Of  the  Inference  that  may  he  draivnfrom  the  Passage
of  Athanasius,  concerning  the  Opinion  of  the  early
Jewish  Christians  relating  to  Christ,

Dear  Sir,

As  one  argument  that  the  primitive  church  of  Jeru-
salem was  properly  unitarian,  maintaining  the  simple
humanity  of  Christ,  I  observed,  that  ''  Athanasius
himself  was  so  far  from  denying  it,  that  he  endeavoured
to  account  for  it  by  saying  that  all  the  Jews  were  so
firmly  persuaded  that  their  Messiah  was  to  be  nothing
more  than  a  man  like  themselves,  that  the  apostles
were  obliged  to  use  great  caution  in  divulging  the  doc-
trine of  the  proper  divinity  of  Christ."

This  I  maintain  to  be  a  short  but  true  state  of  the
case.  Athanasius  both  expressly  allowed  that  the  Jewish
christians  v.ere  at  first  of  the  opinion  that  Christ  was
no  more  than  a  man ;  and  he  accounts  for  the  apostles
conniving  at  it,  without  saying  how  long  that  prudent
connivance  continued.  In  my  Appendix  you  will  find
a  somevvhat  fuller  state  of  the  argument.  I  shall  now
distinctly  consider  all  that  you  have  advanced  to  inva-
lidate the  inference  that  I  have  made  from  this  remark-
able passage.  I  shall  afterwards  show  that  it  was  not
Athanasius  only,  but  Chrysostom  also  ;  and,  as  he  says,
the  ancients  J  and  the  most  distinguished  fathers  of  the
church,  who  gave  the  same  representation  of  the  state
of  things  in  the  apostolical  age.
You  sav,  p.  22,  that  Athanasius  is  here  speaking  of
the  unbelieving  Jews.   The  expression  is  0/  lOTi  lovlxioi,


46     .  LETTERS   TO  DR.  IIORSLEY.
