This error of the Manicheans in the Third Century and thereafter was more well known than the others, that there are two eternal and opposite Principia, one of the good, the other of evil: in the assertion of which heresy a superabounding herd of Gnostics followed, who already in the Second Century were conversant with this opinion: see SPANHEIM’S Historiam Ecclesiasticam, Century III, chapter VII, § 5, columns 751-753; BUDDEUS’ Isagogen ad Theologiam universam, book II, chapter VII, § 3, tome 2, pages 1025-1031; AUGUSTINE’S de Hæresibus, chapter XLVI, page 976a, in Danæi Opusculis; DANÆUS’ Notas in locis, page 970a; and compare either AUGUSTINE or DANÆUS in the same place, chapter VII, page 924a, chapter III, page 918a, chapter VI, pages 921b, 923b, chapter XXI, page 939a, b, chapter XXII, pages 940a, 941, chapter XIV, pages 932b, 933b, chapter XVI, page 934, chapter XXIII, page 942, 943. Among the Gentiles Plutarch held the same error, appealing to the most ancient peoples and the most celebrated Philosophers of the former age, who also held the same opinion; see LELAND’S de Utilitate et Necessitate Revelationis Christi, part I, section II, chapter XIII, pages 370-372.
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