he Christian Jews of
Jerusalem were called, retired to the little town of Pella, from whence
they could make easy and frequent pilgrimages to the Holy City. When the
Emperor Hadrian forbade the Jewish people from approaching the precincts
of the city, the Nazarenes escaped from the common proscription by
disavowing the Mosaic law. A small remnant, however, still combined the
Mosaic ceremonies with the Christian faith, and existed, until the
fourth century, under the name of Ebeonites.

The immortality of the soul had been held by a few sages of Greece and
Rome, who were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the
field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the
most sincere admiration could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a
few years of duration. But reason could not justify the specious and
noble principles of the disciples of Plato.

To the Christians alone the authority of Christ gave a certainty of a
future life, and when the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to
mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the
precepts of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer
should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every
rank, and of every province in the Roman Empire. The immediate
expectation of the second coming of Christ, and the reign of the Son of
God with His saints for a thousand years, strengthened the ancient
Christians against all trials and sufferings.

The supernatural gifts which even in this life were ascribed to the
Christians above the rest of mankind must have conduced to their own
comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. The gift of
tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of
healing the sick, and of raising the dead, were prodigies claimed by the
Christian Church at the time of the apostles and their first disciples.

Repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting
the reputation of the society in which they were engaged, rendered the
lives of the primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those
of their pagan contemporaries or their degenerate successors. They were
insistent in their condemnation of pleasure and luxury, and, in their
search after purity, were induced to approve reluctantly that
institution of marriage which they were compelled to tolerate. A state
of celibacy was regarded as the nearest approach to the div