Page:Doctrine of the Lord in the Primitive Christian Church.pdf/14

DOCTRINE OF THE LORD. 7 the Son to the Father. It is not, perhaps, to be pre sumed that they always saw clearly that the Lord Jesus Christ was Jehovah clothed in the human form; that He was both the Father and the Son; or that they all saw clearly the necessity and great purposes of the incarnation. It is not strange, we repeat, that the early Christians did not clearly com- prehend the doctrine of the Lord; for it is a profound subject. The state of the Lord, during His life in the world, is a profound mystery. The early Christians knew, indeed, that the Lord was born as another man, and was like another man; and yet that He was not like another man; for He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of a woman, who was a virgin. Thus, in general, the Lord was like another man, when He was in the world; born of a woman, but conceived of Jeho- vah. The doctrine of the Incarnation, as laid down in the opening verses of the Gospel of John, seems to have been the subject of much discussion and thought in the first centuries of the Christian Church. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

Augustine says of the Proem to this Gospel, that a Platonic philosopher thought it ought to be writ ten in letters of gold, and hung up in all the churches. This Gospel of John has always been a stumbling-block to unbelievers; but to all sin- cere believers it is the most beautiful of the Gos