s (1 Tim. i. 4.)
had the same origin; and the practices to which they led, of 'forbidding
to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats,' are condemned by him as
the work of 'seducing spirits.' Of the same class were the 'false
teachers,' accused by Peter of bringing in fatal heresies, 'by reason of
whom the ways of truth shall be evil spoken of.' All the opinions and
practices denounced by Jude, were either publicly maintained by the
Gnostics, or generally ascribed to them.

In order to disprove the truth of this representation, it will be
necessary to show who besides the Gnostics denied that the man Jesus
was the true Christ; who besides the Gnostics propounded fables,
originated schisms, and were addicted to superstitious practices, at the
times in which the Apostles wrote. This, we conceive, cannot be done.

That the doctrine of the pre-existence of Christ must have been new and
strange to the faithful teachers of the church we know, not only from
their own intimation that it was so, but from the positive proof which
the Scriptures afford of the absence of all preparation for it. The
preaching of John the Baptist, and the conduct and discourses of Jesus
were such as to give his disciples the idea of his being truly and
entirely man; divine indeed in his derived power and spiritual
perfection, but human in his nature. His disciples accordingly testified
in their words and actions that they had no thought of his being any
thing else. They received him as their Messiah; but in all besides they
remained Jews, ascribing to God alone all divine attributes, worshiping
him alone, and paying honor to Jesus only as his most exalted messenger.
If they had been required to regard him as God, the history of their
conversion would have been widely different from what it is. A doctrine
to them so new and wonderful, would have engrossed their minds, would
have banished familiarity from their intercourse with the Saviour, would
have pervaded their preachings and writings; and, instead of being
wholly omitted in their addresses to their converts, would have been
made, as in modern creeds, a primary and essential article of belief.
Not till the introduction of oriental superstitions into the church,
however, do we find unquestionable evidence that such a doctrine had
been conceived by any individual mind; and then the information is
conveyed in the form of decided censure of the doctrine on the part of
the promulgators and guardian