tion he adds, that it seemed fit to him also to do the same. From this we learn, that, contrary to the assertion of modern infidels, the miracles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ must have caused a great sensation throughout the empire, among Gentiles no less than Jews, and excited the desire of a more perfect knowledge of His life and doctrines. This may also be reasonably inferred from the dedication of his work to a person of rank, who had been already orally instructed in Christianity; for though Theophilus, Beloved of God, is a title suitable to every genuine believer, I cannot agree with the few commentators, who suppose it to be used by St. Luke in that sense. The fictitious persons in modern dialogues are often designated by such descriptive appellations; but the opinion that it is the real name of an individual, is more in harmony with the character of history and the simplicity of the writer. Probably he had been converted by Luke, but as no tradition respecting his station and country has been preserved, it is useless to repeat the conjectures of the moderns. If however, as we have observed, this Gospel carries with it internal evidence of having been written for Gentiles, we may presume that Theophilus was one; and he was no doubt a person of consequence, for the epithet Kgários, most excellent, applied to him, does not refer to character but to rank, as it is given to the wicked governors Felix and Festus, and answers to Excellency, Grace, and similar honorary appellations of modern times. Nor should it surprise us, that a person of high rank was found in that age among the disciples of Jesus, when we remember king Agrippa's confession to Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, (Acts xxvi. 28.) and that Sergius Paulus, the Proconsul of Cyprus, was actually his convert. The use of the epithet both by Luke and Paul shows, that Christians who refuse to employ the customary complimentary phrases of their time are over scrupulous.

2. The Pre-existence, Divinity, Incarnation, and Manifestation of the glory of the Logos, or only-begotten Son of God. St. John i. 1-18.

St. Mark and St. John commence with the public ministry of the Messiah, St. Matthew and St. Luke supply an account of His birth and infancy; and the latter carries the reader a few months back to that of John the Baptist, who was sent to usher in this new dispensation. Their narratives are required to prove that the Messiah was, as predicted, David's Son; and to establish the important fact, that in His desire to ransom our fallen race, "He did not abhor the Virgin's womb," but was literally born of a woman; (Gal. iv. 4.) formed of her substance, without any human father; being neither, as the early heretics taught, an incorporeal phantom, nor, as affirmed by some in our days, a mere man, like the other descendants of Adam. The importance of the tenet of His miraculous conception is evinced, by its insertion in all the early Creeds; and certainly unless He had been " clearly void of sin both in His Flesh and in His Spirit, He could not have been the Lamb without spot, who by the sacrifice of Himself once made, should take away the sins of the world." (Article xv.) Thus it was necessary that He should become the Son of God, even in His human nature, but we know that this title is His also, in the highest sense, and that "He was begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with Him." (Art. ii.) We learn from Isaiah as interpreted by Matthew, (vii. 17.) that He is God with us; and the same passage in Micah (v. 2.) which foretells His birth, declares His goings forth to have been from old, from everlasting. His Divinity thus intimated in the Old Testament is assumed and argued on in the Epistles, but the earlier Evangelists only lead us to infer it; we might therefore expect it to be explicitly announced in the opening of

the supplementary Gospel of His beloved disciple. Yet this declaration is not introduced, as might have been expected, in connection with His Incarnation, but with the testimony borne to His preeminence by the Baptist, who acknowledges that Jesus was before himself, not only in dignity, but in existence, which since He was born after him, must have been before He came into this world. As this Evangelist had been a disciple of the Baptist, he seems to have partaken of his master's anxiety to exalt the Lord, Whom he had been sent to proclaim. Thus after declaring the Messiah to be the Light, he continues, There was a man sent from God whose name was John, to bear witness concerning the Light; and he carefully repeats, that Christ is the Light, the real Light. Our Lord confirms both these affirmations of His Apostle, for He calls the Baptist, a burning (xúxvos) and a shining lamp, not light, but a light-bearer that illuminates one country, and but for a season; while of Himself He says, I am the Light (ps) of the world, (John viii. 12.) that is, the source from which all light has emanated, as the Evangelist expresses it, the Light which lighteth every one that cometh into the world.

To establish beyond all doubt the Messiah's superiority, St. John commences with His pre-existence and proper divinity; and his statement rises in dignity; for he states, first, that the Word existed in the beginning, then that it existed with God, lastly, that it is God. In the beginning, the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In this brief yet comprehensive sentence, the inspired writer, by a simple statement of the orthodox faith, condemns the heretics of his own and future times. The Word was in the beginning, is an assertion incompatible with the creed of all who deny the pre-existence and the eternal filiation of the Son of God. The Evangelist does

Campbell's Version, Light. A. T.

M

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not say, as Moses did of the material world, that God created the Word, but that the Word was, that is, as St. Paul declares to the Colossians, (i. 15.) begotten before all creatures, before God's works of old, before ever the world was, (Prov. viii.) as Solomon affirms of it under the kindred title of Wisdom; begotten, not made, and therefore there never was, as the Arians maintained, a period when He was not; but He was co-eternal with the Father," Light out of Light," as the ray beams forth from the sun, (Heb. i. 3.) bright effluence of bright essence increate." The Word was, not as an attribute v in God, but as a person gos with God. This marks the distinction of persons in the Deity, which the Sabellians confound; and that none may divide the substance, it is added, that the Word was God. This affirmation contradicts alike the Gnostic notion of His being an inferior Emanation, and the modern heresy of His simple humanity; and, lest the reader should overlook the personal distinction while contemplating the Son's Divinity, the inspired writer repeats, the Same was in the beginning with God. "Let these words," therefore, says St. Basil, (Hom. xvi.) who as a Greek must have understood the force of Greek prepositions, " be impressed as a seal upon your memories, and confute with them the sophisms of those who maintain that Christ had no existence before He was born."

It is remarkable, that instead of the Son of God, the Evangelist here uses Aoyos, which our translators, retaining the theological language of the Western Church derived from the Latin translation of the Scriptures, render Word, obviously in a peculiar sense, for no one can think, as Eusebius observes, that the Word of God is similar to a word composed of syllables. No other language can convey the double meaning

Waterland, in his Sermons on Christ's Divinity, p. 35. shows this to be the true translation.

Brightness of His glory, A. T.

of the Greek Logos, which signifies both the λóyos évòiάletos and the Ayos go pogixòs of the Stoics; that is, reason as it exists in the mind, Thought; or as embodied in sound®, Speech or Word. Some translators, especially those who have a Socinian bias, prefer Reason, as more favourable to their view; but the majority render it Word, and there are theological writers, who, objecting to any translation as inadequate, retain the original. Either sense will suit the second Person of the Trinity, for He is both that wisdom which God possessed in the beginning of His way, as the human soul does its thoughts; (Proverbs viii. 22.) and it is not only in these last days that God hath spoken through His Son, (Heb. i. 2.) but He has ever been the Revealer of His secrets'. (Dan. viii. 13.) God the Father dwells in unapproachable light, and Him no man hath seen or can see. The Logos, therefore, is the channel through which He has always communicated His will to mankind, from the time that the voice of Jehovah spoke to Adam in Paradise, till He assumed flesh as the Son of Mary. All the successive mani

• Eusebius, Dem. Ev. v. 5. Lactantius notices the two significations as follows. "Sed melius Græci óy, dicunt, quam nos Verbum sive Sermonem. Abyss enim et sermonem significat, et rationem; quia ille est et vox, et sapientia Dei." De Ver. Sap. 9. Tertullian (Adv. Prax. 5.) prefers ratio to sermo; and yet says, we ascribe to the Logos a proper spiritual existence, and that it was put forth from God by generation. Beza and Erasmus translate it sermo. Dr. Burton's Bampton Lectures convey much information respecting the use of the term in Plato, Philo, and in the Fathers.

The reader, who turns to the Latin or English Bible, will not discern this title except in the margin of the latter. The etymology of the word Palmuni, and its close connection with that of Pelah, Secret or Wonderful, the title claimed by the Angel that appeared to Manoah, who, it is evident from the context, was Jehovah, and ascribed by Isaiah, (ix.) with others of the most exalted meaning, to the Child to be born to us, seems to justify this translation, which is adopted by Calvin and other approved commentators, and supported by the Targum. "This numberer of secrets, or wonderful numberer, must mean a person of extraordinary rank, as being able to unfold those secrets which are hid from other angels, and is therefore justly supposed to mean the Son of God, the wonderful Counsellor, as being acquainted with all God's designs." Lowth.