It has so happened that Irenæus did not write directly against him, but against his followers: and as every disciple held himself capable of improving upon the system of his instructor, that which the Bishop of Lyons gives in full detail differs in some particulars from that taught by Valentinus himself. It was in fact more nearly that of Ptolemy, his most noted follower(652): but still Ptolemy had some peculiarities of his own(653). Yet Irenæus has preserved to us the leading features of the scheme as taught by Valentinus, and by their help, and that of a fragment preserved by Epiphanius(654), which corresponds with what Irenæus has told us, (although Bishop Pearson rightly contends that it is not the work of the heretical leader himself). I will endeavour to place it before my readers.
Valentinus then taught, according to Irenæus, that all things sprung from one primeval pair, the Ineffable and Silence(655): the latter being according to the fragment the Thought of the former or his Grace, but called Silence more correctly, because she accomplished every thing by simple _desire_ without utterance. From these, according to Valentinus, sprung another pair, the Father(656) and the Truth: the former of whom the fragment makes to emanate from the Unbegotten Original and Silence, by her desire; the latter from herself and the Father, by some mysterious union of the _lights_ from each; so that their offspring was a _true_ image of herself and thence derived her name. Truth, therefore, by a like mysterious union with her Father, produces a tetrad of two pairs, the Word and the Life, Man and the Church. Subsequently the Holy Spirit was sent forth either by the Truth or by the Church, (for upon that point the Old Translator of Irenæus and Epiphanius differ,) to examine the Æons, and to make them fruitful in the produce of truth(657).
So far Irenæus and the fragment correspond, excepting that the latter places Man and the Church first(658): but from this point there appears nothing more in common, and as henceforth there is a general coincidence between Valentinus and his followers, I shall give the scheme as it appears in the first book of Irenæus, mentioning the variations where they occur.
