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    Acts xx . 17 and following verses ; but the 20 and 21 verses especially . At Rome also / that eminent Gentile city , it is clear the Christian church was

    formed of believing Jews and Gentiles . Acts xxviii . 24 , it is said of Jews at Home , " Some of them believed the things which were spoken /* The whole Epistle to the Romans is written as to a church of Jews and Gentiles , and with a view to elucidate and establish

    the very point which the Ebionites disputed , and of which they appear to have been totally ignorant . Thus do we learn from the New Testament itself , that the apostles taught their converts , both Jews and Gentiles , that the middle wall which

    had separated between them , even the law of ceremonies , was removed by faith in Christ , so that they were made one body in him . Thus , also , do we find that according to this doctrine they planted churches , consisting of Gentile and Jewish believers in one

    communion . And after all this , can we be persuaded that the body of Jewish Christians despised and resisted the doctrine , and that thus , respecting them , so considerable a branch of the primitive believers , it utterl y foiled of its proper effect , although it held so conspicuous a place in the discourses and writings of the apostles , and even in the conferences of the elders and other

    members of the churches ? That with some persons it should prove ineffectual , although they were partly overcome b y the divine evidences which attended the gospel , might be expected , as in the case of Dr . P / s Ebionites , and their worthy predecessors , " the certain men , " who

    contested the matter with the apostles , and took the pains to go to Gentile cities , to preach in opposition to them . Nor is it surprising that more docile characters , even some among the true disciples should , as Jews , want much instruction and clear conviction , to induce them to assent to the doctrine

    in question . Nor need we wonder that towards such persons the apostles were mild and indulgent , whilst they were also cautious of shocking the prepossessions of those Jews in general who had not yet believed , especiall y at Jerusalem . But no one , I imagine , can Fairly infer from these circumstances , that they intended to encourage or

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    even to tolerate the opinion that the Law was still to separate between the Gentile and Jewish believers ; for this would have been to contradict their own teaching , and discredit their own conduct in the planting of Christian churches .

    I have thus given my reasons for thinking the Ebionites real heretics , opposers of the true Christian teachers , and as such no proper examples of primitive Christianity , either as to faith or practice , being far more likely to lead us into error than truth on any point of Christian doctrine . As an Unitarian I have been used to hear the

    Ebionites appealed to , as furnishing important historical testimony , that simple Unitarianism was taught by the apostles and other primitive preachers of the gospel ; but to me now the appeal appears utterly fallacious , inasmuch as the Ebionites seem not to

    have regarded what was taught by the apostles ; and , therefore , their opinions can furnish us with no example of what the apostles taught . Dr . P . seemed to assume that the Ebionites must be the body of

    Christian Jews , because otherwise we know not where to look for that body , after they were driven from Jerusalem by the destruction of that city ; and yet he uses these remarkable words : * What

    became of the whole body of ancient Christian Jews ( none of whom can be proved to have been Trinitarians ) / cannot tell ? 3 Now , Sir , I think it much more reasonable to suppose that ,

    when dispersed ( with the Jews in general ) among the Gentile nations , they joined their Christian brethren in the Gentile churches , than to imagine they continued among the unbelieving Jews as inconsistent members of the

    synagogues , as the Ebionites certainly were . Reasons sufficient for this opinion I believe are contained in this letter . I would just add , however , that Dr . P . quotes Jbulpicius , * as saying , that almost all the Christian Jews ,

    driven out of Jerusalem in the time of Adrian , believed that Christ was God . He also quotes Grotius + as approving of this assertion of Sulpicius . The quotation from Origen in

    * History of Early Opinions , III . ™ f Idem , III . 200 .

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    406 Mr . R . Martin on the Difficulties of Unitarianism .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1821, page 406, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2502/page/26/