"Audiant Ebionaei, qui post passionetn abolitam legem putant esse servandam. Audiant Kbionitarum socii, qui Juilseis tantum, ct de stirpe Isra?litici generis htec cus- todienda decernunt," it can hardly be doubted that the " I'Lbionitarum socii" are the Xazarenes. This sect is thus identified as, in its origin at least, a branch of the orthodox Church of Jerusalem. The Church of Jerusa- lem had been under the apostles of the circumcision, and at the time of the retreat to Pella had " a literature consisting, on the one hand, of most of the New Testa- ment, except the Gospel of St. John, and on the other of works treating of the much-studied old Halachah and Ilaggadah law, and others largely dependent on poetic fancy;" "with rites wherein Jewish and Chris- tian practices are still found side by side, circumcision and baptism, hallowing of the Sabbath and of the Lord's day, Passover, perhaps, and Eucharist." These are the surroundings amid which we place the sects of the Naz- arenes and its origin (Sinker, Testnmenta xii Patriar- chdrum [Camb. ]X(J'.t], p. 124), The last-made quota- tion, tlie words of which were used with reference to the author of tlie T<st<iin<nla of the twelve patriarchs, leads us to a remarkable book which proceeded from the school, and probably from the very sect under consideration. Thio book and the writings of the Ebionite school have been much studied of late, and in the hands of German scholars have thrown considerable light on the history of the earlj' Church. In noticing it as an example of the theology of the Nazarenes, it must be remembered that we are entirely ignorant of its author, of the posi- tion he held in the Judaeo-Christian Church, and of the degree of acceptance his book met with. In short, we are entitled to assume that it is a representative book. But it is known from other authority that the author was of the Nazarene school, and we are thus en- titled to gather from his book the broad and distinctive characters of the school. Einer shades of doctrine, and doctrines that are not distinctive, must be referred to the standard formed by the teaching of the apostles as supervening upon the tenets of the Jewish Church. Lardner's summary of the writer's doctrine may be first given. The writer speaks of the nativity of Christ, the meekness and unblamableness of his life, his crucifixion at the iiisti^'aiion of the Jewish priests, the wonderful concomitants of his death, his resurrection, and ascension. He represents the character of the Messiah as God and man, the ISIost High (Jod among men eating and drink- ing with them ; the Saviour of the world, of the Gentiles and Israel, as eternal High-Priest and King. He like- wise speaks of the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the IMcssiah, attended with a voice from heaven; his un- righteous treatment by the Jews, and their desolations and the destruction of the Temple on that account ; the call of the Gentiles; the illuminating of them general- ly with new light; the effusion of the Spirit upon be- lievers, but especiallj' and in a more abundant meas- ure upon the (Jentiles. Here little notice is taken of Christ's miracles; however, he speaks of the IMessiah as a '"man wlio renews the law in the power of the 3Iost High," in which expressions the working of miracles seems to be implied. Here are also passages which seem to contain allusions to the (iospels of St. Matthew, St. Luke, and St. John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle to the Ephesians, the First to the Thessalonians, the First to Timothy, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the First E[)istlc of St. John, and the Hook of Revelation. As far as was consistent with his assumed character, the author declares the canonical authority of the Acts of the Apostles and the ICpistles of .St. Paid {Credi- bilifi/, etc. ii, 3G.S). Here the recognition of St. John's Gospel and Epistles, and of .St. Paul's Epistles, shows that the Xazarenes, at the later period of this book, were not without the teaching of full catholic Christianity. The question will arise again, with regard to a still later lieriod, "What was Nazarene doctrine respecting the ttivinity of our Lf)rd '?" At the period we have now be- fore us it is just to the Nazarenes, as Jewish Christians,
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