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    Christ , not only appears evident from what he has said himself , but is an idea strongly corroborated by a quotation which Dr . P . has made from Jerom , viz . * It is to thi 3 very day , in ail the synagogues of the East , a heresy among the Jews , called that of the Minei , now condemned by the P harisees , and commonly called Nazarenes , who believe in Christ , &e . ; but while they wish to be both Jews and Christians , they are neither Jews nor Christians" * Here Jerom , who

    followed close after Origen in the church , speaks of this people as Origen had done before him , not as all the Jewish Christians , but as an inconsistent faction in the Jewish synagogues , and no part of the Christian church at all , much less the whole or main body of

    Jewish converts to the gospel . That those whom Jerom calls Nazarenes \ vere the Ebionites , Dr . P . has himself professedly proved . But the proof that the Ebionites were not Christians does not depend either upon what Origen has or has not said respecting them ; for should it be granted that he spake of them as the body of Christian Jews , ( which , however , I am persuaded he did not , ) it would only follow that he was in an error , because the description of the Ebionites , or their character , as given by Dr . P . himself , affords abundant

    proof that they were no genuine converts to the gospel , and never made any part of the true Christian church . After saying , 1- " The Gnostics did not reject the Scriptures , &c . ; but , as they did not consider them written by any proper inspiration , thought

    themselves at liberty to adopt what they approved , and neglect the rest , -without disputing' their genuineness ; " Doctor adds , " This , indeed , was not peculiar to them , but seems to have been a liberty taken by other primitive Christians , &c . ; thus the Ebionites

    made no public use of any other Gospel than that of Matthew , &c . It is well known their copies of Matthew ' s Gospel had not the story of the miraculous conception ; and they also added to their history such circumstances as they thought sufficiently authenticated . " In another place the Doctor * Hist . E . O . III . 170 . t Idem , I .. 233 .

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    says , * "Jt is allowed on all hands that the fibionites made no use of the Epistles of Paul , because of the slight which he seemed to put upon the law /' In another place the Doctor says , -f" Their dislike of the Apostle Paul , we know from ecclesiastical history , continued to the latest period of their existence as a church ; " and this dislike , he tells us a few pages before ,

    " was occasioned by his activity m preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised Gentiles . " A monstrous crime , no doubt , in the eyes of all primitive Christians , who knew any thing of the peculiar spirit and catholic design of the gospel dispensation ! In another place the Doctor says , % " The Ebionites were Jews , and had no

    communion with the Gentiles . " Again , § " The strict Ebionites hold no communion with the Gentile Christians . " || Dr . P . having first assumed that these blind Jewish bigots were all the Jewish Christians , not only appears

    to approve of their low notions of the Evangelists and Apostles as writers , but also to wish to hold them up as examples of what the converts to the gospel originally were , and ought now to be , in their opinions of the authors of the Christian Scriptures . That the

    Doctor himself agreed with the Ebionites on this ground , I need not inform , any one who is acquainted with his writings . ^ " It is their opinion , however , of the person of Christ , that he principally wished to be considered as an example of primitive Christian doctrine . But of what value the opinion

    of such persons can be on any point relating to Christianity , I am a t a loss to imagine . Whatever he might think of their neglecting' some of the evangelic history , and making additions of their own , and rejecting all the writings of Paul , and utterly contemning his apostolic commission , and living in opposition to the catholic and

    pecu-* Idem , III . 216 . f Idem , 187 . X Idem , I . . 283 . § Idem , 286 . || The words marked for italics are not in italics in the Doctor ' s work . I mark them because I wish the reader to take particular notice of them . no of Dr

    ^ f I mean impeachment . P / s character ; so far as I know any thing of it , I am led to believe it will ever appear great and amiable in the eyes of all impartial persons .

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    Mr . R . Martin on the Difficulties of Unitariamsm . 403

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1821, page 403, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2502/page/23/