truth or falsehood of the opinions attacked) on the doctrines of
episcopal succession, of sacramental grace, of baptismal regeneration,
and the like. It is wholly silent about claims to Papal domination,
about infallibility, about purgatory and indulgences, about the worship
of the Virgin or of the Saints. Am I justified in concluding that the
writer is 'referring in unmistakable terms' to the Church of Rome,
because the Church of Rome, in common with the majority of Churches,
holds the doctrines attacked? Would not any reasonable man draw the very
opposite inference, and conclude that the writer cannot mean the Church
of Rome, because there is absolute silence about the distinctive tenets
of that Church?

So it is here. Marcion, in common with almost all Gnostic sects, held
some views which are here attacked. But Marcion had also doctrines of
his own, sharp, trenchant, and startling. Marcion taught that the God of
the New Testament was a distinct being from the God of the Old, whom he
identified with the God of Nature; that these two Gods were not only
distinct but antagonistic; that there was an irreconcilable, internecine
feud between them; and that Jesus Christ came from the good God to
rescue men from the God of Nature and of the Jews. This was the head and
front of his offending; and consequently a common charge against him
with orthodox writers is that he 'blasphemes God.' [117:1] Of this there
is not a hint in Polycarp's denunciation. Again, Marcion rejected the
authority of the Twelve, denouncing them as false Apostles, and he
confined his Canon to St Paul's Epistles and to a Pauline Gospel. Again,
Marcion prohibited marriage, and even refused to baptize married
persons. On these points also Polycarp is silent.

But indeed the case against this hypothesis is much stronger than would
appear from the illustration which I have used. Not only is there
nothing specially characteristic of Marcion in the heresy or heresies
denounced by Polycarp, not only were the doctrines condemned held by
divers other teachers besides, but some of the charges are quite
inapplicable to him. The passage in question denounces three forms of
heretical teaching, which may or may not have been combined in one sect.
Of these the first, 'Whosoever doth not confess that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh,' is capable of many interpretations. It way refer,
for instance, to the separationism of Cerinthus, who maintained that the
spiritual Bei