Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/90

 sties 72 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, more rigorous opinion prevailed, as it was natural '___ to expect, over the milder; and an eternal bar of sepa- ration 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 ^ The Gno- While the orthodox church preserved a just medium between excessive veneration and improper contempt for the law of Moses, the various heretics deviated into equal but opposite extremes of error and extravagance. From the acknowledged truth of the Jewish religion, the Ebionites had concluded that it could never be abolished. From its supposed imperfections, the Gno- stics as hastily inferred that it never was instituted by the wisdom of the Deity. There are some objections against the authority of Moses and the prophets, which too readily present themselves to the sceptical mind; though they can only be derived from our ignorance of remote antiquity, and from our incapacity to form an adequate judgement of the divine economy. These objections were eagerly embraced and as petulantly urged by the vain science of the Gnostics''. As those heretics were, for the most part, averse to the plea- sures of sense, they morosely arraigned the polygamy of the patriarchs, the galantries of David, and the se- •* Of all the systems of Christianity, that of Abyssinia is the only one which still adheres to the Mosaic rites. Geddes's Church History of ii^thi- opia, and Dissertations de le Grand sur la Relation du P. Lobo. The eu- nuch of the queen Candace might suggest some suspicions ; but as we are assured, (Socrates, i. 19; Sozomen, ii. 24; Ludolphus, p. 281.) that the Ethiopians were not converted till the fourth century, it is more reason- able to believe, that they respected the sabbath, and distinguished the for- bidden meats, in imitation of the jews, who, in a very early period, were seated on both sides of the Red sea. Circumcision had been practised by the most ancient /Ethiopians, from motives of health and cleanliness, which seem to be explained in the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Amerioains, torn. ii. p. 117. ■= Beausobre (Ilistoiie du Manicheisme, 1. i. c. 3.) has stated their objec- •ions, particularly those of Faustus, the adversary of Auguslin, with the most learned impartiality.