Manichaeism before the Manichaeans, and its Revival in Christianity

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...of them The author is continuing a sentence describing systems of error; specifically, those regarding the nature of God and the universe., one makes God the material cause of all things and asserts that all things have emanated from the divine essence as if from a most fertile fountain; the other, not very different, divides the divine sovereignty and invents various principles to which the whole framework of things owes its formation. The former view was so approved by the gentiles that for a long time learned men have seen the whole mass of Paganism as built upon it as a foundation.

Read, if you please, Cudworth Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688), a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists., the most learned of English writers, in his Intellectual System of this Universe, written in English original: "System. Intellect. hujus Universi anglice scripto" — referring to The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678)., Book I, Chapter IV, page 308; and B. Hinckelmann Abraham Hinckelmann (1652–1695), a Hamburg theologian who published the first printed edition of the Quran in Arabic and wrote critiques of Jacob Boehme's mysticism. in his Detection of the Foundations of Boehme, page 107.

Cudworth, in the cited book on page 342 and following, proves from various sources—including the writings of Hermes—that the Egyptians (who were certainly the chief authors or supporters of idolatry) were so persuaded. As Lactantius An early Christian author (c. 250 – c. 325) who became an advisor to Emperor Constantine. witnesses in the Divine Institutes, Book I, Chapter VI, the name Trismegistus original: "Trismegisti" — "Thrice-Greatest." was given to Hermes because of his knowledge of many subjects and arts. The same author states on page 506 that Orpheus The legendary Greek musician and prophet. received this error from the Egyptians and transmitted it to the Greeks; I believe this passage should be read in conjunction with page 300 and following. It will be clearly understood from page 506 and following of the same work that Orpheus did not lack supporters and followers in Greece. B. Hinckelmann, the most deserving theologian of Hamburg, devoted greater effort to demonstrating the universality of this erroneous opinion on pages 84 and following of the cited booklet, where he discusses both the Chaldeans and Egyptians...

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