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merely equivalent to Messiah, and was applied by Nathaniel to Jesus before he knew of his miraculous birth even, while he thought him the son of Joseph. "Logos," word, or wisdom, or reason, was applied by John to that Divine wisdom and power which God manifested through Jesus, and by which he had created the universe. But these phrases were caught up by these heathen philosophers, and made to mean something entirely different. To them, heathens as they had been, the idea of a derived and subordinate God, or a complexity in the Divine Nature, was not at all shocking. They, therefore, carried the phrase "Son of God," which in the mind of a Jew, conveyed no idea of a superior nature, back into eternity, and made Christ instead of created being, one derived immediately from God, and of the same nature. And what confirmed them in this notion, was the coincidence of the word Logos, which John used to express the power and wisdom of God which dwelt in Christ, with the same term Logos in their own philosophy, which they had learned of Plato and his followers.

The philosophical speculations of that age, which were a mixture of the Platonic and the Oriental, were very loose on the subject of the Unity of God. They both allowed of derived Divinity, of emanations from God, still partaking of the Divine Nature. Plato had spoken of the Logos, or reason of God, as somehow distinct from his essential being, by which he created the world, and his followers had spoken of it as a distinct Being. Philo,

a learned Jew, a cotemporary of the apostles in the latter part of his life, had amalgamated in some measure, this Platonic heathen philosophy with the Jewish theology. He represented this Logos, or reason of God, as a Person, as a Being emanated or begotten, not uncreated like the great Supreme, nor created like other beings, but a medium between the two. This Logos he called "first born Son," and represents all things as created, preserved and governed by him. This is he who appeared to the patriarchs of the Old Testament; for the Supreme God, who cannot be limited by any place, could not appear in a visible form. From this time the Logos became the advocate of men with God. God sends him into virtuous souls, who are instructed by him. He is the secondary God, who is subordinate to the Supreme. Now these were speculations entered into by a Jewish-heathen philosopher before the Gospels were written, who had, it is probable, never heard of Jesus of Nazareth, or his doctrines. Here then we have the very elements, of a purely heathen origin, the materials, the substratum of what afterwards was formed into the Second Person of the Trinity, and the Divine Nature of Christ. Plato had personified the Intellectual Energy of God, by which he planned, created, and governs all things. His followers made it a real Person, an emanation from God. Philo, the Jew, and others with him probably, introduced this doctrine into the Jewish Theology, and corrupted with it their pure Theism,

by representing this intermediate Being, this Platonic Logos, to have been the medium through which the Jehovah of the Jews created the world and held intercourse with the patriarchs. Afterwards the Gospels were written. Three of them which certainly contain all that is essential to Christian doctrine, have no expression, with the exception of "Son of God," and that as an equivalent to Messiah, which could furnish the remotest analogy between Jesus of Nazareth, and the Logos of Plato and Philo. John does use the word Logos, in the sense of that wisdom and power of God which were manifested in Jesus, but as far as we can perceive without any idea of personality, hardly of personification, much less of dividing the Divine Nature. Here then was the point of coincidence and conjunction. The Christian Fathers, who had been heathen philosophers, into whose hands the administration of Christianity fell after the apostles, joined these two together, the Jewish Messiah and the Platonic Logos. And hence resulted that strange fancy of a human and a Divine nature combined in one Person, and the still stranger introduction of a Second Person into the Jehovah of the Jews. The first elements of the Trinity then, grew out of putting heathen meanings on Jewish words, terms, and phrases. "Son of God," which with a Jew had no reference to nature at all when applied to the Messiah, was carried back into the ages of eternity, and made to mean derivation from the substance of God. And

"Logos" was made to mean, not the wisdom and power of God manifested in Jesus of Nazareth, but the Platonic Logos, an attribute or portion of God, become a Person.

To be convinced that this was the origin of the doctrine of the Trinity, so abhorrent to the Theism, both of the Jews, and of the religion of Jesus, it is only necessary to examine the philosophical speculations of that age, in connection with the writings of the Christian Fathers before the council of Nice. Of the use they made of these two phrases "Son" and "Logos," I shall give you some specimens. I shall make these quotations from the Christian Fathers, to show of what elements they constructed the Trinity, how far it had advanced in their hands, how much more in these speculations it is like the Platonic system we have been examining, than like the theology of the Jews, or modern and perfected Trinitarianism. My quotations from them will be taken from a work of Professor Stuart, of Andover, a witness in no way friendly to the conclusions I draw from his premises, and therefore the more likely to be impartial. The conclusion which he avows, after having carefully examined this whole subject, is summed up in these words. "The great body of the early and influential Christian Fathers, whose works are extant, believed that the Son of God was begotten at a period not long before the creation of the world; or in other words, that he

became a separate hypostasis at or near the time when the work of creation was to be performed."

The first writer of eminence after the apostles, whose writings are extant, was Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who flourished about the close of the first century. In his writings there is such a passage as this: "There is ONE God, who revealed himself by Jesus Christ his Son, who is his eternal Logos not proceeding from Silence." Who does not perceive that this is as identical with the Platonic Logos as it is repugnant to the one Jehovah of the Jews, and the three equal Persons of the modern Trinity?

The next distinguished Father I quote is Justin Martyr, a native of Palestine, and who flourished about the middle of the second century. He had been a heathen philosopher, and he thus expresses his ideas of the Divine Nature. "God in the beginning, before any thing was created, begat a Rational Power from himself; which is called by the Holy Ghost, Glory of the Lord, and sometimes Son, Wisdom, Angel, God, Lord, Logos. Sometimes also he calls him Leader. In the form of a man he appeared to Joshua, the son of Nun. All the above names he bears because he ministers to the will of the Father, and was begotten by the will of the Father." How this wisdom or reason of God could have emanated from him, he goes on to describe. "Something like this we see happens to ourselves. When we utter a reasonable word, we beget reason, or logos, but not by abscission, so

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