tles, [205:1] and commonly called Simon Magus, was
the father of the sects of the Gnostics. [205:2] He was a Samaritan by
birth, and after the rebuke he received from Peter, [205:3] he is
reported to have withdrawn from the Church, and to have concocted a
theology of his own, into which he imported some elements borrowed from
Christianity. At a subsequent period he travelled to Rome, where he
attracted attention by the novelty of his creed, and the boldness of his
pretensions. We are told that, prior to his baptism by Philip, he "had
used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that
himself was some great one;" [205:4] and subsequently he seems to have
pursued a similar career. According to a very early authority, nearly
all the inhabitants of his native country, and a few persons in other
districts, worshipped him as the first or supreme God. [205:5] There is,
probably, some exaggeration in this statement; but there seems no reason
to doubt that he laid claim to extraordinary powers, maintaining that
the same spirit which had been imparted to Jesus, had descended on
himself. He is also said to have denied that our Lord had a real body.
Some, who did not enrol themselves under his standard, soon partially
adopted his principles; and there is cause to think that Hymenaeus,
Philetus, Alexander, Phygellus, and Hermogenes, mentioned in the New
Testament, [205:6] were all more or less tinctured with the spirit of
Gnosticism. Other heresiarchs, not named in the sacred record, are known
to have flourished towards the close of the first century. Of these the
most famous were Carpocrates, Cerinthus, and Ebion. [206:1] There is a
tradition that John, "the beloved disciple," came in contact with
Cerinthus, when going into a bath at Ephesus, and retired abruptly from
the place, that he might not compromise himself by remaining in the same
building with such an enemy of the Christian revelation. [206:2] It is
also stated that the same apostle's testimony to the dignity of the
Word, in the beginning of his Gospel, was designed as an antidote to the
errors of this heresiarch. [206:3]

When the gospel exerts its proper influence on the character it produces
an enlightened, genial, and consistent piety; but a false faith is apt
to lead, in practice, to one of two extremes, either the asceticism of
the Essene, or the sensualism of the Sadducee. Gnosticism developed
itself in both these directions. Some of its advocates ma