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whenever it had been known that the apoftles were preaching not fuch a mefliah as they expected, viz. a man like themfelves, but the eternal God, the difference was fo great, that a general alarm would have been fpread, and the converfion of the rest of the Jews (to a doctrine which must have appeared fo highly improbable to them) would have been impeded. We may therefore prefume that the apostles must have connived at this state of ignorance concerning the divinity of Chrift, in the Jewish chriftians, till there was little hope of making any farther converts among the Jews, and till the gofpel began to be preached to the Gentiles.

Indeed, this must have been the cafe according to Athanafius's own account; for he fays, that these Jews, being in an error themselves, led the Gentiles into the fame error. He must, therefore, be understood to say, that the Jewish converts, while (through the caution of the apostles) they were ignorant of the divinity of Chrift, preached the gofpel in that state to the Gentiles. And as he fpeaks of Gentiles in

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general,

general, and without any respect to time, and alfo of their being actually brought over to that belief, it is impoffible not to underftand him of this caution, being continued till the gofpel had been fully preached to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. Besides, one of the inftances that Athanafius here gives of the preaching of the simple humanity of Christ is taken from the discourse of the apostle Paul at Athens, which was about the year 53 after Christ; and, indeed, at this time the gofpel had not been preached to any great extent among the Gentiles. For it was on this very journey that this apoftle firft preached the gofpel in Macedonia and Greece.

If, according to Athanafius, the apoftolical referve with refpect to the doctrine of the divinity of Chrift continued till this time (and he fays nothing concerning the termination of it) we may presume that this great doctrine, fuppofing it to have been known to the apostles, had not been publicly taught by them, till very near the time of their difperfion and death; and then I think it must have come too late, even from them.

For

For it appears from the book of Acts, that their mere authority was not fufficient to overbear the prejudices of their country

At least, the communication of a doctrine of fo extraordinary a nature, of which they had no conception, muft have occafioned fuch an alarm and confiernation, as we must have found fome traces of in the hiftory of the Acts of the apoftles. It could not have been received without hefitation and debate.

If we can fuppofe that the apoftles, fome time before their death, did communicate this great and unexpected doctrine, the effects of fuch communication must have been very tranfient. For presently after the death of the apoftles, we find all the Jewish chriftians diftinguished by the name of Nazarenes, or Ebionites, and no trace of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ among them.

When all these things are confidered, viz. that Athanafius acknowledged that it required great caution in the apostles to divulge the doctrine of the divinity of Chri, and that the gospel was preached with fuceefs among the Gentiles, while the Jews

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were ignorant of it, it can hardly be doubted, but that he must himself have confidered the chriftian church in general as unitarian in the time of the apoftles, at least till near the time of their dispersion and death.

According to Athanafius, the Jews were to be well grounded in the belief of Jesus being the Chrift, before they could be taught the doctrine of his divinity. Now, if we look into the book of Acts, we shall clearly fee, that they had not got beyond the first lesson in the apoftolic age, the great burden of the preaching of the apostles being to perfuade the Jews that Jefus was the Chrift. That he was likewife God, they evidently left to their fucceffors, who, indeed, did it most effectually, though it required a long courfe of time to fucceed in it.

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CHAPTER V.

Of the concurrent Teftimony of other Fathers to the caution of the Apofiles, in teaching the Doctrines of the Pre-existence and Diinity of Chrift.

I Have no great occafion to lay much stress on the testimony of Athanafius, as there is that of others of the Fathers fufficiently full and clear to the fame purpose.

Chryfoftom having faid, that Chrift taught his divinity by his works only, fays, that "Peter alfo, in the beginning, "ufed the fame method. For that, in his "first discourse to the Jews, he taught nothing clearly concerning his divinity; "and because they were then incapable of learning any thing clearly concerning it, "he dwelt upon his humanity; that, being "accustomed to this, they might be pre

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pared for what they were to be taught And if any perfon," he says,

"afterwards.

And if

"will attend to the whole of their preach

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