vented the sticklers for the Mosaic law from
practising many of their ancient ceremonies: but there were parts of
their ritual, such as circumcision, to which they still adhered, as
these could be observed when the altar and the sanctuary no longer
existed. In the reign of Hadrian a division of sentiment relative to the
continued obligation of the Levitical code led to a great change in the
mother Church of Christendom. About A.D. 132, an adventurer, named
Barchochebas, pretending to be the Messiah and aiming at temporal
dominion, appeared in Palestine; the Jews, in great numbers, flocked to
his standard; and the rebel chief contrived for three years to maintain
a bloody war against the strength of the Roman legions. The Israelitish
race, by their conduct at this juncture, grievously provoked the
emperor; and when he had rebuilt Jerusalem, under the name of Aelia
Capitolina, he threatened them with the severest penalties should they
appear either in the city or the suburbs. Some of the Jewish Christians
of the place, anxious, no doubt, to escape the proscription, now
resolved to give up altogether the observance of circumcision. Others,
however, objected to this course, and persisted in maintaining the
permanent obligation of the Mosaic ritual. The dissentients, called
Nazarenes, formed themselves into a separate community, which obtained
adherents elsewhere, and which subsisted for several centuries. At first
they differed from other Christians chiefly in their adherence to the
initiatory ordinance of Judaism, but eventually they adopted erroneous
principles in regard to the person of our Lord, and were in consequence
ranked amongst heretics. [624:1]

In the history of the Church, the Nazarenes occupy a somewhat singular
and unique position. Their name was one of the earliest designations by
which the followers of our Saviour were known, [624:2] and though by
many they have been called the First Dissenters, they might have very
fairly pleaded that they were the lineal descendants of the most ancient
stock of Christians in the world. The rite for which they contended had
been practised in the Church of Jerusalem since its very establishment;
the ministers by whom they had been taught had probably been instructed
by the apostles themselves; and all the elders at the time connected
with the holy city seem to have joined the secession. It is alleged that
a number of Christians of Gentile origin, uniting with those of their