To say nothing here of the truer reading ("men of your nation"), there is no consequence in the argument. The Ebionites were Christians in a large sense, men of Christian profession, nominal Christians, as Justin allowed the worst of heretics to be. And this is all he could mean by allowing the Ebionites to be Christians. I agree with Bull in holding [Greek: apò tou hymetérou génous] the most probable reading in the passage cited from Justin, and am by no means convinced that the celebrated passage in Josephus is an interpolation. But I do not believe that such men, as are here described, ever professed themselves Christians, or were, or could have been, baptized. Ib. p. 292. Le Clerc would appear to doubt, whether the persons pointed to in Justin really denied Christ's divine nature or no. It is as plain as possible that they did. Le Clerc is no favourite of mine, and Waterland is a prime favourite. Nevertheless, in this instance, I too doubt with Le Clerc, and more than doubt. Ib. p. 338. [Greek: Phúsei dè taes phthoras prosgenoménaes, anagkaion aen hóti sôsai Boulómenos áe tàen phthoropoiòn ousían aphanísas touto dè ouk aen hetérôs genésthai ei máeper hae katà phúsin zôàe proseplákae tô tàen phthoràn dexaménô, aphanizousa mèn tàen phthoràn, athanatòn dè tou loipou tò dexamenon diataerousa. k.t.l.]--Just. M. Here Justin asserts that it was necessary for essential life, or life by nature, to be united with human nature, in order to save it. Waterland has not mastered the full force of [Greek: hàe katà phúsin zôáe]. If indeed he had taken in the full force of the whole of this invaluable fragment, he would never have complimented the following extract from Irenæus, as saying the same thing "in fuller and stronger words." Compared with the fragment from Justin, it is but the flat common-place logic of analogy, so common in the early Fathers. Ib. p. 340. 'Qui nude tantum hominem eum dicunt ex Joseph generatum * * moriuntur.' 'Non nude hominem'--not a mere man do I hold Jesus to have been and to be; but a perfect man and, by personal union with the Logos, perfect God. That his having an earthly father might be requisite to his being a perfect man I can readily suppose; but why the having an earthly father should be more incompatible with his perfect divinity, than his having an earthly mother, I cannot comprehend. All that John and Paul believed, God forbid that I should not! Chap. VII. p. 389. It is a sufficient reason for not receiving either them ('Arian doctrines'), or the interpretations brought to support them, that the ancients, in the best and purest times, either knew nothing of them, or if they did, condemned them.