The chief points of difference between the Pyrrhonists and Academics are thefe: The Academics laid it down as an axiom, that nothing can be known with certainty; the Pyrrhonists maintained that even this ought not to be positively afferted. The Academics admitted the real exiftence of good and evil; the Pyrrhonifts fufpended their judgment on this point. The Academics, efpecially the followers of Carneades, allowed different degrees of probability in opinion; but the Sceptics rejected all fpeculative conclufions, drawn either from the teftimony of the fenfes, or from reafoning; and concluded, that we can have no good ground for affirming or denying any propofition, or embracing any one opinion rather than another.* The Electic philofophy was in a flourishing state at Alexandria, when our Saviour was upon earth. Its founders formed the defign of felecting from the doctrines of all former philofophers, fuch opinions as feemed to approach nearest the truth, and of combining them into one fyftem. They held Plato in the highest esteem; but they did not fcruple to join with his doctrines, whatever they thought conformable to reafon in the tenets of oth er philofophers. Potamo, a Platonist, appears to have been the first projector of this plan. The Electic fyf tem was brought to perfection by Ammonias Saccas, who blended Chriftianity with the tenets of philofophy. The moral doctrine of the Alexandrian fchool was as follows: The mind of man, originally a portion of the Divine Being, having fallen into a state of darkness and defilement by its union with the body, is to be gradually emancipated from the chain of matter, and rife by con templation to the knowledge and vifion of God. The end of philofophy, therefore, is the liberation of the foul from its corporeal imprisonment. For this purpose, the Electic philofophy recommends abftinence, with other voluntary mortifications, and religious exercifes. † In the infancy of the Alexandrian fchool, not a few of the profeffors of Chriflianity were led, by the pretenfions of the Electie fect, to imagine that a coalition might, * Enfield. † Ibid. might, with great advantage, be formed between its fyftem and that of Chriftianity. This union appeared the more defirable, as feveral philofophers of this fect became converts to the Chriftian faith. The confequence was, that Pagan ideas and opinions were by degrees mixed with the pure and fimple doctrines of the gospel. The Oriental philofophy was popular in feveral nations, at the time of Chrift's appearance. Before the commencement of the Chriftian era, it was taught in the Eaft, whence it gradually fpread through the Alexandrian, Jewish, and Christian schools.* The Oriental philofophers endeavoured to explain the nature and origin of all things, by the principle of em. anation from an eternal fountain of being. The forming of the leading doctrines of this philofophy into a regular fyftem, has been attributed to Zoroafter, an ancient Perfian philofopher. He adopted the principle generally held by the ancients, that from nothing, nothing can be produced. He fuppofed fpirit and matter, light and darkness, to be emanations from one eternal fource. The active and paffive principles he conceived to be perpetually at variance; the former tending to produce good; the latter, evil: but that, through the intervention of the Supreme Being, the conteft would at laft terminate in favour of the good principle. According to Zoroafter, various orders of fpiritual beings, gods, or demons, have proceeded from the Deity, which are more or lefs perfect, as they are at a greater or less diftance in the courfe of emanation from the eternal fountain of intelligence, among which the human foul is a particle of divine light, which will return to its fource and partake of its immortality and matter is the last, or most distant emanation from the first source of being, which, on account of its diftance from the fountain of light, becomes opaque and inert, and whilft it remains in that fate, is the caufe of evil; but being gradually refined, it will at length return to the fountain, from whence it flowed. † * Enfield. + Thid. Thafe Others Those who profeffed to believe the Oriental philofophy, were divided into three leading fects, which were fubdivided into various factions. Some imagined two eternal principles, from whence all things proceeded; the one prefiding over light, the other over matter, and, by their perpetual conflict, explaining the mixture of good and evil that appears in the universe. maintained, that the being, which prefided over matter, was not an eternal principle, but a fubordinate intelligence, one of thofe, whom the fupreme God produced from himself. They fuppofed, that this being was moved by a fudden impulfe, to reduce to order the rude mass of matter, which lay excluded from the manfions of the Deity, and alfo to create the human race, A third fect entertained the idea of a triumvirate of beings, in which the fupreme deity was distinguished both from the material evil principle, and from the Creator of this fublunary world. That thefe divifions did really fubfift, is evident from the history of the Christian fects, which embraced this philosophy.* From blending the doctrines of the Oriental philofophy with Christianity, the Gnoftic fects, which were fo numerous in the first centuries, derive their origin. Other denominations arofe, which aimed to unite Judaism with Christianity. Many of the Pagan philofophers, who were converted to the Chriftian religion, exerted all their art and ingenuity to accommodate the doctrines of the gospel to their own schemes of philofophy. In each age of the church new fyftems were introduced, till, in process of time, we find the Chriftian world divided into that prodigious variety of fentiment, which is exhibited in the following pages. • Mosheim, vol. i. p. 70. 71. A View of Religions. PART I. A BRAHAMIANS, a denomination in the ninth century; so called from their founder, Abraham. They received the doctrines of the Paulicians, and are faid to have employed the cross in the most servile offices. [See Paulicians.] Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. i. p. 1o. ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, that established in the empire of Abyffinia. They maintain that the two natures are united in Chrift without either confufion or mixture; fo that though the nature of our Saviour be really one, yet it is at the fame time two-fold and compound. They differ from the Eutychians in this refpect: They confefs that the nature of Chrift is compofed of two natures, the divine and human, which being united, became one finglè nature; but Eutyches affirmed the human to be wholly abforbed in the divine. The Abyffinian Church embraced these tenets in the feventh century. They difown the pope's fupremacy, and tranfubftantiation, though they believe the real prefence of Chrift in the facrament. They adminifter the communion in both kinds. Like the Roman Catholics, they offer their devotions and prayers to the faints, and have proper offices, fafts, and festivals in memory of them. They believe a middle state, in which departed fouls must be purged from their fins, and may be greatly affifted and relieved by the prayers, alms, and pen ances |