OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 317

revered Jesus as the greatest of the prophets, chap.

endowed with supernatural virtue and power._

They ascribed to his person and to his futurereign all the predictions of the Hebrew oracleswhich relate to the spiritual and everlastingkingdom of the promised Messiah . 1 Some ofthem might confess that he was born of a vir-gin; but they obstinately rejected the precedingexistence and divine perfections of the logos, orson of God , which are so clearly defined in thegospel of St. John. About fifty years after-wards, the ebionites, whose errors are mention-ed by Justin Martyr with less severity than theyseem to deserve, h formed a very inconsiderableportion of the Christian name. n. The gnostics,who were distinguished by the epithet of doce-tes, deviated into the contrary extreme; andbetrayed the human, while they asserted thedivine nature of Christ. Educated in theschool of Plato , accustomed to the sublimeidea of the logos, they readily conceived that thebrightest aeon, or emanation of the deity, mightassume the outward shape and visible appear-ances of a mortal ; 1 but they vainly pretended

1 The humble condition and sufferings of Jesus have always been astumbling block to the Jews . “ Deus...contrariis coloribus Messiam“ depinxerat; futurus erat rex, judex, pastor,” &c. See Liinborch etOrobio Arnica Collat. p. 8-19, 53-70, 192-234. But this objection hasobliged the believing Christians to lift up their eyes to a spiritual andeverlasting kingdom.

Justin . Martyr. Dialog, cum Tryphonte, p. 143, 114. Sec LeClerc, Hist. Eccles. p. 015. Bull, and his editor Grabe (Judicium Ec-clcs. Cathol. c. 7, and appendix) attempt to distort either the senti-ments or the words of Justin ; but their violent correction of the teatis rejected even by the benedictine editors.c The arians reproached the orthodox party with borrowing their

trinity