So

inferred, than that the opinion and notion of Ebion, concerning Christ, corresponded with his name. Thus, in the Sacred Writings, we read of Nabal in 1 Sam. xxv. 25. "For as his name is, "so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with "him." Similar allusions are made to the names of heresiarchs, by ecclesiastical writers. Eusebius concerning the Manichees :* "At that "time, Manes rightly named, i. e. a madman, a "name worthy of the diabolical heresy, the sub"verter of reason, and armed with madness by "Satan, the adversary of God, to the destruction "of many." In like manner, Gregory Nazianzen speaks of Arius: "Arius, a name signifying "fury, which hath shaken and corrupted a great "part of the Church." On which passage Nicetas remarks, "Arius from Aps, Mars, an "exceedingly warlike and furious Dæmon." Hence the followers of Arius are, by Athanasius and others, called Ariomanitæ. Many more things of this kind might be produced, but time forbids. Epiphanius explains and confirms our opinion in treating of the name of Ebion, when he says, "Ebion translated from the Hebrew into "Greek is alwxos, poor. And he was certainly πτωχος, poor in understanding, in hope, and in works, "who thought that Christ was a mere man; thus "building his hope in him by a faith full of poverty." He also adds, " But he was called Ebion from

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* Eccles. Hist. Lib. 7. cap. 31.

+ De Ario Orat. 20.

"his nature, poor and miserable man, his parents having given him the name by a kind of pro"phetic impulse."*

XVIII. It is evident, therefore, that they only were first called Ebionites, who were the followers of the heresiarch Ebion, and embraced both of his errors, the one on the necessity of observing the Law of Moses, the other in believing that Jesus Christ was a mere man. But we are informed by Origen, that about the middle of the third century, those were called Ebionites by some, who, from among the Jews professed Christianity, and observed the Law, at the same time; for he thus writes: "The Jews who believe in Jesus do not "forsake the Law of their fathers. They live "according to it, and are named suitable to the

poverty of that Law. For a poor man is called "Ebion in Hebrew; hence, they who amongst "the Jews receive Jesus as the Christ, are called "Ebionites." Yet, I know none, either before or after Origen, who asserts things in this manner. In the mean while it may not unfairly be concluded from this place of Origen, that those who were called Ebionites, in the larger sense of the word, were not so called, because like the first Ebionites, (who were properly so,) they thought lowly and meanly of Christ; (for we have already shown, that all the Jews who believed in Jesus and observed the Law, were not

Hær.30, cap. 17.]

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of that opinion,) but on account of the poverty of the Law to which they adhered, or, as St. Paul speaks in Gal. IV. 9. the elements of the Law were weak and beggarly, though they so religiously esteemed them. In his commentary on St. Matthew, Origen speaks of the Ebionites, strictly so called, as of persons who denied the divinity of Christ, and who were in poverty as it respects faith in Jesus. Thus we have freely enlarged, the nature of the subject demanding it, on the opinions of those heretics in the first century, who denied the divinity of our Lord. What relates to the history of their followers, who maintained the same impious doctrine in the two following centuries, shall, God willing, be more quickly dispatched.

CHAP. III.

Of those who in the second and third centuries denied Christ to be truly God.

I. About the year A. D. 190, when Severus was Emperor, Theodotus, a native of Byzantium, and sirnamed the Tanner, from the trade in which he had been engaged, had the boldness to come forward openly, to teach and defend the pernicious doctrines of the Ebionites. Caius, the Presbyter, or some other ancient writer, mentioned by Eusebius, calls him, "The Prince and "Parent of that God-denying apostacy, and was "the first who affirmed that Christ was a mere "man." He meant, I suppose, that he was the first among those who were purely Christians, Christians from among the Gentiles; as the more early asserters of this blasphemy generally defended Judaism under the profession of Christianity, and were to be reckoned of the Synagogue, rather than of the Church; and accounted Jews, rather than Christians; but what is the truth, they were partly both.

Eccles. Hist. Lib. V. ch. 28.

Hence, the

K

Ebionites were, by some of the ancients, thrown into the catalogue of Jewish heresies, and were distinguished from other heretics, which arose in the Christian Church; as we shall hereafter show. Of this Theodotus and his heresy Tertullian says: "In addition to these, was one Theodotus, "who being apprehended for the name of Christ, "renounced the same, and did not hesitate to

blaspheme Christ. For he introduced the doc"trine of his being only Man, denying that he "was God; of his being indeed born of the

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Virgin, by the Holy Ghost, but did not excel "other men, except in righteousness." Epiphanius,† Augustin, and most of the other writers on heresies, say the same things of him. This impious dogmatist was anathematized by Victor, Bishop of Rome, as Caius himself testifies, in the place just quoted from Eusebius.

II. I cannot withhold a remarkable account which the same Caius gives us in the same place, and is much to our present purpose: “I will recall "to memory," says he, "a transaction well"known to many of our brethren. Had the same "happened in Sodom, I think that the inhabi"tants would have been led to repentance. "There was a Confessor, named Natalis, who "lived not long since in the present age. The 66 same had been accidentally seduced by Ascle

* Advers. Hær. cap. 53.

+ Hær, 54.

De Hæer. 33.