opportunity to consult the various authors on this important subject: some of the numerous passages of the Scriptures, particularly such as are connected with the subject of our present inquiry; and that have been admitted by many learned and pious men of various Christian denominations, to be either false translations, or spurious interpolations, inserted into the English version, from corrupt editions of the Greek and Latin manuscripts, and for purposes favourable to the individual views of the several interpolators. The first fourteen verses of John's gospel have been considered a forgery or spurious addition to the original text, and the Rev. Abner Kneeland has, in his Greek and English Testament, particularized this and various other interpolations, by printing them in italics; and the Rev. Mr. Upham, in his "Letters on the Locos," also considers these verses as spurious, and has made them the subject of his criticism. The 1 Epistle of John, chap. v. 7. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." The following authorities are quoted in Tract, No. 16, printed by the American Unitarian Association, as admitting the fact, that the above verse is an interpolation: "Griesbach, Michaeles, Wetstien, Simon, Grotius, Semler, Bishop Lowth, Dr. Middleton, Mr. Wardlaw, Bishop of Lincoln, Mr. Benson, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Herbert, Marsh, Archbishop Newcome, Dr. Adam Clark, the celebrated Methodist Commentator, and that illustrious scholar, Porson." We have seen numerous other highly respectable testimonies, both ancient and modern, contained in the preface to the "Apocryphal New Testament," who all agree, that the verse in question is an interpolation. Twenty-nine ancient Greek, and twenty Latin authors are quoted, as not having admitted this verse in their writings; and on the authority of Sir Isaac Newton, it is asserted "that the text is not contained in any Greek ma nuscript, which was written earlier than the fifteenth century. "Sir Isaac Newton observes, that what the Latins have done to the foregoing text, the Greeks have done to that of St. Paul; (1 Tim. iii. 16.) for by changing the Greek word which into the abbreviation for God, they now read, "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh :" whereas, all the churches for the first four or five centuries, and the authors of all the ancient versions, Jerome, as well as the rest, read, "Great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh."+ While we freely admit the highly respectable authority whose names and testimonies have been quoted in proof of the fraudulent insertion of the foregoing texts in the English version of the New Testament, and as freely assent to the fact of their having been thus inserted, we ⚫ feel ourselves called upon to advance the testimony of authors equally respectable, to show that the essential Divinity of the Son of God was believed in, and asserted, cotemporaneously with his existence on earth; and that the Doctrine of the Trinity was also maintained publicly, as early as the year 168 of the Christian era.‡ 1. Mr. Bryant, the celebrated Mythologist, says of Philo Judæus, an Alexandrian Jew, a Platonic philosopher of great repute among his countrymen, and who flourished in the year 40-was cotemporary with the Apostles, and conversed with St. Peter-that the following are the sentiments of Philo Judæus, concerning "the Logos, or Word of the Lord;" that he is the Son of God, of a Divine nature; the second Divinity; the first begotten of God; the image and likeness of God, superior to the Angels, and to all things in the world; the instrument by whom the world was made; the great substitute of God; the light of the world; the intellectual sun. The * Greek eharacters omitted for want of type. The author is indebted to the "Evidences of the Divinity of Jesus Christ," an invaluable volume, published by F. Dalcho, M. D. Assistant Minister of St. Michaels, Charleston, for the extracts above. This small volume is replete with valuable information, and should be in the Library of all Christians. Logos can only see God. Has God for his portion, and resides in him; is the most ancient of God's works, and was before all things, is esteemed the same as God: the Logos is eternal, omniscient; sees all things; supports the world; is nearest to God, without any separation, being, as it were, fixed and founded upon the one only true and existing Deity, nothing coming between to disturb that Unity." 2. St. Ignatius, who flourished A. D. 72, says, "There is one physician, both fleshly and spiritual, made and not made; God incarnate; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first passible, then impassible-even Jesus Christ our Lord." In his Epistle to the Magnesians, he says: "There is but one God, who has manifested, himself by Jesus Christ, his Son, who is his eternal word." (Wake's Apostolical Fathers, s. 8, p. 208.) Again: Wherefore, come ye all together, as unto one temple of God; as to one altar; as to one Jesus Christ, who proceeded from one Father, and exists in one, and is returned to one." To the Trallians he writes, "Continue inseparable from Jesus Christ our God." (Apocryphal New Testament.) 66 3. Clemens Romanus, fellow labourer with St. Paul, writes: "The Sceptre of the Majesty of God our Lord Jesus Christ, came not in the show of pride and arrogance, though he could have done so; but with humility, as the Holy Ghost had before spoken concerning him." Clemens Romanus was consecrated by St. Peter, and was the third Bishop of Rome, after the Apostles, A. D. 91. 4. Barnabas, the fellow labourer with St. Paul. He wrote in the year 71 or 72. His Epistle says of Christ: "The Lord was content to suffer for our souls, although he be Lord of the whole earth, to whom God said, in the beginning of the world, 'Let us make man,' &c. Then he clearly manifested himself to be the Son of God: for had he not come in the flesh, how should men have been able to look upon him that they might be saved?' 5. Hermas, or the Shepherd of St. Hermas, the same to whom St. Paul sends his salutations at Rome, (Rom. xvi. 14,) says: "The Son of God is indeed more ancient than any creature; inasmuch, that he was in Council with his Father at the creation of all things." (See also Proverbs viii. 22, 31.) 6. St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, the Disciple of St. John the Evangelist. This pious martyr, when at the stake, surrounded with flames, testified as follows: "For this, and for all things else, I praise thee! I bless thee! I glorify thee, by the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved son, with whom to thee and the Holy Ghost be glory, both now and to all succeeding ages, Amen." (Wake's Apost. Fathers, Am. ed. p. 246.) This martyr was Bishop of the Church at Smyrna, and it testified at his death, A. D. 107, "that we can never forsake Christ, who died for the salvation of the whole world, and that we can worship no other." (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. ch. 18.) It is therefore evident, that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were considered as objects of Divine worship by this father. 7. Justin Martyr wrote about forty years after the death of St. John the Evangelist. He says: "God, in the beginning, before all the worlds, produced from himself a certain intellectual Power, which is, by the Holy Spirit, (in the Scriptures,) mentioned as the Son of God, as Wisdom, as an Angel, as God, and sometimes, as the Lord, and the Logos or Word. We know Jesus Christ to be the Son of the true God, and hold him to be the second in order, and the Prophetic Spirit the third; and that we have good reason for worshipping in this subordination, I shall show hereafter. "They who affirm the Son to be the Father, are guilty of not knowing the Father, and likewise of being ignorant, that the Father of the Universe, has a Son, who being the Logos, and first begotton of God, is also God." 8. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, A. D.168. This Father, in his defence of Christianity, addressed to Autolycus says, "these three days, (of the Creation) are types of the Trias, (Trinity) the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of his Wisdom." 9. Melito, Bishop of Sardis, speaks of the Deity of Christ veiled in the flesh, and considered him Perfect God and Perfect Man; that he was true God eternally : This author wrote his apology to Marcus Antoninus A. D. 170. 10. Tatian, an eminent Platonic Philosopher, flourished A. D. 172. He speaks of the Word, as the first instance of the Productive Power of God; that it was effected by a division, without separation." 11. Athenagorus, flourished A.D. 178, says of Christ: "He is the first born of the Father, but not as ever beginning to exist; for, from the beginning, God being an eternal mind, must have had from all eternity, the word in himself and as the wisdom and the power, he exerted Himself in all things: all matter was subject to Him by formation, and the elements blended together, and mixed by His operation." We acknowledge God and the Son as his Logos, with the Holy Ghost, one as to their power, even the Father, the Son and the Spirit; the Son to be the Mind, the Word, the Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit to proceed as light doth from fire." 12. Tertullian flourished A. D. 185. He says "Christ is in his own right God Almighty as he is the Word of Almighty God. We christians do affirm a Spirit to be the proper substance of the Logos, by whom all things were made, in which he subsisted before he was manifest. ed, and was the Wisdom that assisted at the creation, and the Power that presided over the whole work-Christ is for this reason called the Son of God, and the God from his unity of substance with God the Father, for God is a Spirit-Thus it is, that the Logos which came forth from God, is both God, and the Son of God,and those two are one. This is the Christ the God of Christians. 13. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons in France, suffered martyrdom A. D. 202. Certifies, that the Faith of the churches of the East, of Egypt, of Africa, of Spain, of Germany, of the Celts, as well as of the Mediterranean churches of Palestine, was held with one consent, as if it were animated with one love, and spoke with one mouth; |