"He (Valentinus) too, like Basilides, supposes a race (yivos) which is saved by nature."-p. 603.

"If any one knows God by nature, which is the opinion of Basilides....... He (Basilides) says, that faith is not the rational consent of a mind endowed with free-will. The precepts both of the Old and New Testament are superfluous, if any one be saved by nature, as Valentinus maintains; and if any one be faithful and elect by nature, as Basilides thinks."-p. 645.

"Of heresies, some are called from the names of their founders, as from Valentinus, and Marcion, and Basilides." p. 899.-It is evident from this passage, that the peculiar opinions of Valentinus, Marcion, and Basilides, were considered as heretical by the church at the time they were first propagated, as Clement of Alexandria lived soon after them.

"The doctrine of Valentinus is, There are many material men, but not many animal men; and very few spiritual. That, therefore, which is spiritual, is saved by nature. That which is animal, being endowed with free-will, has a fitness for faith and incorruption, and also for unbelief and corruption, according to its own choice; but that which is material, perishes by nature (t)."p. 983.

(t) This passage is taken from the Excerpta ex Theodoti Scriptis.

TERTULLIAN.

"I WILL now, in conclusion, collect together what they (the Valentinians) maintain concerning the disposal of the whole human race. Having professed an original threefold nature, united, however, in Adam, they then divide it according to the peculiar properties of each kind, taking occasion for this distinction, (which is divided into three parts by moral differences also) from the posterity of Adam himself. They make use of Cain, Abel, and Seth, the fountains, as it were, of the human race, as arguments for so many natures and essences. The material, which is not designed for salvation, they refer to Cain; the animal, which is left to an intermediate hope, they refer to Abel; the spiritual, which is preordained to certain salvation, they refer to Seth. Thus they also distinguish souls themselves, by two properties, good and bad. They assert, that the material kind, that is, bad souls, never admit of salvation. For they have pronounced their nature to be incapable of change and reformation."-p. 260.

ORIGEN.

ORIGEN speaks of Heretics, who thought that those souls, which they called spiritual natures, were incapable of change (inconvertibiles et contrarii incapaces.)-Vol. 1. p. 72.

"Those who, coming from the schools of Marcion, and Valentinus, and Basilides, have been taught that there are different natures of souls. Vol. 1. p. 98.

After quoting some passages of Scripture, he says, "Certain Heretics pervert these passages, almost destroying free-will, by maintaining that there are abandoned natures, incapable of salvation, and that there are other natures which are saved, and which cannot possibly perish."— Vol. 1. p. 115.

In his fifth book against Celsus, in answering the objection of Celsus, arising from the number of sects into which Christianity was then divided, he says, "Let it be supposed that there is a third set of persons, who call some men animal, and others spiritual: I suppose that he is speaking of the Valentinians. But what is that to us of the Church, who condemn those who maintain, that there are some persons formed by nature to be saved, and others formed by nature to perish." Vol. 1. p. 624.

CYRIL OF JERUSALEM.

THE soul is immortal, and all the souls of men and women are alike; for the bodily limbs only vary. There is not an order of souls which sin by nature; and an order of souls which act justly by nature; but both according to free-will;

souls

souls being of a like form and substance in all persons. I know that I am using many words, and that I have already occupied much time; but what is more valuable than salvation? Will you not take some trouble in providing against Heretics? Do you not wish to know the deviation from the road, that you may not fall down a precipice without being aware of it?"-p. 62.

"We will not bear with those who put a wrong interpretation upon this passage, In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil (u);' as if some men were saved, and others perish by nature; for we come into this holy adoption, not by necessity, but from our own freewill."-p. 118.

EPIPHANIUS.

"THEY (the Valentinians) say, that there are three orders of men, spiritual, animal, carnal. They assert, that they themselves belong to the spiritual order, as do the Gnostics, and that they stand in need of no labour, only knowledge, and their mysterious terms; that every one of them may do any thing without fear or care: for they say, that their order, being spiritual, will be entirely saved. But that the other order of men in the world, which they call animal, cannot be saved of itself, unless it should save itself by labour

(u) I John, c. 3. v. 10.

labour and just conduct. But they say, that the material (carnal) order of men in the world, can neither acquire knowledge, nor receive it, even if any person of that order should wish for it; but that they perish, soul and body together." Vol. 1. p. 172.

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUM.

ALL, he says, do not receive the word, but those to whom it is given.' When you hear the expression to whom it is given,' do not adopt any heretical notion; do not fancy that there are different natures, earthly, spiritual, and middle

natures.

For certain persons are so ill disposed, as to imagine that some are of a nature which must absolutely perish, others of a nature which must be saved; and that a third sort are so circumstanced, according as their will may lead them to vice or to virtue."-Vol. 1. p. 504.

JEROME.

"WHEN it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen (r):' not only in this passage, but in his epistle to the Romans, Paul writes, that he was separated unto the Gospel of God (y) and Jeremiah is said to have been known

(x) Gal. c. I. v. 15, 16.

(y) Rom. c. I. v. I.