[426:5] Though Milner, in his “History of the Church of Christ,” quotes these letters so freely, he seems to have scarcely turned his attention to the controversy respecting them.  Hence he intimates that Ussher reckoned seven of them genuine, though it is notorious that the Primate of Armagh rejected the Epistle to Polycarp. (See Milner, cent. ii. chap, i.) Others, as well as Milner, who have written respecting these Epistles, have committed similar mistakes.  Thus, Dr Elrington, Regius Professor of Divinity in Trinity College, Dublin, the recent editor of “Ussher’s Works,” when referring to the Primate’s share in this controversy, speaks of “the recent discovery of a Syriac version of four Epistles by Mr Cureton!” “Life of Ussher,” p. 235, note.

[428:1] “Instit.” lib. i. c. xiii.  Sec. 29.

[429:1] See Bunsen’s “Hippolytus,” i. p. 27.

[430:1] Period I. sec. ii. chap, iii. pp. 202, 203.

[430:2] See Tertullian, “Adversus Hermogenem,” c. x. and iv.

[430:3] [Greek:  gnosis].

[431:1] Ps. cxiii. 6.

[431:2] See Tertullian, “Adversus Marcionem,” lib. i. c. 2.  About this time many works were written on the subject.  Eusebius mentions a publication by Irenaeus, “On Sovereignty, or on the Truth that God is not the Author of Evil,” and another by Maximus on “The Origin of Evil.”  Euseb. v. 20, 27.

[431:3] Irenaeus, “Contra Haeres.” lib. i. c. 24, Sec. 7.

[433:1] Irenaeus, lib. i. c. 24.  According to Clemens Alexandrinus, Basilides flourished in the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius.  “Stromata,” lib. vii.  Opera, p. 764.

[433:2] [Greek:  Buthos kai ennoia, nous kai aletheia, logos kai zoe].

[433:3] According to some, Valentine was the disciple of Marcion.  Clemens Alexandrinus states that Marcion was his senior.  “Strom.” lib. viii.  Tertullian says expressly that Valentine was at one time the disciple of Marcion.  “De Carne Christi,” c. 1.

[434:1] See Neander’s “General History,” by Torrey, ii. pp. 171, 174, notes.

[434:2] See Kaye’s “Clement of Alexandria,” pp. 316, 317.

[435:1] The Ophites carried this feeling so far as to maintain that the serpent which deceived Eve was no other than the divine Aeon Sophia, or Wisdom, who thus weakened the power of Ialdabaoth, or the Demiurge.

[435:2] See Mosheim, “De Caussis Suppositorum Librorum inter Christianos Saeculi Primi et Secundi.”  “Dissert, ad Hist.  Eccl.  Pertin.” vol. i. 221.

[437:1] His great text was Rev. xx. 6, 7.  Hence some now began to dispute the authority of the Apocalypse.

[437:2] Others, who do not appear to have been connected with Montanus, but who lived about the same time, held the same views on the subject of marriage.  Thus, Athenagoras says—­“A second marriage is by us esteemed a specious adultery.”—­Apology, Sec. 33.

[437:3] “Nam idem (Praxeas) tunc Episcopum Romanum, agnoscentem jam prophetias Montani, Priseae, Maximillae, et ex ea agnitione pacem ecclesiis Asiae et Phrygiae inferentem, falsa de ipsis prophetis et ecclesiis eorum adseverando et praecessorum ejus auctoritates defendendo coegit et litteras pacis revocare jam emissas et a proposito recipiendorum charismatum concessare.”—­Tertullian, Adv.  Praxean., c. i.