Section 145
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114 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. affixed the name (of John) to his own forg-erv. For one of the doctrines that he taught was, that Christjwould have an earthly kingdom. And as he was a voluptuary, and altogether sen sual, he conjectured that it would consist in those things that he craved in the gratification of appetite and lust ; i. e. in eating, drinking, and marrying, or in such things whereby he supposed these sensual pleasures might be presented in more decent ex pressions ; viz. in festivals, sacrifices, and the slaying of victims." Thus far Dionysius. But Irenasus, in his first book against here sies, adds certain false doctrines of the man, though kept more secret, and gives a history in his third book, that deserves to be recorded, as received by tradition from Polycarp. He says that John the apostle once entered a bath to wash ; but ascertaining Cerinthus was within, he leaped out of the place, and fled from the door, not enduring to enter under the same roof with him, and exhorted those with him to do the same, saying, " let us flee, lest the bath fall in, as long as Cerinthus, that enemy of the truth, is within." CHAPTER XXIX. Nicolaus and his followers. ABOUT this time, also, for a very short time, arose the heresy of those sailed Nicolaites, of which also mention is made in the revelation of John. These boasted of Nicolaus as their founder, one of those deacons who with Stephen were appointed by the apostles to minister unto the poor. Clement of Alexandria; in the third book of his Stromata, relates the following respecting him, " Having a beautiful wife, and being reproached after the ascen sion of our Lord, with jealousy by the apostles, he conducted her into the midst of them, and permitted any one that wished to marry her. This they say was perfectly consistent with that expression of his, " that every one ought to abuse his own flesh '* And thus those that adopted his heresy, following both