prelude to the Fourth Gospel (i. 1), place the Logos in a secondary
position to God the Father, another point indicating a less advanced
stage of the doctrine."

From this we must, of course, infer that the author of "Supernatural
Religion" considers that Justin does not state the essential Godhead of
the Second Person as distinctly and categorically as it is stated in the
Fourth Gospel. And as it is assumed by Rationalists that there was in
the early Church a constantly increasing development of the doctrine of
the true Godhead of our Lord, gradually superseding some earlier
doctrine of an Arian, or Humanitarian, or Sadducean type; therefore, the
more fully developed doctrine of the Godhead of our Lord in any book
proves that book to be of later origin than another book in which it is
not so fully developed.

The author of "Supernatural Religion" cannot deny that Justin ascribes
the names "Lord" and "God" and Pre-existence before all worlds to Jesus
as the Logos, but he fastens upon certain statements or inferences
respecting the subordination of the Son to the Father, and His acting
for His Father, or under Him, in the works of Creation and Redemption,
which Justin, as an orthodox believer who would abhor Tritheism, was
bound to make, and most ignorantly asserts that such statements are
contrary to the spirit of the Fourth Gospel.

I shall now set before the reader the statements of both St. John and
Justin respecting the Divine Nature of our Lord, so that he may judge
for himself which is the germ and which the development.

The Fourth Gospel once, and once only, sets forth the Godhead and
Pre-existence of the Logos, and this is in the exordium or prelude:--