eN-
plain eveyhng where good ana oyii came 10 ron.
plain all things affecting man in this world
SnCwicdge @ led st. PAM claimed for Christians that they
had divine knowledge which saved the souls OF men,
TO it. DnalIsm holds that the spirit world IS in itself
naturally good and the material world IS in itself natu
rav bad; and that man. therefore, having a body and
soul has good and bad nature; that tho body is
sentaly demoniac, and spirit essentially divine; and
part of the spirit, and the bad part. in which all
the evil roots itself, is the body.
But how came the divine pert of man into this evil
and sublime dreams they are II were going to be a
saviour that dicd for me, should 20 somewhere else
than to the foolish thoughts of modern men, I should
content myself only with OF these sublime
of he ORIENT some of those vast thoughts that wrested
with the great Chaos of the universe and came out with
something like explanation They started away
beyond space and time in the depth OF ever
lasting silence, and found portion Of the god
head there impersenal, motoriess, the everlasting
prOfundity Of it's eternal Qualities at rest. the
personal god the great All and beneath him lay seeti
over by spirits that were evl And these two, the ete
nal unknown mporsonal god and The vast chaotic evil
had existed they said one above and the other beneath
from everlasting. But ttis inperSonal god day
speaks and out of his speech there comes vast al
mighty being part OF the god ont into the universe
Aon, u world, universe, who passes out into
space aud afterward another and another and these
great Eons dwelling IL eternal light know nothing yet of
the duh, dead earth below and these Eons being not
perfect the eternal and divine silence must
tend and quarrel among themselves ana at last when
generation after generation OF Hone had como down.
away from the everlasting white nights that he comes
down and touches this vast world of chaos and sets to
to R 'Pa They calf II So last plgSs' Baaes 5aa the
wOrd-makcr. very small sort Of god This Demiurge
then makes the world and men and women; but they
that although they had bodies and fo they really
only better class of apes How, then. shall souls he
goteni Away yonder lies the eternal world of spirits
80 an onset attack is made upon the world of light,
ana during the confusion portion Of the eternal sub
put INTO bodies; ana at last You have
Seeing they have done SO, what shall the great God
do And there Gnosticsin found Its place for Chris
/ tianitV.
So lar you have only grand sublime Oriental dream.
meised in matter foreyerl Shall these sparks from the
| everlasting fire remain smothered in the mud of this
earth forever mOrei of God part OF God
ever spark Of divinity remains spark OF divinity
forever more; you cannot anhiate or destroy IT, How
shall that portion be brought packi The Gnosc SAID
the great God saw this and His heart was sad. The
world of spirit God, could content to be
| divided. 80 GOG sends Chrlst, great Hon, dl-
| rectly from himself down to the earth with a sem
! they can deliver their souls from the
slavery of matter divine sparks to the
heavens above the heaven which lies Just above this
worldso far was the white world away from the black
led order TO be saved. so they accepted Christ aud
found place in their system for, Christianity. They
OF every one; that all these sparks later
Eon a great eInanation from God. They denied that
there any resurrection or atOnemcnt mediation
between God and man. i'll fact they denied all that is
There is a certain philosopher in our county who has
taken oriental ideas, and imposed upon many simple.
minded people by claiming that they original with
him. lie is reported having said that man. being
part OF Brama part OF ne divine head, and TO
20 back to it, 1t makes difference how lie lives while
he is here whether he on the scafold. condemned
murderer or al MS hIesde engaged in family prayer:
III church or IN brOtc he is still the high road to
te PSes0R %e noT sgRpSse The New
his life is concerned, taking that View he is
but let him cast that theory broadcast
through this any other community, and say that
what you doing, you on the highroad to nn-
te perfection, ana what sort or morality do You sup
cisey. The morality either Infamous ascetic in
the very highest degree GnOsticism had basis for
part out Of matter and as a diamond is Diamond
although you bury it in the soul of man,
matter how immersed it may be in the flesh, being a
fash from the divine light remains pure holy where
soever may be- and therefore no repentance or pnr
1cati0n is required for tno atOnement redemption
AL you want to do is to get 1t out Of the matter
The first eedaers Of the World fe Were iSe
They had clumsy chemistry III their me and believed
and Therefore must not be because ar %a:
bad ana therefore they celebrated the Holy CoInlnu
water but this is the only case ever read Of
where the Holy Communion was administered with
bread and milk milk Another thing which they did
in the New testament silasions to evil evil
was Of the devil. That is thing that we have heard
believe other lines of thought from among ourselves
At all events the opposition to and denuncaton
rage on the part OF men or women is by no
thing. You see we have not invented anything, and
there is scarcely anything to invent certainly nothing
IN the way OF human thought But 1t docs not follow
the proceeded
timent of purity will our modern yilcness
but 10 was theirs.
The different sects Of the GnOstics disappeared about
the fourth century. All seem TO have been swallowed
up in the lost perfection OF the system, known as
Manlcheisin or Persian Dualism combined with Chris
tanity which from that time appears as the great oppo
ston system TO Christianity This Mancheisn, OF the
GnOstcism OF the early times passed down through all
the intervening ages. and find Its impression even
now left various secs and in the minds OF
people. There remains OF II even Protestants
II you will search should be very much surprised II
you did not find such thoughts within your minds
an f.l anf had
comes from his body and when he dies and the body
is shuffed of, he is all right
The instrument IL charged with the SIN lust az N the
murderer should blame the dagger pistol with which
he commits the crime. The man fails TO that the
10 Iiv edo