Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/368

 but much earlier testimony than this, distinctly declares that John's design in writing, was to attack certain heresies on the same point specified in the former statement. The Nicolaitans and the followers of Cerinthus, in particular, who were both Gnostical sects, are mentioned as having become obnoxious to the purity of the truth, by inculcating notions which directly attacked the true divinity and real Messiahship of Jesus. The earliest heresy that is known to have arisen in the Christian churches, is that of the Gnostics, who, though divided among themselves by some minor distinctions, yet all agreed in certain grand errors, against which this gospel appears to have been particularly directed. The great system of mystical philosophy from which all these errors sprung, did not derive its origin from Christianity, but existed in the east long before the time of Christ; yet after the wide diffusion of his doctrines, many who had been previously imbued with this oriental mysticism, became converts to the new faith. But not rightly apprehending the simplicity of the faith which they had partially adopted, they soon began to contaminate its purity by the addition of strange doctrines, drawn from their philosophy, which were totally inconsistent with the great revelations made by Christ to his apostles. The prime suggestion of the mischief, and one, alas! which has not at this moment ceased to distract the churches of Christ, was a set of speculations, introduced "to account for the origin and existence of evil in the world,"—which seemed to them inconsistent with the perfect work of an all-wise and benevolent being. Overleaping all those minor grounds of dispute which are now occupying the attention of modern controversialists, they attacked the very basis of religious truth, and adopted the notion that the world was not created by the supreme God himself, but by a being of inferior rank, called by them the Demiurgus, whom they considered deficient in benevolence and in wisdom, and as thus being the occasion of the evil so manifest in the works of his hands. This Demiurgus they considered identical with the God of the Jews, as revealed in the Old Testament. Between him and the Supreme Deity, they placed an order of beings, to which they assigned the names of the "Only-begotten," "the Word," "the Light," "the Life," &c.; and among these superior beings, was Christ,—a distinct existence from Jesus, whom they declared a mere man, the son of Mary; but acquiring a divine character by being united at his baptism to the Divinity, Christ, who departed from him at his death. Most of the Gnos