, one of the chief leaders of the Egyptian Gnostics, flourished in
, one of the chief leaders of the Egyptian
Gnostics, flourished in the second century. These Gnostics blended the Christian doctrine with both the Oriental
and the Egyptian philosophy. They did not acknowledge
an eternal principle of darkness or evil. They maintained
that our Saviour consisted of two persons, Jesus the son of
Joseph and Mary, and Christ, the son of God, who entered into him at his baptism, and went out of him when
he was apprehended by the Jews some, if not all of them,
allowed the reality of his human body. Basilides, who
had the ambition to be the founder of a sect, contrived the
following modification of the heresy of the Gnostics. He
pretended that God, from his own essence, had produced
seven angels, or jEons. Two of these, called “power
”
and “wisdom,
” engendered the angels of the highest order, who having formed heaven for their own residence,
produced other angels of a subordinate nature, and these
again produced others, till three hundred and sixty-five
different orders or ranks were successively formed; all of
which had one Abraxas for their common head. The
lowest order living on the confines of the eternal, malignant, and self-animated matter, created this world, and the
inhabitants thereof. God added rational souls to men, and
subjected them to the government of angels. At length
the angels fell off from their allegiance to God, and into
terrible contests among themselves. He who governed the
Jewish nation was the most turbulent of all. In pity, therefore, to mankind, who groaned under their oppression and
discordant influence, God sent forth his son Christ, a principal JEon, to enter into the man Jesus, and by him restore
the knowledge of God, and destroy the dominion of the
angels, particularly of him who governed the Jews.
Alarmed at this, the god of the Jews caused apprehend
and crucify the man Jesus, but could not hurt the Æou
who dwelt in him. Such souls as obey Jesus Christ shall
at death be delivered from matter, and ascend to the supreme God: but disobedient souls shall successively pass
into new bodies, till they at last become obedient.