al world, of which the Sun is the type,
manifested itself among men; that the light appeared in the
darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not; that, in fact,
light could not unite with darkness; it put on only the
appearance of the human body; that at the crucifixion Christ
Jesus only _appeared_ to suffer. His person having
disappeared, the bystanders saw in his place a cross of light,
over which a celestial voice proclaimed these words; 'The
Cross of Light is called Logos, Christos, the Gate, the Joy.'"

Several of the texts of the Gospel histories were quoted with great
plausibility by the Gnostics in support of their doctrine. The story of
Jesus passing through the midst of the Jews when they were about to cast
him headlong from the brow of a hill (Luke iv. 29, 30), and when they
were going to stone him (John iii. 59; x. 31, 39), were examples not
easily refuted.

The Manichean Christian Bishop Faustus expresses himself in the
following manner:

"Do you receive the gospel? (ask ye). Undoubtedly I do! Why
then, you also admit that Christ was born? Not so; for it by
no means follows that in believing the gospel, I should
therefore believe that Christ was born! Do you then think that
he was of the Virgin Mary? Manes hath said, 'Far be it that I
should ever own that Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . . . . .'"
etc.[512:1]

Tertullian's manner of reasoning on the evidences of Christianity is
also in the same vein, as we saw in our last chapter.[512:2]

Mr. King, speaking of the Gnostic Christians, says:

"Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries before
(their time) in many of the cities in _Asia Minor_. There, it
is probable, they first came into existence as _Mystae_, upon
the establishment of direct intercourse with _India_, under
the Seleucidae and Ptolemies. The college of _Essenes_ and
_Megabyzae_ at Ephesus, the _Orphics_ of Thrace, the _Curets_
of Crete, _are all merely branches of one antique and common
religion, and that originally Asiatic_."[512:3]

These early Christian Mystics are alluded to in several instances in the
New Testament. For example:

"Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come _in
the flesh_ is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God."[512:4]
"For many deceivers are entered int