We have here the germ of all the Antinomian heresies from that time to the present. However they may have been _espoused_ by refined and virtuous minds, they all originate with persons of impure and unbridled propensities, who are unwilling to avow the real grossness of their characters, and therefore set up for some deeper knowledge or more subtle system than ordinary men.
It will be observed, too, that Irenæus confirms the statement of Justin Martyr respecting the statue erected in honour of Simon(549). The subject is so well taken up by the late Dr. E. Burton, in the 42nd note to his Bampton Lectures, that I do not purpose to enter into it here, further than to remark that Irenæus ought not to be regarded as merely _following_ Justin: for he himself had visited Rome, and was therefore likely to have informed himself personally upon a subject which he thought sufficiently important to bring forward in controversy.
It is likewise a fact deserving notice, that the first instance we have of the worship of images amongst persons recognizing in any degree the gospel, is to be found amongst the followers of Simon Magus. Something of this kind probably suggested St. John's caution: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
Concerning NICOLAS, the author, whether intentionally or not, of the sect which bears his name(550), he informs us that he was one of the seven deacons, which some have doubted. He gives us no additional information concerning the sect, beyond that furnished by St. John(551). This, however, connects them with the Gnostics in their licentious doctrines, and no further.
The EBIONITES are mentioned by Irenæus, as though he meant to class them with the Gnostics: but all the information he gives respecting them leads to the conclusion that they had nothing in common with them, except their schism. He expressly states that they believed differently from the Gnostics, and agreed with Christians as to the creation of the world; and that they differed from Cerinthus and Carpocrates on the subject of the miraculous conception(552). Tertullian(553) indeed implies that Ebion denied this latter fact; and Eusebius distinctly asserts of the great body of his followers, that they thought, as Carpocrates and Cerinthus did, that Jesus was a mere man, and exalted for his excellence like other men(554): but he states, and Theodoret(555) confirms his statement, that there were Ebionites who believed the miraculous conception.