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150 Credibility of the Gospel History.
closely followed Origen in some of his peculiarities, which
raay be found iu his books of Principles ; and that with him
he supposeth angels and deemons to have certain line bodies.
With the seventh or last book Photius appears well enough
satisfied. He gives an agreeable character of this writer's
style : it is, he says, full and expressive, and yet has nothing
redundant ; he has the Attic purity and elegance without
affectation ; and in the greatest plainness and perspicuity
there is nothing mean and vulgar.
If Ave had had Photius's extract entire, Ave should not have
been at a loss about the exact age of Theognostus ; for he
put down the time Avhen he flourished : but the last words
of the extract are wanting.
We may however conclude, from what we have seen, that
Theognostus Avas an Alexandrian, and that he flourished
some time after Origen, before the end of the third century.
Eusebius's silence about this writer has occasioned divers
surmises and speculations. Baronius" cannot help thinking
it happened, not without a malicious and fraudulent design,
to bury in oblivion the name and Avritings of a strenuous
asserter of the consubsthntial doctrine: Huet" is almost of
the same mind, and suspects that these Institutions had been
interpolated by the Arians in the space of time betAveen
Athanasius and Photius: but'' Tiilemont is not convinced
by their reasonings. Indeed, he who carefully compares
Athanasius and Photius Avill perceive that they both read
exactly one and the same Avork ; and that the Institutions
were as uncorrupted in the time of the latter, as of the former.
Athanasius found in them somcAvhat to his purpose ; but
there Avere other things he did not like. He'i says that, in
what he alleges out of the second book of the Institutions,
Theognostus speaks his OAvn sentiments ; but there were
other things proposed only in the way of argument and dis-
" Et, ut omittamiis de aliis dicere, nonne dolo malo Theognosti, theologorum
celeberrimi, nomen atque scripta silentio obvoluta reliquit, quod consubstantialis
nominis esset aseertor ? At is non praeteriit Athanasium. Baron. Ann.
109. lix. ° Sane studiosissimum vimm, et disertum, et admirandum
eum appellat Athanasius : atque idcirco pvEetermissam ab Eusebio
mentionem illius probabile est, quod ab Arianis partibiis fuerit alienus. Quapropter
corruptas ejus Hypotyposes ab hujus sectae patronis, quemadmodura
et Clementis libruni eodem titulo inscriptum, non immerito Andreas Schottus
conjectat. Huet. Origen. lib. i. sect. i. num. 3.
P Neanmoins S. Athanase marque assez, que des son temps il y avoit des
choses difficiles dans cet auteur sur la divinite de Jesus-Christ. Mais il dit, que
ce n'estoit que comma pour discuter la verite, et qu'il exprimoit ensuite son
vrai sentiment. Tillem. ib. 269. '^ 'O fitv sv OioyvtD';oQ ra
TrgoTtpa oiq tv yvfivaaia i^tTarraq, vTipov T7]v tavm So^av T^Stig, ovtwq tiot]Kiv.
Ath. de Decret. Nic. Syn. p. 230. C