rs
like Justin and those of the type of Valentinus. The latter sought for a
_religion_; the former, though indeed they were not very clear about
their own purpose, sought _assurance_ as to a theistic and moral
conception of the world which they already possessed. At first the
complexus of Christian tradition, which must have possessed many
features of attraction for them, was something foreign to both. The
latter, however, sought to make this tradition intelligible. For the
former it was enough that they had here a revelation before them; that
this revelation also bore unmistakable testimony to the one God, who was
a Spirit, to virtue, and to immortality; and that it was capable of
convincing men and of leading them to a virtuous life. Viewed
superficially, the Apologists were no doubt the conservatives; but they
were so, because they scarcely in any respect meddled with the contents
of tradition. The "Gnostics," on the contrary, sought to understand what
they read and to investigate the truth of the message of which they
heard. The most characteristic feature is the attitude of each to the
Old Testament. The Apologists were content to have found in it an
ancient source of revelation, and viewed the book as a testimony to the
truth, i.e., to philosophy and virtue; the Gnostics investigated this
document and examined to what extent it agreed with the new impressions
they had received from the Gospel. We may sum up as follows: The
Gnostics sought to determine what Christianity is as a religion, and, as
they were convinced of the absoluteness of Christianity, this process
led them to incorporate with it all that they looked on as sublime and
holy and to remove everything they recognised to be inferior. The
Apologists, again, strove to discover an authority for religious
enlightenment and morality and to find the confirmation of a theory of
the universe, which, if true, contained for them the certainty of
eternal life; and this they found in the Christian tradition.

At bottom this contrast is a picture of the great discord existing in
the religious philosophy of the age itself (see p. 129, vol. I.). No one
denied the fact that all truth was divine, that is, was founded on
revelation. The great question, however, was whether every man possessed
this truth as a slumbering capacity that only required to be awakened;
whether it was rational, i.e., merely moral truth, or must be above that
which is moral, that is, of a religiou