tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that is,—reject all that can weave closer the links binding the soul to the body, retain it in its prison, its grave.(388) It is easy to see how Philonian ideas continued to exert their influence in Egypt, when absorbed into Christianity. It was these ideas which peopled the deserts of Nitria and Scete with myriads of monks wrestling with their bodies, those prison‐houses of their souls, struggling to die to the world of matter, that their ethereal souls might shake themselves free. Their spirits were like moths in a web, bound by silken threads; the spirit would be choked by these fetters, unless it could snap them and sail away. PART III. THE LOST PAULINE GOSPELS. Under this head are classed such Gospels as have a distinct anti‐ Judaizing, Antinomian tendency. They were in use among the Churches of Asia Minor, and eventually found their way into Egypt. This class may probably be subdivided into those which bore a strong affinity to the Canonical Gospel of St. Luke, and those which were independent compilations. To the first class belongs— 1. The Gospel of the Lord. To the second class— 1. The Gospel of Eve. 2. The Gospel of Perfection. 3. The Gospel of Philip. 4. The Gospel of Judas. I. The Gospel Of The Lord. The Gospel of the Lord, Εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Κυρίου, was the banner under which the left of the Christian army marched, as the right advanced under that of the Gospel of the Hebrews. The Gospel of the Lord was used by Marcion, and apparently before him by Cerdo.(389) In opposition to Ebionitism, with its narrow restraints and its low Christology, stood an exclusive Hellenism. Ebionitism saw in Jesus the Son of David, come to re‐edit the Law, to provide it with new sanction, after he had winnowed the chaff from the wheat in it. Marcionism looked to the Atonement, the salvation wrought by Christ for all mankind, to the revelation of the truth, the knowledge (γνῶσις) of the mysteries of the Godhead made plain to men, through God the good and merciful, who sent His Son to bring men out of ignorance into light, out of the bondage of the Law into the freedom of the Gospel.(390) The Gospel, in the eyes of Marcion and the extreme followers of St. Paul, represented free grace, overflowing goodness, complete reconciliation with God. But such goodness stood contrasted with the stern justice of the Creator, as revealed in the books of the Old Testament; infinite, unconditioned forgiveness was incompatible with the idea of God as a Lawgiver and a Judge. The restraint of the Law and the freedom of the Gospel could no more emanate from the same source than sweet water and bitter.