ative; and though he expressed himself with the most guarded
diffidence, he ventured to determine in favor of such an imperfect
Christian, if he were content to practise the Mosaic ceremonies, without
pretending to assert their general use or necessity. But when Justin was
pressed to declare the sentiment of the church, he confessed that there
were very many among the orthodox Christians, who not only excluded
their Judaizing brethren from the hope of salvation, but who declined
any intercourse with them in the common offices of friendship,
hospitality, and social life. [24] The more rigorous opinion prevailed,
as it was natural to expect, over the milder; and an eternal bar of
separation was fixed between the disciples of Moses and those of Christ.
The unfortunate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as apostates, and
from the other as heretics, found themselves compelled to assume a more
decided character; and although some traces of that obsolete sect may be
discovered as late as the fourth century, they insensibly melted away,
either into the church or the synagogue. [25]

[Footnote 22: Le Clerc (Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 477, 535) seems to have
collected from Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, and other writers, all the
principal circumstances that relate to the Nazarenes or Ebionites. The
nature of their opinions soon divided them into a stricter and a milder
sect; and there is some reason to conjecture, that the family of Jesus
Christ remained members, at least, of the latter and more moderate
party.]

[Footnote 23: Some writers have been pleased to create an Ebion,
the imaginary author of their sect and name. But we can more safely
rely on the learned Eusebius than on the vehement Tertullian, or the
credulous Epiphanius. According to Le Clerc, the Hebrew word Ebjonim may
be translated into Latin by that of Pauperes. See Hist. Ecclesiast. p.
477. * Note: The opinion of Le Clerc is generally admitted; but Neander has
suggested some good reasons for supposing that this term only applied to
poverty of condition. The obscure history of their tenets and divisions,
is clearly and rationally traced in his History of the Church, vol. i.
part ii. p. 612, &c., Germ. edit.--M.]

[Footnote 24: See the very curious Dialogue of Justin Martyr with the
Jew Tryphon. The conference between them was held at Ephesus, in the
reign of Antoninus Pius, and about twenty years after the return of the
church of Pella to Jerusalem. For this date c