A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

In this diversity there was certainly nothing either intended ill towards the truth, or which could be directly drawn into ill construction; but when, about the time of the Nicene Council, the Arians began to sow their seeds of heresy touching the inequality of the three persons, and, the better to colour their pretences, sheltered themselves under the protection of the doxology, “the Father, by the Son, in the Holy Ghost,” formerly used, to which they constantly adhere, the Council of Nice, to avoid all occasion of future question, held herself to that form which came nighest to the form of baptism composed by our Saviour, and the doctrine of Christian faith; prescribing it to be punctually observed by all such as were of the orthodox party.—L’Estrange.

It were well if this ancient heresy were so buried as never to rise or revive any more. But, alas! that weed was never so thoroughly rooted out, but the seeds of it soon sprang up again, to the depraving of the doctrine and disturbing the peace of the Church. In these later years there hath arisen up one Socinus, a man of a subtle and crafty wit, who hath rubbed up and revived the same heresy, by denying the Divinity and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour, and hath carried away many by his cunning and corrupt reasoning.—Hole.

If the reasoning of Basil be conclusive, or his opinion may be relied upon, this hymn, Gloria Patri, derives its origin from the apostles. Glorifying the Father, and the Son, together with the Holy Ghost, was in Basil’s judgment practised and prescribed by the apostles themselves. This, he believes, was one of the “ordinances,” or “traditions,” which St. Paul praises the Corinthians for keeping, as they had been delivered to them by him (1 Cor. xi. 2); and exhorts the Thessalonians to hold, as they had been taught, whether by word, or by epistle. (2 Thess. ii. 15.) On this principle, Basil accounts for the practice of ascribing glory to the Trinity, which in his day was universal.—In different passages of his works we find him thus arguing: “As we have received, so must we be baptized; as we are baptized, so must we believe; and as we have believed, so must we glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”—Shepherd.

The earliest instance that we meet with of the use of this hymn, is found in the circular epistle of the Church of Smyrna, concerning the martyrdom of their beloved bishop Polycarp, from whence we learn that a doxology, nearly resembling Gloria Patri, was the last words he uttered. Polycarp was conversant with the apostles, and was consecrated bishop of Smyrna by St. John the Evangelist. To him, among others, St. John is said to have addressed the Revelation, in which Polycarp is entitled “the angel of the Church of Smyrna.” With some little difference in the phrase of their doxologies, the Christians of the three first ages agreed in uniformly expressing the same thing. Believing and confessing, that in the eternal Godhead there existed three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, they ascribed to them all honour and glory.—Shepherd.

To this very day this serves for these two uses; first, as a shorter creed, and confession of our believing in “three persons and one God,” whereby we both declare ourselves to be in the communion of the Catholic Church, and also renounce all heretics who deny this great and distinguishing article of our faith; secondly, for a hymn of praise, by which we magnify the Father for our creation, the Son for our redemption, and the Holy Ghost for our sanctification; and to quicken us herein, we declare it was so “in the beginning,” for the angels sung the praises of the Trinity in the morning of the creation; and the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, saints and martyrs, did thus worship God from the beginning. The whole Church militant and triumphant doth it “now,” and shall do it for “ever,” not only in this “world,” but in that which is “without end.” Let us, therefore, with great devotion, join with this blessed company in so good a work, and give glory to the Father who granted our pardon, to the Son who purchased it, and to the Holy Ghost who sealed it.—Comber.

GLOSS. A comment.

GNOSTICS. (From γνώσις, knowledge.) The word Gnostic properly signifies a learned or enlightened person; and thus Clement of Alexandria uses it to denote the perfect Christian, who is the true Gnostic. But in its more common use, the term signifies a class of heretics, who pretended to superior knowledge, and mixed up some Christian ideas and terms with systems based on Platonism, Oriental philosophy, or corrupt Judaism. To this class most of the earliest sects belonged. Simon Magus may be considered as the forerunner of Gnosticism; and in the second century there were many varieties of Gnostics—as the followers of Basilides Saturninus, Carpocrates, Valentinus, &c. Of these the Carpocratians alone are said to have assumed the name.

The Gnostic systems held in common a belief in one supreme God, dwelling from eternity in the Pleroma, or fulness of light. From him proceed successive generations of spiritual beings—called by Valentinus Æons. In proportion as these emanations are more remote from the primal source, the likeness of his perfections in them is continually fainter. Matter is regarded as eternal, and as inherently evil. Out of it the world was formed, not by the Supreme God, but by the Demiurge—a being who is represented by some heresiarchs as merely a subordinate and unconscious instrument of the Divine will, and by others as positively malignant, and hostile to the Supreme. The Demiurge was the national God of the Jews—the God of the Old Testament; according, therefore, as he is viewed, the Mosaic economy is either recognised as preparatory, or is rejected as evil. The mission of Christ was for the purpose of delivering man from the tyranny of the Demiurge. But the Christ of Gnosticism was neither very God nor very man. His spiritual nature, being an emanation from the Supreme God, was necessarily inferior to its original; and, on the other hand, an emanation from God could not dwell in a material, and consequently evil, body. Either, therefore, Jesus was a mere man, on whom the Æon Christ descended at his baptism, to forsake him again before his crucifixion; or the body with which Christ seemed to be clothed was only a phantom, and all his actions were only in appearance. (See Docetæ.)

The same view as to the evil nature of matter led the Gnostics to deny the resurrection of the body. They could admit no other than a spiritual resurrection; the object of their philosophy was to emancipate the soul from its gross and material prison at death; the soul of the perfect Gnostic, having already risen in baptism, was to be gathered into the bosom of God, while such souls as yet lacked their full perfection, were to work it out in a series of transmigrations.

Since matter was evil, the Gnostic was required to overcome it. But here arose an important practical difference; for, while some sought the victory by a high ascetic abstraction from the things of sense, the baser kind professed to show their superiority and indifference by wallowing in impurity and excess.—(See Bardesanists, Basilidians, Carpocratians, Marcionites, Ophitæ, Valentinians.)