GNOSTICKS. The name of Gnosticks is not to be met with in the sacred Writings either of the Old or New Testament; but the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, in their Epistles, frequently attacked the Hereticks of their time, who afterwards were known under the general name of Gnosticks. St. Paul, writing to Timothy, requires 1 Tim. i. 3, 4.him to admonish certain false Teachers not to instruct the people in any doctrine different from his, nor to amuse themselves with fables, and endless genealogies. Some believe, that by these words he intended to describe the Gnosticks, who, in imitation of the ancient Magi, and Platonists, introduced among their followers certain kinds of genealogies, under the name of Æons, whereof they composed their Fulness, or phantastick Deity. They amazed the ignorant with these unknown words, and deceived the simple with a vain ostentation of knowledge.
2 Joh. i. Iren. l. 3. c. 11. Hieron. advers. Lucif. c. 8. Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7.The same Apostle gives us a description of these old Hereticks, very much resembling them, in his second Epistle to Timothy, where he says, There shall be men, lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are good, traitorous, heady, high-minded, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof … these are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith: but they shall proceed no further, &c. And St. John in his second Epistle, Many Ps. cxxi. 8. deceivers are entred into the world, who Acts i. 21. confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the
2 Sam. iii. flesh. In effect, the Gnosticks, or Learned, 25. Disciples of Simon the Magician, maintained, that the Word, that Christ appeared upon earth without being incarnate, without being born of a Virgin, without having a real body, or suffering truly. See the second Epistle of St. Peter, ch. ii. ver. 9, 10, &c. and that of St. Jude, the tenth and following verses; wherein we find the character of these Hereticks very well set forth.
Deut. xxi-