When the metaphysical conceptions of the Gnostics, who saw in Jesus the Logos and the anointed, began to gain ground, the earliest Christians separated from the Nazarenes, who accused Jesus of perverting the doctrines of John, and changing the baptism of the Jordan.[378] “Directly,” says Milman, “as it (the Gospel) got _beyond_ the borders of Palestine, and the name of ‘Christ’ had acquired sanctity and veneration in the Eastern cities, he became a kind of _metaphysical impersonation_, while the religion lost its purely moral cast and assumed the character of a _speculative theogony_.”[379] The only half-original document that has reached us from the primitive apostolic days, is the _Logia_ of Matthew. The real, genuine doctrine has remained in the hands of the Nazarenes, in this _Gospel of Matthew_ containing the “secret doctrine,” the “Sayings of Jesus,” mentioned by Papias. These sayings were, no doubt, of the same nature as the small manuscripts placed in the hands of the neophytes, who were candidates for the Initiations into the Mysteries, and which contained the _Aporrheta_, the revelations of some important rites and symbols. For why should Matthew take such precautions to make them “_secret_” were it otherwise? Primitive Christianity had its grip, pass-words, and degrees of initiation. The innumerable Gnostic gems and amulets are weighty proofs of it. It is a whole symbolical science. The kabalists were the first to embellish the universal Logos,[380] with such terms as “Light of Light,” the Messenger of LIFE and LIGHT,[381] and we find these expressions adopted _in toto_ by the Christians, with the addition of nearly all the Gnostic terms such as Pleroma (fulness), Archons, Æons, etc. As to the “First-Born,” the First, and the “Only-Begotten,” these are as old as the world. Origen shows the word “Logos” as existing among the Brachmanes. “The _Brachmanes_ say that the God is _Light_, not such as one sees, nor such as the sun and fire; but they have the _God_ LOGOS, not the articulate, the Logos of the Gnosis, through whom the highest MYSTERIES of the Gnosis are seen by the wise.”[382] The _Acts_ and the fourth _Gospel_ teem with Gnostic expressions. The kabalistic: “God’s first-born emanated from the Most High,” together with _that which is the “Spirit of the Anointing;”_ and again “they called him the anointed of the Highest,”[383] are reproduced in Spirit and substance by the author of the _Gospel according to John_. “That was _the true light_,” and “the light shineth in darkness.” “And the WORD _was made flesh_.” “And his _fulness_ (pleroma) have all we received,” etc. (_John_ i. et seq.).