THE APOSTLE PAUL A UNITARIAN.

"I KEPT back nothing that was profitable unto you." "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." These passages exhibit the manly and fearless principles on which Paul acted as a minister of Jesus Christ. The great talents, extended learning, and ardent zeal with which he went forward in the perilous way where duty called him, give him a claim to the first rank among the inspired apostles of our Saviour. We have no doubt that he was eminently faithful to his great trust. We may receive his testimony respecting the character and office of Jesus Christ, with entire confidence that it could not have been erroneous or defective in any important respect.

There are two senses in which Christ is said to be divine. One class of Christians believe that he is the eternal, self-existent God-that he "whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world," is the same Being who sent him that he "who had all power given him in heaven and on earth," is the same God who gave him that power.

Another class of Christians, called Unitarians, believe in Jesus not as the Supreme God, but as one

* Acts xx. 20, 27.

"whom God hath highly exalted and made a Prince and a Saviour-head over all things to the church." They call him a divine messenger; but it is a divinity derived from God. His precepts were the precepts of God -his wisdom the wisdom of God-his power the power of God. The Unitarian then believes in Jesus Christ as a subordinate agent or representative of God, invested by him with divine wisdom and power to save and bless mankind.

It is our object to show that Paul's views of our Saviour correspond with this statement-or in other words, that he was a Unitarian. And for this purpose, it is necessary to review his preaching and his writings.

I. Let us examine his preaching, as we find it recorded by Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles. At that time the gospels containing our Saviour's history were not written. It was necessary therefore for preachers to relate this history, and inform their hearers distinctly who Jesus was, what he was, and what he had done, and taught, and suffered for man's salvation. Paul professes to disclose the whole truth, and "keep back nothing profitable;" if therefore the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ is not formally stated in his preaching, there is a strong presumption that he did not believe it. But we need not rest on this presumption alone; it will be easy to show positive evidence that he regarded him as a subordinate agent. This apostle says, he became all things to all men; or, in modern phrase, he accommodated his instructions to the condition and prejudices of the people whom he addressed. He addressed the Jews, as a nation acquainted with the one true God. They had long be

lieved, from their ancient prophets, that God would send a messenger for their deliverance, called the Messiah, or Anointed. But they had mistaken the meaning of the promises to which they trusted. They expected a prince in the pomp of earthly power, to wear an earthly crown, and deliver them, not from moral ruin and death, but from the yoke of the Romans, their foreign masters. They would gladly have welcomed Jesus as the Messiah, if he had promised to drive out his country's proud oppressors, raise the banner of independence, and reestablish the throne of David in its long departed grandeur. But they would not receive as the messenger of God, him who had refused to be their king, and blasted their fondest hopes. They rejected with bitter scorn the meek and lowly Jesus, whose kingdom was not of this world. They were still less likely to admit his claims after he had suffered an ignominious death.

It was necessary therefore for the apostle, when he preached to Jews, to accommodate his arguments to their peculiar state of mind. He explained to them the spiritual nature and design of our Saviour's office, and proved from their sacred books, that this very Jesus whom they had crucified, was no other than the promised Messiah.

His first preaching recorded in Acts ix. was directed solely to this point. At Damascus, "he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God," or the Messiah.* Again, "he confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ "+-that is, the true Messiah whom they expected.

His next discourse to the Jews, of which we have any

*Acts ix. 20.

† Acts ix. 22.

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record, was at Antioch. He had the same object in view as before, and the author, Luke, gives an account of his method and course of argument.* After the reading of the scriptures, he addresses them as the chosen people of God; gives a sketch of their history to show his peculiar care of their nation down to the time of David; then he says, "of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus." He then proceeds with the history of Jesus, comparing it with the ancient scriptures, to prove that he is the Messiah. "When they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre; but God raised him from the dead." The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead is proved and powerfully urged as conclusive evidence, that he was the Messiah, long expected by the Jewish nation.

He finally adds, "be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man (Jesus Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified;"-believe what? that Christ is God? Nothing like it, but only the doctrine he had been teaching them, which, free as it is from Trinitarianism, he himself called the "word of salvation.”

Such as we have stated was the train of reasoning, which, as far as we are informed, Paul always employed in preaching the gospel to the Israelites. It went to prove the simple proposition, that Jesus was the Messiah; or, what means the same thing in the Greek language, the Christ. After having embraced this great truth, they † Acts xiii. 29---37.

* Acts xiii. 17-42.

were Christians in faith; it remained only for them to become so in practical obedience to the gospel.

It is necessary now to consider what idea a Jew must have had of the Messiah, after Paul had thus explained his character and office, and proved from the Old Testament that Jesus of Nazareth was he. I have already stated the well known fact, that this people had expected in him a temporal prince and deliverer. After the Apostle had exposed this error, what new idea did they form of him? This may be easily answered.

The term Messiah or Christ literally means, the anointed. It originated in an ancient practice of anointing with oil one who was set apart or consecrated to an office. Now it is perfectly well known that the Jews supposed that their expected Deliverer, whom they called, by way of eminence, the Messiah, would receive and fulfil his high office under the authority of Jehovah.. They looked forward to him as God's most distinguished messenger to them. They invested him with high titles as the Son of God. But no Jew ever for a moment supposed that the Most High himself would come down to earth in human form as the Messiah. When the apostle therefore proved to them, that they were not to expect a temporal prince, but a spiritual one, and that Jesus of Nazareth was the true and long expected Messiah, they could have received him only as a messenger or agent of God-not as the ever-living Jehovah, whom they had worshipped in the Holy of Holies. Paul knew that the Jewish converts to Christianity must regard our Saviour only as an agent, deriving his power and dignity from God, and he gives them no intimation that they were in an error. Nay, we