Later Unitarians in Christianity 219however, and his apostles, foretold that there would be
a great departure from the truth, and that something
would arise in the Church altogether unlike the doc
trine which they taught, and even subversive of it.
In reality, however, the causes of the succeeding
corruptions did then exist, and accordingly, without
anything more than their natural operation, all the
abuses rose to their full height; and what is more won
derful still, by the operation of natural causes also, we
see the abuses gradually corrected, and Christianity re
covering its primitive beauty and glory.
The causes of the corruptions were almost whoUy
contained in the established opinions of the heathen
world,and especially thephilosophicalpartofit,sothat
when those heathens embraced Christianity, they mixed
their former tenets and prejudices with it. Also, both
Jews and heathens were so much scandalised at the idea
of being disciples of a man who had been crucified as a
cornmon malefactor,thatChristi ans in general were suf
fiàently disposed to adopt any opinion that would most
effectually wipe away this reproach.
The opinion that the mental faculties of man belong
ing to a substance distinct from his body or brain, and
of this invisible spiritual part, or soul, being capable of
subsisting before and after its union with the body,
which had taken the deepest root in all schools of phi
losophy, was wonderfully calculated to answer this pur
pose. For by this means Christians were enabled to give
to the soul of Christ what rank they pleased in the heav
eniy region before he was born. On this principle went
the Gnostics, deriving their doctrine from the received
oriental philosophy. Afterwards, the philosophising
Christians went upon another principle, personifying
the wisdom, or Logos, of God the Father, equal to God
the Father Hirnself ...
The abuses of the positive institutions of Christian
ity, monstrous as they were, naturally arose from the
opinion of the purifying and sanctifying virtues of rites
and ceremonies, which was the very basis of all the
worships of the heathens! And they were also sirnilar to
the abuses of the Jewish religion. We likewise see the