XV. CHA P. 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 authorising by their example the most → minute observances of the Mosaic law †, would have published to the world the abolition of those useless and obsolete ceremonies, without suffering Christianity to remain during so many years obscurely confounded among the sects of the Jewish church. Arguments like these appear to have been used in the defence of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law; but the industry of our learned divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous language of the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to unfold the system of the Gospel, and to pronounce, with the utmost caution,and tenderness, a sentence of condemnation so repugnant to the inclination and prejudices of the believing Jews. Rom. 15.8. The *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. + Jesus - circumcisus erat; cibis utebatur Judaicis; vestitú simili; purgatos scabie mittebat ad sacerdotes) Paschata et alios dies festos religiosè observabat: Si quos sanavit sabatho, ostendit non tantum ex lege, sed et exceptis sententiis talia opera sabatho non interdicta. Grotius de veritate Religionis Christianæ. 1. v. c. 7. A little afterwards (c. 12.) he expafiates on the condescension of the apostles. XV. The Na zarene The history of the church of Jerusalem affords CHA P. 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 Jerusalem church of were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation lem. over which they presided, united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ *. It was natural Jerusa Hooku 1.369 that the primitive tradition of a church which, 416. was founded only forty years after the death of Sal. 2 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 the foundations of the church, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes, that from all the various religions of polytheism T 3 * Pæne omnes Christum Deum sub legis observatione credebant. Sulpicius Severus, ii. 31. See Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. iv. 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. XV. CHA P. polytheism inlisted 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 connection 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, * Eusebius, 1. iii. c. 5. Le Clerc, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 60%. 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. XV. ed, under the name of Elia Capitolina, a new CHA P. 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. The 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 elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the Gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy or of some of the Latin provinces. At his persuasion, the most considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had persevered above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits and privileges, they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the Catholic church †. When the name and honours of the church of The EbioJerusalem had been restored to Mount Sion, the nites. crimes of heresy and schism were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes, which refused *Dion Cassius, 1. lxix. The exile of the Jewish nation from Jerusalem is attested by Aristo of Pella, (apud Euseb. 1. iv. c. 6.) and is mentioned by several ecclesiastical writers; though some of them too hastily extend this interdiction to the whole country of Palestine. Eusebius, 1. iv. c. 6. Sulpicius Severus, ii. 31, By comparing their unsatisfactory accounts, Mosheim (p. 327, &c.) has drawn out a very distinct representation of the circumstances and motives of this revolution. XV. Gal. 5. CHA P. to accompany their Latin bishop. They still preserved their former habitation of Pella, spread themselves into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and formed an inconsiderable church in the city of Borea, or, as it is now called, of Aleppo, in Syria *. The name of Nazarenes was deemed too honourable for those Christian Jews, and they soon received from the supposed poverty of their understanding, as well as of their condition, the contemptuous epithet of Ebionitest. In a few years after the return of the church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy, whether a man, who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the law of Moses, could possibly hope for salvation. The humane temper of Justin Martyr inclined him to answer this question in the affirmative; and though he expressed himself with the most guarded diffidence, he ventured to determine in favour of such an imperfect Christian, if he were content to practise the Mosaic ceremonies, without pre tending *Le Clerc (Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 477, 535.) seems to have collected from Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, and other writers, all the principal circumstances that relate to the Nazarenes, or Ebionites. The nature of their opinions soon divided them into a stricter and a milder sect; and there is some reason to conjecture, that the family of Jesus Christ remained members, at least, of the latter and more moderate party. Some writers have been pleased to create an Ebion, the imaginary author of their sect and name. But we can more safely rely on the learned Eusebius than on the vehement Tertullian, or the credulous Epiphanius. According to Le Clerc, the Hebrew word Ehjonim may be translated into Latin by that of Pauperes. See Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 477. |