But still stronger reliance appears to be placed upon the next passage, in which the Virgin Mary is called “the _advocate_ of the Virgin Eve(535).” And yet that very passage supplies a proof that this term cannot be taken otherwise than in a figurative and improper sense: for Irenæus therein asserts that “as the human race was condemned to death through a virgin, so it is _saved_ through a virgin;” i. e. as he himself explains it, through her submission to the angelic announcement of the will of God, that his Son should be born of her. Now it would be clear blasphemy to ascribe our _salvation_ to the Virgin otherwise than in a figurative sense, as being an instrument in the divine hand for its accomplishment by becoming the mother of the real Saviour; and so, in the same figurative sense she was the advocate of Eve, by becoming the mother of him who was really her advocate. The figure is, no doubt, rather bold, but still it is evidently but a figure. This interpretation indeed is so obvious, that to us, who have no such prejudices as the members of the Roman Church, it would have been unnecessary to insist upon it, were it not for the violent perversion of the passage by their writers. It is, perhaps, worthy of more distinct indication, that Irenæus, by declaring that the Blessed Virgin was the cause of salvation to _herself_, as well as to others(536), directly contradicts the idea held by some in the Roman Church, (and I believe in the Greek likewise,) that she was entirely sinless. On the other hand, he undoubtedly countenances (although he does not use) the appellation given to her by many, of the _mother of God_(537). CHAPTER XXI. ACCOUNT OF THE GNOSTIC TEACHERS AND THEIR TENETS. Section I. Simon Magus, Nicolas, and the Ebionites. Several writers have speculated upon the sources of the Gnostic errors; but, I believe that the assertion of Irenæus remains uncontradicted, that SIMON MAGUS was the first to give them a definite form(538). We learn from Theodoret(539), Elias Cretensis(540), and Nicetas(541), that he imagined an ogdoad of superior beings, all the rest of whom emanated from the first. He imagined one First Cause, the source of all existence, with whom he joined his Thought (Ἔννοια). Irenæus mentions no more than these(542). Simon taught that this Thought, issuing forth from the Supreme Father, and knowing his intentions, descended from above, and produced the Angels and Powers by whom the world was made, and who were ignorant of the Father: that they, not wishing to acknowledge any author of their existence, detained her, and subjected her to every kind of contumely, to prevent her return to the Father, and caused her to exist in this world in perpetual transmigration from one female form to another.