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clusion, that all that country continued to suffer from this pestilent heresy.

If we now turn to the western churches, there is not much indication that Gnosticism was prevalent in Rome before St. Paul's arrival. It had perhaps begun to appear there; and we know from Justin Martyr, that Simon Magus was most favourably received in that city. Before St. Paul's second visit to Rome, the corruption of the gospel had made considerable progress: and we may suppose, that the evil in passing from the East into Italy would not leave Greece unvisited, a country which was always disposed and willing to embrace any new opinions. I do not however find much traces of Gnosticism in the Epistles to the Corinthians. The Christians at Corinth appear to have been fond of putting questions to St. Paul: and there are some marks of their faith being affected by philosophical opinions. We can hardly doubt from their maritime situation, that their intercourse with the East would make them acquainted with the Gnostic philosophy: but it certainly was not so prevalent there as at Ephesus: and if we look to the north of Greece, we do not find that the churches at Thessalonica or Philippi caused St. Paul any uneasiness upon this ground. We may suppose, perhaps, that the inhabitants of those places were not so much addicted, as their more southern countrymen, to philosophical speculations and the same remark may apply to the

8 Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, speaks of their antipathy to schism and division (c. 2. p. 148.) by which he must have meant

heresy, for, at the time of his writing to them, they were far from being free from divisions and disputes.

converts in Galatia, when compared with the more refined and learned inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Ephesus. We might expect that the new philosophy would be imported early into the island of Crete and accordingly the Epistle to Titus, which was addressed to him in that country, has been quoted as containing allusions to Gnosticism.

Such was the state of opinions which St. Paul would encounter in the countries which he visited. In some respects he would have met with less difficulty, if the name of Christ had never been heard of before his arrival. He had much to unteach, and much to eradicate. But what weighed most upon his mind, was the danger to which his converts were exposed of quitting the faith which he had preached, and being spoiled by philosophy and vain deceit. It was not merely that they lost themselves in the mazes of useless metaphysics; it was not that they gave the attributes of creation to a being who was himself created: these, and other such speculations might lead them indeed into a labyrinth of error; but St. Paul well knew the shoals and quicksands of that troubled sea: he knew that they who embarked on it were not only exposed to a long and uncertain voyage, but that their souls were doomed to shipwreck, and that no haven awaited them but the haven of presumption or despair. The Gnostic philosopher taught, that there was no resurrection, and no final judgment: he took away from the Christian his only hope; and to complete the melancholy void, he said that Christ had not died, and that no atonement had been made. Such was the doctrine which the Christian embraced, when he preferred the wisdom of man to the wisdom of God. Nor was this

all: when no final day of retribution was feared; when the social and domestic virtues were lost in a wrapped and mystical devotion, the ties of morality were loosened, and the unhappy searcher after knowledge plunged into all the riot of luxurious and profligate indulgence. To the misguided Christian himself the ruin was complete both to his body and his soul. But the evil was not confined to those who abjured their faith. It was by the false brethren that the name of Christian was brought into contempt. Crimes of the most atrocious cast were imputed to those who believed in Christ: and the unholy superstitions and the unholier lives of the Gnostics might be classed perhaps with the principal causes, which made the Christian blood to be poured out like water.

I have shewn, that the Nicolaitans were mentioned by name as leading vicious lives, and as compromising their faith by sacrificing to idols. There can be little doubt that Hymenæus, Alexander, Philetus, Phygellus, and Hermogenes, all belonged to some division of the Gnostics". We know perhaps, though not from Scripture, the names of other heretics who were contemporary with the apostles. Menander, the disciple of Simon Magus, must have lived before the end of the first century; and one of the Fathers speaks of his appearing while some of the apostles were yet alive 98: Cerinthus and Ebion

h That the number of early martyrs was small, was argued by Dodwell in Diss. Cyprianica XII. for the writers who have answered him, I would refer to Fabricius, Salutaris Lux Evangelii, c. VII. p. 132.

i Theodoret. Hær. Fab. II. præf. p. 216. Jerom represents him as living in the time of the apostles. (Adv. Lucif. 23. vol. II. p. 197.) Prædestinatus says, that his doctrines were opposed by Linus, who was

appear to have been contemporaries of St. John *; and Carpocrates is mentioned as preceding both of them in the profligacy of his life, and the peculiarity of his opinions concerning Christ.

I have explained the two great distinctions among the Gnostic teachers: that some believed the body of Jesus to be a phantom, while others believed that he was born of human parents. The Cerinthians undoubtedly professed the latter opinion; and so apparently did some of the Ebionites: but others, who bore that name, taught that Jesus was conceived miraculously by a Virgin mother. Whatever might be their differences upon this point, they all agreed in thinking that Christ descended upon Jesus at his baptism, and when Jesus was led to his crucifixion, that Christ returned to the Pleroma.

I have shewn that the Gospel and Epistles of St. John were particularly directed against this notion, which had been gaining ground for thirty years subsequent to the death of St. Peter and St. Paul. Persecution and false teachers had made great havoc in the church during that period: and it was in the same long interval of time, that I conceive the term Logos to have been adopted, and applied even by true Christians to the person of Christ. It was applied however by them, because the Platonizing Jews and Gnostics had long been

the first bishop of Rome after St. Peter. (Hær. 2.) Colbergius conceives him to have flourished in the reign of Titus. (de Orig. et Prog. Hæres. p. 17.)

* Dionysius Carthusianus, who wrote in the fifteenth century, in his commentary upon

Apoc. ii. 2. says, "Isti fuerunt

hæretici, qui se a Christo "missos dicebant, ut Ebion, "Macrion, et Cherinthus, qui "tunc in Asia surrexerunt." But I know nothing more of this Macrion.

in the habit of using it and I have shewn that the object of St. John was to mark the true sense, in which alone the term could be safely employed.

In this manner the history of the Gnostics, as we collect it from the New Testament, is of no small value in the ecclesiastical history of the first century. Our materials for tracing the events of that momentous period are sadly scanty: and particularly for the thirty years which elapsed between the death of St. Paul and the writings of St. John. But these writings appear to unfold the completion of a prophecy, which had been made by the other apostles. St. Paul, St. Peter, St. James, and St. Jude, all foretold that in the latter days false teachers would arise, who would seduce many. I have already applied these prophecies to the errors of the Gnostics; and St. John appears to confirm the interpretation which has been given of the latter days; Little children, he says, it is the last time: and as ye have heard, that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know, that it is the last time. (1 John ii. 18.) He then goes on to say, that he is antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son, (22.) and he who confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. (iv. 3.) I have shewn that these expressions refer to the Docetæ and all the Gnostics: from whence it seems demonstrable, that the Gnostics, who were the antichrist of St. John, were also the false teachers who were spoken of by the other apostles as coming in the latter days.

But it is not merely as an historical fact, that a knowledge of the rise and progress of Gnosticism is valuable. Though the doctrines of the Gnostics

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