8 CHRISTIANITY NOT EXCLUSIVE. [CH. X Jews, still asserting their lofty and exclusive privilege shunned, instead of courting, the society of stranger They still insisted, with inflexible rigour, on those parts the law which it was in their power to practise. The peculiar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety trivial though burdensome observances, were so many objec of disgust and aversion for the other nations, to who habits and prejudices they were diametrically opposit The painful and even dangerous rite of circumcision wa alone capable of repelling a willing proselyte from the doc of the synagogue.* Under these circumstances, Christianity offered itself t the world, armed with the strength of the Mosaic law, an delivered from the weight of its fetters. An exclusive zea for the truth of religion, and the unity of God, was a carefully inculcated in the new as in the ancient system and whatever was now revealed to mankind, concerning the nature and designs of the Supreme Being, was fitted to increase their reverence for that mysterious doctrine. Thi divine authority of Moses and the prophets was admitted and even established, as the firmest basis of Christianity From the beginning of the world, an uninterrupted serie of predictions had announced and prepared the long ex pected coming of the Messiah, who, in compliance with the gross apprehensions of the Jews, had been more frequently represented under the character of a king and conqueror than under that of a prophet, a martyr, and the Son of God. By his expiatory sacrifice, the imperfect sacrifices of the temple were at once consummated and abolished. The ceremonial law, which consisted only of types and figures, was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship, equally adapted to all climates, as well as to every condition of mankind; and to the initiation of blood, was substituted more harmless initiation of water. The promise of divine favour, instead of being partially confined to the posterity of Abraham, was universally proposed to the freeman and the slave, to the Greek and to the barbarian, to the Jew and to the Gentile. Every privilege that could raise the.. proselyte from earth to heaven, that could exalt his devo tion, secure his happiness, or even gratify that secret pride, A second kind of circumcision was inflicted on a Samaritan or Egyptian proselyte. The sullen indifference of the Talmudists, with CEE. IV.] OBJECTIONS OF THE JEWS. vileghich, under the semblance of devotion, insinuates itself argento the human heart, was still reserved for the members arts the Christian church; but at the same time all mankind Thas permitted, and even solicited, to accept the glorious ety distinction, which was not only proffered as a favour, but objemposed as an obligation. It became the most sacred duty wafa new convert to diffuse among his friends and relations posthe inestimable blessings which he had received, and to warn them against a refusal that would be severely punished e as a criminal disobedience to the will of a benevolent but all-powerful Deity. The enfranchisement of the church from the bonds of the synagogue was a work, however, of some time and of Bome difficulty. The Jewish converts who acknowledged Jesus in the character of the Messiah, foretold by their ancient oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and religion; but they obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors, and were desirous of imposing them on the Gentiles, who continually augmented the umber of believers. These Judaizing Christians seem to have argued with some degree of plausibility, from the divine origin of the Mosaic law, and from the immutable perfections of its great Author. They affirmed, that if the Being, who is the same through all eternity, had designed to abolish those sacred rites, which had served to distinguish his chosen people, the repeal of them would have Obeen no less clear and solemn than their first promulgation; that, instead of those frequent declarations, which either suppose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic religion, it Would have been represented as a provisionary scheme, intended to last only till the coming of the Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more perfect mode of faith and of worship; that the Messiah himself, and his disciples who conversed with him on earth, instead of authorizing by their example the most minute observances of the Mosaic law,† would have published to the world the abolition of respect to the conversion of strangers, may be seen in Basnage, Histoire dea Juifs, 1. 6, c. 6. * These arguments were urged with great Ingenuity by the Jew Orobio, and refuted with equal ingenuity and candour by the Christian Limborch. See the Amica Collatio (it well deserves that name), or account of the dispute between them. Jesur... circumcisus erat; cibis utebatur Judaicis; vestitu cimili; 10 CHURCH OF JERUSALEM. [он. х those useless and obsolete ceremonies, without sufferin Christianity to remain, during so many years, obscurel confounded among the sects of the Jewish church. Arg ments like these appear to have been used in the defenc of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law; but the industr of our learned divines has abundantly explained the amb guous language of the Old Testament, and the ambiguou conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was proper graduall to unfold the system of the gospel, and to pronounce, wit the utmost caution and tenderness, a sentence of condem nation so repugnant to the inclination and prejudices of the believing Jews. The history of the church of Jerusalem affords a lively proof of the necessity of those precautions, and of the deep impression which the Jewish religion had made on the minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jeru salem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy.+ The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable parent, and relieved her distresses by a liberal contribution of alms. But when numerous and opulent societies were established in the great cities of the empire, in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, the reverence which Jerusalem had inspired to all the Christian colonies insensibly diminished. The Jewish converts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who had laid purgatos scabie mittebat ad sacerdotes; Paschata et alios dies festos religiosè observabat: Si quos sanavit sabbatho, ostendit non tantum ex lege, sed et exceptis sententiis talia opera sabbatho non interdicta. Grotius de Verit. Religionis Christianæ, l. 5, c. 7. A little afterwards (c. 12), he expatiates on the condescension of the apostles. * Pæne omnes Christum Deum sub legis observatione credebant. Sulpitius Severus, 2, 31. See Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. 4, c. 5. + Mosheim, de Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum Magnum, p. 153. In this masterly performance, which I shall often have occasion to quote, he enters much more fully into the state of the primitive church, than he has an opportunity of doing in his General History. [The church at Antioch was the first Christian. Acts. xi, 20; xiii, 1.—ED. CH. XV.] A Je the foundations of the church, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes, that from all the Aarious religions of polytheism enlisted under the banner of Christ; and the Gentiles who, with the approbation of their peculiar apostle, had rejected the intolerable weight of Mosaic ceremonies, at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for their own practice. The ruin of the temple, of the city, and of the public religion of the Jews, was severely felt by the Nazarenes; as in their manners, though not in their faith, they maintained so intimate a connexion with their impious countrymen, whose misfortunes were attributed by the Pagans to the contempt, and more justly ascribed by the Christians, to the wrath of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes retired from the ruins of Jerusalem to the little town of Pella beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church languished above sixty years in solitude and obscurity. They still enjoyed the comfort of making frequent and devout visits to the holy city, and the hope of being one day restored to those seats which both nature and religion taught them to love as well as to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate fanaticism of the Jews filled up the measure of their calamities; and the Romans, exasperated by their repeated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with unusual rigour. The emperor founded, under the name of Elia Capitolina, a new city on mount Sion,† to which he gave the privileges of a colony; and denouncing the severest penalties against any of the Jewish people who should dare to approach its precincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort to enforce the execution of his orders. Nazarenes had only one way left to escape the common proscription, and the force of truth was on this occasion assisted by the influence of temporal advantages. They The *Eusebius, 1. 3, c. 5. Le Clerc, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 605. During this occasional absence, the bishop and church of Pella still retained the title of Jerusalem. In the same manner, the Roman pontiffs resided seventy years at Avignon; and the patriarchs of Alexandria have long since transferred their episcopal seat to Cairo. + Dion Cassius, L. 69. The exile of the Jewish nation from Jerusalem is attested by Aristo of Pella (apud Euseb. 1. 4, c. 6), and is mentioned by Beveral ecclesiastical writers, though some of them too hastily extend this interdiction to the whole country of Palestine. 12 THE NAZARENES. [CH.: HIGOROT! elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the ther Gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy datter of some of the Latin provinces.* At his persuasion, the mo considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaine law, in the practice of which they had persevered aboveİZİZ century. By this sacrifice of their habits and privilege they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadriarbe er and more firmly cemented their union with the catholi church.t When the name and honours of the church of Jerusalent had been restored to mount Sion, the crimes of heresy an. B schism were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazathe renes which refused to accompany their Latin bishop. The g the still preserved their former habitation of Pella, spread them selves into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and formed an inconsiderable church in the city of Beræa, or, as it is of fin Iwas deemed too honourable for those Christian Jews, and the milder now called, of Aleppo, in Syria. The name of Nazarene pin they soon received, from the supposed poverty of the between the understanding, as well as of their condition, the con temptuous epithet of Ebionites.§ were the same t to the argumen Marcus was a Greek prelate. See Döderlein, Comment. de Ebione pairs to s comparing their unsatisfactory accounts, Mosheim (p. 327, &c.) has draws in script Eusebius, 1. 4, c. 6. Sulpitius Severus, 2, 31. Bu Elates C p. 10.-GUIZOT. CEAS Jerusaler oh poverty as w *See the very c Tython The a out a very distinct representation of the circumstances and motives o the reign of A rebern of the el CT the accurate 1 p. 611. [ Gibbon has left Lite, and had their bishop, Ma Hebrew word ebjonim may be translated into Latin by that of paupers and return to Jerv 4 See Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 477. [The name of Ebionites had an earlier origin. The first Christians in Jerusalem were so called, on account sted in their J nage rejected by { of the poverty to which their charities had reduced them. (Acts, C. He is more 34; c. 11, 30. Galat. c. 2, 10. Rom. c. 25, 26). It was attached to the Jew-Christians, who remained at Pella, persisting in their Jewish opinions. They were afterwards accused of denying the divinity of Jesus Christ, and for that they were disowned by the church. The Socinians, who have more recently denied this point of faith, have relied on the example of the Ebionites, as a proof that the opinions Serving themselv 4 converts to Be desired to en the principal distin La all this erveen early Jewi Arvu prevailed on |