ceive how they could ever enter into the head of any rational being. I know not whether. it will be deemed any apology for Tertullian to observe that he was not the inventor of these fancies; for it argues perhaps a more lamentable weakness of judgement to have copied, than to have invented them: most, however, if not all, are to be found in Justin Martyr. In speaking of the circumstances connected with our Saviour's Passion, Tertullian asserts that the preternatural darkness at the crucifixion was predicted by the 17 prophet Amos. "But not only," 18 continues our author, "did the prophets predict the death of the Messiah: they foretold also the dispersion of the Jewish people, and the destruction of Jerusalem." The passages which he alleges in proof of this statement are Ezekiel viii. 12. and Deuteronomy xxviii. 64. "Here then," he says, addressing the Jews, "we find an additional proof that Jesus was the Christ:your rejection of him has been followed by a series of the most grievous calamities that ever befel a nation-your holy temple has been consumed with fire, and you are forbidden to set foot upon the territory of your an19 Was it not also foretold of the Mes

cestors.

siah that the Gentiles should be his inheritance and the ends of the earth his possession? was he not described as the light of the Gentiles? and are not these predictions accomplished in the diffusion of the Gospel of Jesus through every part of the known world?"

66

20 We, therefore, do not err when we affirm that the Messiah is already come. The error is yours, who still look for his coming. The 21 Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of Judah, according to the prophet. But at the present moment no one of the stock of Israel remains at Bethlehem: either, therefore, the prophecy is already fulfilled, or its fulfilment is impossible." 22 Tertullian concludes with pointing out the source of the error of the Jews, who did not perceive that two advents of Christ were announced in Scripture-the first in humiliation, the second in glory. Fixing their thoughts exclusively on the latter, they refused to acknowledge a meek and suffering Saviour.

Such were the arguments by which Tertullian endeavoured to shew, in opposition to the objections of the Jews, that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah. It appears from them that the controversy then stood

20 13. C.

21 Micah v. 1.

22

C. 14.

precisely on the same footing on which it stands in the present day: and that the Jews of his time resorted to the same subterfuges and cavils as the modern Jews, in order to evade the force of the prophecies which, as the Christians maintained, had been fulfilled in Jesus. If we turn to Bp. Pearson, we shall find that the course, which he pursues in establishing the truth of the second 23 Article of the Creed, differs not very materially from that of our author. We notice this resemblance for the purpose of removing, at least in part, the unfavourable impression which Mosheim's strictures are calculated to create against this portion of Tertullian's labors. In judging also of the Treatise adversus Judæos, we should bear in mind that it has come down to us in a corrupt state, some passages bearing evident marks of interpolation. We will conclude our remarks upon it with observing that Tertullian, when he charges the Jews with confounding the two advents of Christ, makes no allusion to the notion of two Messiahs-one suffering, the other triumphant; whence we are warranted in concluding either

:

24

23 See p. 76. where he shews that Joshua was a type of Christ. See also Article III. "born of the Virgin Mary," and Article IV. "was crucified."

24 See c. 5. and c. 14. sub fine.

that he was ignorant of this device, or that it had not been resorted to in his day.

25

To return to Mosheim. In his enumeration of the heresies which divided the Church in the second century, he first mentions that which originated in a superstitious attachment to the Mosaic law. This heresy is scarcely noticed by Tertullian. There can indeed be little doubt that, after the promulgation of Adrian's edict, those Christians who united the observance of the Mosaic ritual with the profession of the Gospel, fearful least they should be confounded with the Jews, gradually abandoned the Jewish ceremonies-so that, in the time of Tertullian, the number of 26 Judaizing Christians had become extremely small. We are now speaking of those whom Mosheim calls 27 Nazarenes-who, though they retained the Mosaic rites, believed all the fundamental artiIcles of the Christian faith. The Ebionites on

25 Century II. Part ii. Chap. 5.

26 See Wilson's Illustration of the method of explaining the New Testament, &c. c. 11. where he enumerates the different causes which contributed to the gradual extinction of the Judaizing Christians, or as he terms them, Christian Jews.

27 The Jews, in Tertullian's time, appear to have called Christians in general by the name of Nazarenes. Adv. Marcionem, L. iv. c. 8. sub initio. Apud Hebræos Christianos, L. iii. c. 12.

the authority of the early Fathers can be of little weight in the determination of this question, on account of their ignorance of the Eastern languages; and that it matters little whether the Heretics derived their opinions directly from the East; or indirectly through the medium of Pythagoras and Plato, the germ of whose philosophy is known to have been formed during their residence in Egypt. The present is not a fit opportunity for enquiring into the reality of this alleged connexion between the Oriental and Platonic philosophies. Our object in the above observations is merely to shew that, if any weight is to be attached to the opinions of the early Fathers, the heresies, which Mosheim calls oriental, ought rather to be denominated Grecian.

Mosheim speaks of two branches, into which the oriental Heretics were dividedthe Asiatic and the Egyptian branch. Elxai, whom he mentions as the head of the former, appears to have been entirely unknown to Tertullian; nor does Mosheim himself seem to have arrived at any certain conclusion respecting this Heretic: for he doubts whether the followers of Elxai were to be numbered among the Christian or Jewish