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77te Manichees. Sect. IV. 377
They pretended that it was dishonourable for Christ to be
born of a woman. This argument is taken notice of in the
Acts of' Archelaus.
It is easy to suj)|)Ose that the catholic christians put these
people in mind of those texts of the New Testament, where'
Jesus is said to be the son of David, of the seed of David,
according- to the flesh, and the like: to which, however, they
gave answers, such as they are.
The Manichees arg-ued from the first chapter of St. John's
gospel, ver. 5, " And the light shineth in darkness, and the
darkness comprehended it not." The light is the Word, or
the divine nature : the darkness, according- to tljem, is the
flesh, or matter, the evil substance. The light sliined in the
darkness, but the darkness could not touch, seize, lay hold
of the light: nor indeed would the light touch the darkness,
or suffer itself to be touched by it. This thought is in a
fragment of one of Mani's'' letters.
And this leads us to think thfit this notion was chiefly
owing- to their doctrine of two principles. Believing matter,
of which the body is formed, to be evil in itself, they could
not allow a divine person to be united to the human nature;
and' therefore they pretended that our Lord had only the
appearance of flesh without the reality.
They said that'^ Christ came directly from heaven. They
argued this from all *" those texts where our Lord speaks of
tionem ? Equidera conatus diu sum hoc ipsum, qualecunque est, persuadere
mihi, quia sit natus Deus.— Quamvis nee sic quidem dignum erit ex utero
natum credere Deum, et Deum christianorum. Id. 1. 3. in. et fin.
Sed non, inquit, accipere evangelium hoc solum est, si quod prajcepit facias:
sed ut etiain credas omnibus quae in eodem scripta sunt, quorum primum
est illud, quia sit natus Deus. Id. 1. 5. c. 2.
^ Ergo non putas, eum ex Maria virgine esse? Manes dixit: Absit, ut
Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum per naturalia pudenda muUeris descendisse
confitear, ap. Arch. c. 47. p. 85. Vid. et cap. 5. p. 8.
* Apostolum accipis ? Et maxime. Cur ergo non credis Fihum Dei, ex
semine David, natum secundum carnem ?—Faust. 1. xi. in.
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