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chap, been for ever confounded with the philosophi-visions of the academy, the porch, and thelycaeum, if the name and divine attributes ofthe logos had not been confirmed by the celes-tial pen of the last and most sublime of theevangelists . 11 The Christian revelation, whichwas consummated under the reign of Nerva,disclosed to the world the amazing secret, thatthe logos, who was with God from the beginning,and was God , who had made all things, and forwhom all things had been made, was incarnate inthe person of Jesus of Nazareth ; who had beenborn of a virgin, and suffered death on the cross.Besides the general design of fixing on a perpe-tual basis the divine honours of Christ, the mostancient and respectable of the ecclesiastical wri-ters have ascribed to the evangelic theologian, aparticulariutention toconfutetwo opposite here-sies, which disturbed the peace of the primitiveThe ebio- church.* i. Thefaith of the ebionitesj perhaps ofdocetes. nazarenes,* was gross and imperfect. They

u The platonists admired the beginning of the gospel of St. John, ascontaining an exact transcript of their own principles. Augustin, deCivitat. Dei, x, 29. Amelins apnd Cyril, advers. Julian. 1. viii, p. 283.But in the third and fourth centuries, the platonists of Alexandriamight improve their trinity, by the secret study of the Christian theology.

1 See Beausobre , Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i, p. 377.The gospel according to St. John is supposed to have been publishedabout sevenly years after the death of Christ.

r The sentiments of the ebionites are fairly stated by Mosheim (p.331) and Le Clerc (Hist. Eeeles. p. 535). The Clementines, publishedamong the apostolical fathers, are attributed by the critics to one ofthese sectaries.

1 Staunch polemics, like Bull (Judicium Eccles. Cathol. c. 2), insiston the orthodoxy ot the nazarenes ; which appear less pure and cer-tain in the eyes of Mosheim (p. 330).