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only made by a rational artificer, but animated by his substance. Consider that when you silently muse with yourself, reason is acting within you, that principle concurring with speech to every thought and sensation. Whatever you think is sermo (speech), and whatever you perceive is ratio (reason) How much more doth this take place in the mind of God, of whom you are the image and likeness, that he has in himself when he is silent, reason, and in reason, speech! I may, therefore, venture to assert, that God, before the constitution of the universe, was not alone; as he had then reason within himself, and in reason, speech, which he could make a second principle from himself, by acting within himself."*

At least what I have

This passage needs no comment. observed with respect to the quotation from Athenagoras will be quite sufficient for it, the λoyixos of the Greek writer being the same thing with the rationalis of the Latin author. shall only give two other extracts from this writer, which clearly shew what, in his idea, was the true origin of what is called the second principle in the Trinity. "Christ," he says, "is the power of God, and the spirit of God, the speech, the wisdom, the reason, and the Son of God."+

That, in the opinion of Tertullian, it was Christ who was the immediate maker of the world, cannot be questioned;

* "Ante omnia enim Deus erat solus, ipse sibi et mundus, et locus, et omnia. Solus autem, quia nihil aliud extrinsecus præter illum. Ceterum, ne tunc quidem solus; habebat enim secum, quam habebat in semetipso, rationem suam scilicet. Rationalis etiam Deus, et ratio in ipso prius; et ita ab ipso omnia. Quæ ratio sensus ipsius est. Hanc Græci λoyoy dicunt, quo vocabulo etiam sermonem appellamus. Ideoque jam in usu est nostrorum, per simplicitatem interpretationis, sermonem dicere in primordio, apud Deum fuisse; cum magis rationem competat antiquiorem haberi; quia non sermonalis à principio, sed rationalis Deus etiam ante principium; et quia ipse quoque sermo ratione consistens, priorem eam, ut substantiam suam ostendat. Tamen et sic nihil interest. Nam etsi Deus nondum sermonem suum miserat, proinde eum cum ipsa et in ipsa ratione intra semetipsum habebat, tacitè cogitando et disponendo secum, quæ per sermonem mox erat dicturus. Cum ratione enim sua cogitans atque disponens, sermonem eam efficiebat, quam sermone tractabat. Idque quo facilius intelligas ex te ipso, ante recognosce ut ex imagine et similitudine Dei, quam habeas et tu in temet ipso rationem, qui es animal rationale, à rationali scilicet artifice non tantum factus, sed etiam ex substantia ipsius animatus. Vide quum tacitus tecum ipse congrederis, ratione hoc ipsum agi intra te, occurrante ea tibi cum sermone ad omnem cogitatus tui motum, et ad omnem sensus tui pulsum. Quodcumque cogitaveris, sermo est; quodcumque senseris, ratio est. Quanto ergo plenius hoc agitur in Deo, cujus tu quoque imago et similitudo censeris, quod habeas in se etiam tacendo rationem, et in rationem sermonem? Possum itaque non temerè præstruxisse, et tunc Deum ante universitatis constitutionem solum non fuisse, habentem in semetipso proinde rationem, et in ratioue sermonem, quem secundum à se faceret, agitando intra se." Ad Praxeam, Sect. v. Opera, p. 503. (P.)

"Ut Dei virtus, et Dei spiritus, et sermo, et sapientia, et ratio, et Dei filius." Apol. Sect. xxiii. Opera, p. 23. (P.)

and yet in the following passage the power by which it was made, is described as the proper inherent power of God the Father. "You see how by the operation of God all things consist, in the power of making the earth, the wisdom of preparing the world, and the understanding of extending the heavens; not appearing only, nor approaching, but exerting such force of his mind, wisdom, might, understanding, word, spirit, power.

Cyprian, who usually called Tertullian his master, follows him in expressing exactly the same ideas." Christ," he says, "is the power of God, his reason, his wisdom and glory. He, descending into the virgin's womb, put on flesh by the aid of the Holy Spirit. He is God mixed with man. He is our God and Christ, who being the mediator of the two, put on man to bring him to the Father."†

SECTION III.

Authorities from Origen, and other Writers subsequent to him; with an Account of other Attributes of the Father, besides that of Wisdom, which Christ is said to have been.

ORIGEN, as well as Clemens Alexandrinus, has been thought to favour the Arian principle; but he did it only in words, and not in ideas, as will be evident from the following passages; and many more to the same purpose might have been extracted from his writings. "Though we speak," he says, "of a second God, we mean nothing more than a virtue comprehending all virtues, and a reason comprehending all reason, for the good of the whole, which we say is united to the soul of Jesus; which we say was alone capable of partaking of this perfect reason, perfect wisdom, and perfect virtue." + God, according to us, can do nothing without his

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"Vides ergo quemadmodum operatione Dei universa consistunt, valentiâ facientis terram, intelligentiâ parantis orbem, et sensu extendentis cœlum: non adparentis solummodo, nec adpropinquantis, sed adhibentis tantos animi sui nisus, sophiam, valentiam, sensum, sermonem, spiritum, virtutem." Ad Hermogenem, Sect. Ixv. Opera, p. 249. (P.)

"Hujus igitur indulgentiæ, gratiæ disciplinæque arbiter et magister, sermo et filius Dei mittitur, qui per prophetas omnes retro, illuminator et doctor humani generis prædicabatur. Hic est virtus Dei, hic ratio, hic sapientia ejus, et gloria. Hic in virginem illabitur; carnem, spiritu sancto co-operante, induitur. Deus cum homine miscetur. Hic Deus noster, hic Christus est, qui mediator duorum, hominem induit, quem perducat ad Patrem." De Idolorum Vanitate, Opera, p. 15. (P.)

† Καν δεύτερον ουν λεγωμεν Θεον ιςωσαν ότι τον δεύτερον Θεον ουκ άλλο τι λεγωμεν, η την περιεκτικήν πάσων αρείων αρείην, και τον περιεκτικον παντος ελινοσεν λογο των κατα φύσιν και προηγουμένως γεγεννημένων και εις χρήσιμον τε πανίος, λόγον· ὁντινα τῇ Ιησον μάλιςα

logos, or without himself."*"All that are God's are in Christ. He is the power of God, he is the righteousness of God, he is sanctification, he is redemption, he is the mind of God." † "He is aμvuxos σopia"‡ (living wisdom). An expression similar to this is used in the Creed ascribed to Gregory Thaumaturgus, who was a disciple of Origen. The Creed, however, by the credulous superstition of the age, was said to come from the apostle John. There the Son of God is called σοφια ύφεσίωσα, substantial wisdom.

Eusebius the historian is another of the ancients who has been thought to favour Arianism, and yet I would engage to produce more than a hundred passages from his writings, as well as from those of Origen, in which he clearly expresses his opinion of the logos having been the proper reason or wisdom of God the Father. I shall content myself only with quoting two passages from his treatise on the praises of Constantine, and another from his Commentary on the Psalms: "Christ is the living logos." "Christ is the living_logos."|| living and powerful logos of the God who is over all, having a personal subsistence, as the power and the wisdom of God." In his Commentary on the Psalms, he says, Son is the partaker of the Deity and kingdom of the Father, as being the only-begotten Son, and logos, and wisdom of God."** He also approves of Constantine's saying, that "before he was actually generated, he was virtually in the Father ungenerated."††

"The

Athanasius, whose orthodoxy will hardly be called in question, held exactly the same language with Athenagoras and Tertullian; and yet he does not express the opinion of the logos having been the proper reason of the Father more definitely than Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen or Eusebius.

παρα πασαν ψυχην ψυχη ωκειώσθαι και ήνωσθαι φαμεν, μονου τελείως χωρησαι δεδυνη μενου την άκραν μετοχήν του αυτολογο, και της αυτοσοφίας, και της αυτοδικαιοσυνης. Ad Celsum, L. v. p. 259. (P.)

Αλλα, και καθ' ἡμας, ουδεν διοςε παραλογον, ούτε παρ' ἑαυτον, εργασασθαι εςιν EO. Ibid. p. 247. (P)

† Παντα γαρ όσα του Θεου τοιαυία, εν αυτῷ εςιν Χριςος εξι σοφία του Θεου, αυτός δυναμις Θε8, αυτος δικαιοσυνη Θεον, αυτος αγιασμός, αυτος απολυίρωσις, αυτος φρόνησις εςι EOV. In Jer. Hom. viii. Comment. I. p. 96. (P.)

In Johan. Comment. II. p. 10. (P.)

$ Gr. Thaum. Opera, p. 11. (P.)

|| Ον δη ζωντα λόγον, και νομον, και σοφίαν. P. 722. (Ρ.)

Η Θεού δε του επι παντων ζων και ενεργης υπαρχων λόγος, κατ' ουσίαν τε ύφεσως, δια Θεου δυναμις και Θεου σοφια. Ibid. p. 750. (Ρ.)

** Επει δε της του παῖρος θεοληλος κοινωνος ὑπαρχει ὁ ὑιος, της αυλής μετοχος ων βασιλειας, ετε μονογενης ύιος ων, και Θεου λόγος, και Θεου σοφια. Collectio Patrum per Montfaucon, I. p. 534. (P.)

Η Επει και πριν ενεργεια γεννηθηναι, δυναμει ην εν τῷ παίρι αγεννήτως. Hist. L. i. C. xii. p. 40. (P.) See Remarks at the close of the Section.

Theodoriti

"The Father of Christ," he says, "as as the best governor,

by his own wisdom, and his own logos, our Lord Jesus Christ, governs every where happily, and orders as he thinks proper. He says of Christ, that "he is the proper wisdom, the proper logos, and the proper power of the Father." t

Again, speaking of the logos of God, he says, "It is not like the logos of a rational creature, composed of syllables, and uttered in air, but the living and efficacious God, of the good God of all, I mean reason itself, which is different from all things which are made (yevτwv), and from the (γεννητων), whole creation. It is the peculiar and only logos of the good Father, which arranged the whole system, and illuminates it by his providence.

The same language continued to be held by the most distinguished champions of orthodoxy after the time of Athanasius. Gregory Nyssen says, "The Father does nothing without the Son, nor the Son without the Father, of which we have an example in ourselves, for the soul does nothing without reason, nor reason without the soul."§

"If the Son, as the scripture says, be the power of God, wisdom, and truth, and light, and sanctification, and peace, and life, and the like, according to the doctrine of the heretics," (meaning the Arians,) "these things were not before the Son; and these having no existence, the Father himself must have been divested of all these advantages."|| With the same idea, Ambrose says, "Could the Father ever be without life, without wisdom, without power, without reason, which Christ is?"¶ "He is, therefore," he says, "called the wisdom of God, as the Father can never be

* Ο το Χριςε παίηρ, όςις καθαπερ αριςος κυβερνηζης τη ίδια σοφια, και τῳ ιδιῳ λόγῳ, τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν Ιησε Χρισῳ, τα πανταχε κυβερνα σωτηρίως και διακοσμεί, και ποιει ὡς αν AUTY KAλWS EXEIV DOKT. Contra Gentes, Opera, I. p. 44. (P.)

* Αλλ' αυτοσοφία, αυλόλογος, αυτοδυναμις ιδια τε παῖρος εςιν. Ibid. p. 51. (Ρ.) † Ουδε διον έχει το λογικόν γενος λογον, τον εκ συλλαβων συγκείμενον, και εν αερι σημαί νομενον, αλλα τον τε αγαθε και Θε8 των όλων ζωνία και ενεργη Θεον, αυτολογον λεγω, ὁς αλλος μεν εςι των γεννηίων και πασης της κλίσεως· ιδιος δε και μονος το αγαθό παίρος ὑπαρχει λογος, ὃς τοδε το παν διεκόσμησε και φωτίζει τε τῇ ἑαυτε προνοίᾳ. Contra Gentes, Opera, I. p. 44. (P.)

§ Ουδε γαρ ὁ ὑιος διχα παίρος, αφ' ἑαυτε καθ ̓ ἑαυτον, ποιει τι, ουδε ὁ πατηρ πανίως χωρις τε ύιο και το πνεύματος-Και όψει μιαν και όμοιαν την ενεργειαν εν ημιν. Ουτε γαρ ἡ ψυχη δίχα λογο επιτελει τι, ετε ὁ λογος διχα ψυχης, ετε μην ὁ νες παλιν καθ' ἑαυτον, χωρις της ψυχης και το λογο κατεργάζεται τι In Gen. i. 26, Opera, I. p. 865. (P.)

|| Ει γαρ ὁ ὑιος, καθως ἡ γραφὴ λεγει, δύναμις εςι Θε8, και σοφια, και αλήθεια, και φως, και ἁγιασμός, και ιρηνη, και ζωή, και τα τοιαυία προ τε τον υιον είναι, καθώς τους αιρετικοις δοκει, εδε ταυία ην πανίως• τελων δε μη ονίων, κενον πανίως των τοιείων αγαθών τον παίρωον εννοήσεσι κολπον. Contra Eunomium, Opera, II. p. 4. (P.)

¶ "Num quidnam potuit esse tempus quando pater sine vita, sine sapientia, sine virtute, sine verbo, quod Christus est, fuerit?" In Symbol. Opera, IV. p. 88. (P.)

thought to be without wisdom, that is, without his Son. This is that ineffable wisdom which is described by Solomon as the beginning of the ways of God, whether it be founded, or generated, or created; which, however, is so founded, as that it is always with God."*

This continued to be the language of the orthodox divines. till a very late period. Damascenus says, "God has no other logos, wisdom, power, or will but the Son." Theophylact also says, "God could not be without reason, wisdom, or power; wherefore we believe, that since the Son is the reason, the wisdom, and the power of the Father, he is always (agos) with God, instead of σu, or μeta.”‡

If these passages do not give my readers perfect satisfaction with respect to the real origin of the logos of the orthodox fathers, and convince them, that by the logos they understood a proper attribute of the Father, and that this attribute became the person of the Son, and was afterwards united to Jesus Christ, most absurd as the notion certainly is, I shall despair of being able to prove any thing.

Origen was so fully persuaded of the logos that was in Christ being the true logos, or power, of the Father, that he represents it as omnipresent, and not confined to the person of Christ. "The evangelists," says he, "do not represent the logos as circumscribed within the body and soul of Jesus, as is evident from many considerations. Thus, John the Baptist, prophesying that the Son of God would soon make his appearance, says, not that he would be in that body, and in that soul, but every where; for, he says, he standeth in the midst of you, whom you know not."

He even considers this logos as imparted to other men in certain degrees, as if all reason was a portion of the same

* "Et ideo sapientia Dei appellatur, ut nunquam pater sine sapientia, hoc est sine filio suo fuisse credatur. Hæc est illa sapientia ineffabilis, quæ initium viarum Dei apud Solomonem, vel condita, vel genita, vel creata describitur, quam tamen sic conditam dicit, ut semper eam cum Deo fuisse constat." De Filii Divinitate, Opera, IV. p. 278. (P.)

† Και γαρ φησιν ὁ Δαμασκηνος εν τοις θεολογικοίς αυτ8 κεφαλαίοις. Ίνα μη πολλα λεγω, εκ εςι τῷ παίρι λογος, σοφια, δυναμις, θελησις, ει μη ὁ ὑιος. Manuel Caleca, in Combefis, II. p. 222. (P.)

† Ουκ ενδεχεται γαρ τον Θεον αλογον η ασοφον είναι πολε, η αδυνατον δια τείο πιςεύομεν, ότι επει λόγος, και σοφια, και δυναμις το πατρός εςιν ὁ ὑως, αει ην προς Θεον, αντι το, συν τῷ πατρι, και μετα το παίρος. In John, Opera, I. p. 556. (P.)

5. Ουδε τα ευαγγελια οι δε περιγεγραμμενον τινα γεγονεναι, ὡς εδαμε εξω της ψυχής και το σωμαίος το Ιησε τυΓχανονία. Δηλον μεν και απο πολλων, και εξ ολίγων δε, ὧν παραθησομεθα, όπως εχονίων· ὁ βαπτισης Ιωαννης προφητευων όσον εδέπω ενςήσεσθαι τον ύιον το Θες, εκ εν εκείνῳ τῳ σωμαίι και τη ψυχή τυγχανονία, αλλα γαρ φθάνοντα πανταχε, λέγει περι αυτο Μεσος ύμων έςηκεν ὃν ὑμεις εκ οίδατε, ὁ οπίσω με ερχομενο. Ad Celsum, L. iii. p. 63. (P.)

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