world was made, yet this world did not acknowledge him. He came to his own, but his own people did not receive him to as many, however, as received him, by believing in his name, he gave power to become chil

heathen god. Hence the ablest Greek critics among the ancient fathers, who knew an hundred fold more about the construction and usage of the language than the modern critics, say John could have used the article in this phrase, had he intended to designate the Logos as the supreme God.

From what has been said it will follow, that John used the word God, when characteristic of the Logos, in a subordinate and relative sense; and this he might do, either as a Jew, following the usage of the holy Scriptures, or in imitation of the Grecian philosophers. The Hebrew Scriptures use the term God to denote beings of the Angelic order. Compare Psalm 97. 7, with Heb. 1. 6. Thus also in Psalm 86. 8, where the Hebrew says, "there is none among the gods like unto thee," the Chaldaic version says, there is none among the angels of heaven like unto thee." Jesus tells the Jews, "the law called them gods to whom the word of God came. John 10. 35. Hence we see the term god, used in the scriptures, in a subordinate sense; and we have reason to believe that it is so used in this introduction; for John could not intend to say the Logos was the same, as the God in whose presence he was.

3. All things animate or inanimate were made by the Logos. Against this proposition, two objections are made. 1. That out of about 300 instances, where the preposition dia with a genitive occurs, in the New Testament, not more than three can be found to denote the first or efficient cause: but uniformly this construction marks the instrumental cause of an action. Consequently the Father, and not the Son, is the Creator. 2. The verb yevro never signifies to create. Now both these objections may be admitted, in their full force and extent, and yet the proposition; That all things were made by the Son, be true and perfectly maintainable. The ancient philosophers, as well as many very eminent modern writers on Cosmogony, have maintained a two-fold creation, or rather a creation and formation. A creation, strictly so named, in which the elements of things are called from nonentity into being a formation, by which things receive their figure and adaptation for their destined use, in actual being: The first may be called a creation of essence, the second of forms of being. It is readily granted, that the scriptures uniformly describe the Father as acting through the agency of his Son and if John contemplated the agency of the Logos in the formation of things, his words and phrases are well adapted to express his meaning with caution and perspicuity. "What part belonged to the Son in Creation, says Rosenmuller, no mortal should dare to explain. The Ancients thus understood and believed; that the Father was the disposer of all things, but that in finishing what he had disposed, he used the agency of his Son." Lactantius de

dren of God; who were not begotten of blood, nor of concupiscence, nor by the desire of the male, but of God.

This Logos became incarnate, and tabernacled among

Sapien. L. 4, C. 9, says, the philosophers were not ignorant of the Logos, for even Zeno denominates the maker and disposer of the world, Logos. Philo, de Mundi Opificio, says, when the Deity decreed to form this mighty globe, he conceived the forms thereof, and afterwards constituted this intelligent world after the model he had conceived and if it please any one to speak more openly, this archetype of the intelligible world, this idea of ideas was the Word of God." Hence the philosophers of that time and some of the Fathers, even Origen and Augustine, held the Son to be an intermedium, if İ may so say, between the Deity and the material world; as if some being more nearly connected with creation, than the eternal spirit, should be the agent in the formation of things. The Apostle Paul expressly declares all things visible and invisible were created in the Son, and by his agency, and for his use, Col. 1. 16. And again: by him. God made the worlds, Heb. 1. 2. I know it is objected that the word divas should be translated ages, but this need not be granted; for the same term is used in chap. 11. 3, of this epistle, to signify the material world: and Michaelis observes, in his notes on Pierce's Commentary, that the Jews, in their most solemn acts of devotion, address God as the Creator of the ages; doubtlessly meaning by the term ages, this system of the Universe. The Apostle Paul and the Evangelist John, therefore, clearly unite in the sentiment of the philosophers of their times, in ascribing the formation of all things to the Son of God, and hence they place him before all things, for this very reason. Surely there can be no more impossibility in Christ's agency in the forming of this world and man upon it, than in his raising the dead, calming the winds, and suspending the action of nature's laws. John tells us the world was made by the Logos. In this we believe him; but let those who say the world was not made, but only renewed or enlightened by the Logos, account for the inconceivable ignorance or wickedness of this enlightened and renewed world, in not knowing or acknowledging the Son of God!

4. The Logos pre-existed personally, before the world, and having derived his being and fullness from the Father became the author of life and all its benefits to mankind. John 1. 3-12. That which was accomplished in the Logos was life. This is life causal and supernatural: the spring of life temporal, and inexhaustible source of immortal and spiritual life. John having described the formation of all things by the Logos, proceeds to notice the most important particulars, not as posterior transactions, but as subjects of reiterated attention. The time, when life was produced in the Logos, was that in which it passed from its conceptual, to its substantial state of being.

The time when the wisdom and word of the Deity became

us; and we beheld his glory, the glory of an Only-begotten from the presence of the Father, full of grace and truth; for out of his fulness, we have all received grace instead of grace. For the law was given by Moses,

incorporated, in the person of his only-begotten, the first born of the whole creation. Col. 1. 15. By this act of generation or formation, the Father gave to the Son the inconceivable power or prerogative of having life in himself. Hence Jesus says, "I live by the Father. The Father has given the Son to have life in himself. I came that ye might have life more abundantly. Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. He that believes on the Son has life, but he that believes not on the Son, shall not see life." From these and similar passages, we conclude, that as all beings received life from the Son, at first, whereby they perceive the light of this world, and perform certain transactions in it, so every intelligent being must receive spiritual and immortal life by the faith of the Son of God, and spiritual union with him, or without doubt perish everlastingly. Hence men, who have forfeited their claims to life by sin, must have that claim renewed by faith and repentance, or suffer eternal death in annihilation of being. That this life was given to the Logos before the world was, is clear from the context; for John describes the accomplishment of life in him, before he became man, or tabernacled among men. So that those who imagine the first and second verses, are spoken of the Logos, in a conceptual state, gain nothing; for John plainly ascribes life to the Logos, before the incarnation; and the formation of the world to him, in his personal and substantial state of being. Verses 10-14.

The Logos was the author of life to man at first: and when Man had forfeited that life, it became necessary for the Son of God to appear in our world and die, that man might live. This new and spiritual life, however, is communicated to those only who believe and receive the Son. Thus in verse twelfth: To as many as received him, he gave power to become the sons of God. The unbeliever therefore, who does not receive by faith the Son of God, must inevitably perish, in the strict and proper sense of the term: for this is eternal life to know or acknowledge the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. They therefore, who know not God, through his Son, cannot receive power to become sons of God; neither can they trust in his name, and consequently, cannot be saved, nor enter into life, but without doubt must perish everlastingly; for Jesus gives the power of becoming sons of God to none, but those who know, profess, and obey him.

5. The Logos was the medium of all the dispensations of Jehovah to mankind, whether Antedeluvian, Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christian. In verse tenth, John asserts that the Logos was in the world; and that he came to his own people, before he says any thing of his incarnation, verse fourteenth. Thus the true light enlightens every

but favour and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God, at any time; the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known.

man of all ages; though the darkness, or ungodly men, do not comprehend nor perceive his divine illumination. In the Patriarchal dispensation the Logos frequently appeared in the form of man, and as an angel, speaking and acting in the name and as the representative of Jehovah. See the history of the appearances to Abraham and Lot, Gen. 17 and 18. He was the angel of Jehovah's presence, who went before Israel, and whom they tempted in the wilderness. 1 Cor. 10. 9. The Mediator by whose hands the law was given at Sinai, Acts 7. 55. and Gal. 3. 19. How appropriate are the words of John, verse eighteenth; No man has seen God at any time. The Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known. Thus the primitive Fathers believed and wrote with one voice. See their sayings collected by Bishop Bull and Dr. Waterland.

6. The Logos, who was with the Father in the beginning and by whom all things were made, became incarnate, and tabernacled among men. Verse fourteenth. No doctrine can be more fully or clearly taught than this. Hear Christ. No man has ascended into heaven but the son of man who came down from heaven. What if ye see the son of man ascend up where he was before? Father glorify me with the glory I had with thee before the world was. John 3. 15; 6. 38, 62; and 17. 5. This testimony by John is fully confirmed by Paul, when he says: To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. Here a learned Philosopher and Apostle of Jesus, asserts the origin of all things to be the Father, but the existence of all things is by the Son. Addressing the Colossians, he describes that Jesus, through whose blood we have redemption, as the first born of the whole creation, by whom all things were created; who was before all things, and by whom all things consist. Col. 1. 14-17. In the epistle to the Philippians, 2. 6-11, he represents the Logos, as being first in the form of a god, and afterwards humbling himself, laying aside his majesty, and taking the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man. This distinction between the pre-existent Logos and incarnate being called Christ Jesus, he notifies to the Romans, in his introduction to the epistle addressed to them, by denominating Jesus, the son of David, according to the flesh, but the Son of God, according to the Spirit. Now were we at any loss to comprehend the meaning of the Evangelist and the Apostle, the uniform testimony of the Christian writers from the days of John and Paul should suffice. Hear then Clemens Romanus, a writer cotemporary with the apostles. "One Lord Christ, who saves us, who though he

BOOK OF THE NATIVITY.*

There was in the days of Herod, King of Judea, a certain priest nained Zachariah of the course of Abijah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord without blame. And they had no child, for Elizabeth was barren; and they were both advanced in years. Now it came to pass, that as he officiated before God, in the order of his course, he was appointed by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the temple of the Lord, to burn incense: and the whole multitude of the people was praying without, at the time of incense. Then appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense; and Zachariah was troubled at the apparition and fear fell on him. But the angel said to him: Fear not Zachariah,

was first a Spirit, yet he became flesh." Ignatius, in his epistle to the Magnessians, says, "There is one God who manifested himself through Jesus Christ his Son, who is the eternal Logos." Subsequent writers need not be here called in evidence. All who know any thing of antiquity, are well satisfied, that the incarnation of the pre-existent Logos, is the unanimous testimony of the Christian Church, and of every writer of any reputation belonging to that Church, for more than fifteen hundred years. Hence, I can acquit the apostles and ecclesiastical writers of the charge of being false witnesses for Christ and advocates of heathen Philosophy, in no other way, but by believing the pre-existent dignity and subsequent incarnation of the Logos, Jesus Christ.

be

*Book of the Nativity, Βίβλος γενέσεως. I have taken this title from the first verse of Matthew's Gospel according to the generally received Text. I regard it as the title of some small book, like the "GOSPEL OF THE INFANCY," from which Matthew selected a part or the whole of the two first chapters of his Gospel or, it may the title by which he intended to distinguish the subject of the two first chapters, from the main body of the history, whose particulars he was fully qualified to attest, having been an eye witness. Matthew could not write the history of the miraculous conception, the visit of the Magi, the slaughter of the children by Herod, otherwise than by selecting from some books which treated of these things, or writing from report. Hence a reason arises why I have thought proper to pass unnoticed in this history, Matt. 1. 17-2. 23, and to insert what Luke has written on the same subject-Luke positively declares he wrote a narrative of those things only, which he had traced to their origin, and had found to be worthy of full credit. This is the reason he differs so much from Matthew, because on examination of a subject, the history of which depended for its authority, on the veracity of Mary and some of her acquaintances, he no doubt found some things inaccurate, others fabulous, and a part worthy of all acceptation. We therefore give the account of the mira