natural order and succession of things, to the doctrines of that Society to which he had attached himself. I prefer to defer to another time, and to a more convenient place, a more full demonstration of this matter. At present I will only note those points which cannot be wholly omitted by me.

The name 'la, which is mentioned here, will be regarded by many as the venerable and august tetragrammaton, ; since it is sufficiently certain that this name, written just in this way, was known also to the Gentiles. Nor would I deny that there have been foreign writers, Gentiles, with whom the mention of this most sacred name is found. But then these were speaking-not about their own affairs, but-about the affairs and sacred customs of the Jews. I have not yet been able to find any sufficient indication that among the Greeks or any other heathens any use was made in their home-worship of the name IAO derived from the Hebrew. And those who think thus, as GROTIUS, PEARSON, BOCHART,-most eminent men, and remarkably adorned with every kind of learning,-are reduced to these straits, that they are obliged to betake themselves to this very oracle of the Clarian Apollo, as to a sacred anchor.

'But if, as those learned men desire, the real author of that oracle had been devoted to the worship of the gods, and had spoken about them things already known to his people and familiarised by use, it would follow certainly that the IAO, about whom he writes, is only some name or surname of the Sun, signifying a certain relation in which he stands to our world; for this is indicated very plainly by the whole context and order of the oracle. I ask, then, among what people of Greece had Sol, while in the winter-solstice, the name IAO? And why should that IAO, i.e. the winter-sun, have been deemed the highest, and by far the greatest, of all the gods,-greater, therefore, than the Sun of Spring, Summer, and finally of Autumn? Truly, no account of the matter can ever be given by any one out of Greek theology. Who ever heard mention made of IAO as a deity of the Greeks? In fact, learned and impartial judges of these matters will readily grant to me that no part of the argument of this oracle is taken from Greek theology or belongs to it.*

'But in the theology of the Gnostics of Basilides everything will be plain, easy, and perspicuous. In order that this matter may be duly and correctly understood, a few observations must be here premised.

(i) The use of the name IAO was very great and frequent in the schools of the Gnostics. Very many of the Ancient Fathers of the Church in express terms testify to this; and the numerous Abraxas gems, to be seen in museums, proclaim this yet more clearly. For many of these jewels exhibit distinctly the name IAO, which was held very sacred by this Society.

The oracle appears to describe that which was at the basis of the Greek theology, but belonged originally to the more oriental religions, from which the Greek was derived. But the Greek religion had the cries ta, eba, “laxxe, &c., all showing a connection with or IAO. Ed.

name,

(ii) Although the true signification, which this name had in the schools of the Gnostics, requires still much more light to be thrown upon it, yet I have made it out to my own entire satisfaction, as I have partly shown in another place, and as these Abraxas gems so clearly indicate, that the Gnostics used to express by this which by them was held especially venerable, the most excellent Saviour. (iii) This being admitted,—and I hardly think that it will be with reason denied or called into question-this fact also should be noticed, viz. that these Gnostics, about whom I am speaking, frequently shadowed forth in their schools our Saviour by the emblem and symbol of the Sun, and took singular delight in this emblematical comparison, as I remember also to have demonstrated formerly at considerable length. As such, then, He is depicted also in our oracle under the name IAO.

(iv) Whereas, however, this IAO is called by the epithet åßpós, i. e. as I think it should be translated, tender, youthful, the author of this oracle wishes us to think of Jesus Christ, as just born of the virgin, and still a tender infant.

(v) And this is the reason why the Gnostic author of the oracle has placed the tender IAO in μетолάр, or the beginning of winter, or, what amounts to the same thing, in the winter solstice. For this expression ought to be understood not only of the natural Sun, spoken of in the preceding lines, but also of the mystic emblematical Sun, the Lord Christ. For the natural Sun is renovated in the winter solstice, whence at that season the Romans were wont to call him The New Sun, and the Egyptians, Osiris found and reborn. And for this reason, no doubt, the Gnostics also threw the birthday of our Saviour, their mystic emblematical Sun, into this season, and so celebrated regularly in their assemblies the memory of that great divine benefit.

And now the true meaning of this Gnostic oracle may be rightly and easily perceived by us, something as follows::

"The supreme Deity, forsooth, is our IAO, Christ Jesus the Lord, the first and the last, the true Sun of righteousness, and Light of this world, the Sun who inaugurates and completes the year of salvation and of the good pleasure of the Lord. You, ye servants of idols, celebrate the Sun in autumn as Serapis the invisible,—when spring comes, as bright Jupiter Ammon-as Horus in summer, glittering with the flashes of his rays,—and in the winter-solstice as the tender Harpocrates. But the true Sun of Salvation, and He the supreme Lord and God of all, is our IAO, whose birth and memory we celebrate, as of the mystic Sun of righteousness, at that season in which the natural Sun, the creature of our IAO, is renovated in the sky.'

54. Upon the above reasoning we remark as follows. Admitting, with JABLONSKY, that the Gnostics did use the name IAO to express Jesus Christ, yet the question then arises, Why did they choose this particular name? It is true, certainly, that the Hebrew word JHVH was expressed by IAO, as appears not only from the passages already quoted (II.333), but from a variety of other proofs. Thus, according to HESYCH. 'OÇelas (Uzziah) = ¡ø xùs 'law, 'strength of IAO,' and 'Iwałáμ (Jotham) = 'law σvvTeλeía, 'perfection of IAO,' and, according to ORIGEN, on Dan.ii., 'Iepeμías =

μeтewpioμds 'Iaw, 'lifting-up of IAO.' So TZETZES, Chiliad.vii.126, says, 'Eßpaikar rd IAN àóparov σnualvet, 'in Hebrew IAO signifies Unseen;' and IRENÆUS ade. Her. ii.66, quotes the name as Jaoth, which, though corrected by GESENIUS into Jack, is probably correct, since in H. STEPHEN's Thesaurus, we find the following form of oath, Ορκίζω σε τὸ ὄνομα τὸ μέγα Ιαώθ Σαβαώθ, ὁ θεὸς ὁ στηρίξας τὴν γῆν, Ι adjure thee by the great name Iaoth-Sabaoth, the God who stablished the earth.' Accordingly, in PEARSON On the Creed (Burton), p.126, we have this note :-So EUSEBIUS, Dem. Evang. IV. ad finem,c.17,p.199.D, 'Iwsovè dé ¿otiv 'laù owrapia, TOûT' čσTI, Deoû owтhpiov, ['now Joshua means salvation of IAO, that is, salvation of God,'] where nothing can be more certain than that IAO is taken for the name of God. . . and is certainly no other than ''

55. But there is no reason to suppose that the Gnostics adopted the name on this account, so as to declare by it that Jesus Christ was no other than the Jehovah of the Jews. Rather, it is plain from JABLONSKY's own reasoning that they used it for Jesus Christ, because, as he says, they 'frequently shadowed forth in their schools our Saviour by the emblem and symbol of the Sun, and took singular delight in this emblematical comparison,' and because IAO, as we have seen, was the great mysterious name of the Sun-God. It was the name, however, of the Sun, at the end of autumn, and so at the beginning of winter,' as JABLONSKY says, but not at the middle of winter, 'the winter Sun,' 'in the winter-solstice,' as he also says: for this latter the oracle itself plainly declares to be Aïdes, and not Adonis or LAO.

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