PREFACE. CONCERNING the heretical Jewish Christians, the Ebionites, and their use of the Gospel of St. Matthew, little remains to be added to what has been said in the first volume. Among the Gentile Christians, there was, I believe, no other body of men beside the Gnostics, who were generally regarded as heretics before the close of the second century. It may, perhaps, be doubted, whether the Montanists should not be considered as forming an exception to this remark; but, whether they were or were not generally regarded as heretics before the period mentioned, is unimportant to our present argument, since there is no doubt that, in common with the catholic Christians, they received the four Gospels as genuine; and their doctrines were so coincident with those of the catholic Christians, that no separate value attaches to their testimony. The evidence afforded by the Gnostics, therefore, is the main topic of inquiry in the present volume. |