Again:—­

    “There is, and there is said to be, another God and Lord subject to
    the Maker of all things.” (Dial. lvi.)

Now the only Gospel in which these words are to be found together and applied to Christ is that according to St. John, where he records the confession of St. Thomas, “My Lord and my God” (John xx. 28).

Again:  St. John alone of the Evangelists speaks of our Lord as He that cometh from above [Greek:  ho anothen erchomenos], as coming from heaven, as “leaving the world and going to the Father” (John iii. 31; xvi. 28), and Justin reproduces this in the words:—­

“It is declared [by David in Prophecy,] that He would come forth from the highest heavens, and again return to the same places, in order that you may recognize Him as God coming forth from above and man living among men.” (Dial. ch. lxiv.)

Again:  though St. John asserts by implication the equality in point of nature of the Father and the Son (John v. 18), yet he also very repeatedly records words of Christ which assert His subordination to the Father.  Nowhere in the Synoptics do we read such words as “I can of mine own self do nothing.”  “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John v. 30):  “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work” (iv. 34; also John vi. 38):  “I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.” (xii. 49)

Now Justin Martyr reproduces these intimations of the subordination of the Son:—­

    “Who is also called an Angel, because He announces to men whatsoever
    the Maker of all things, above Whom there is no other God, wishes to
    announce to them.” (Dial. ch. lvi.)

Again:—­

    “I affirm that He has never at any time done anything which He Who
    made the world, above Whom there is no other God, has not wished Him
    both to do and to engage Himself with.” (Dial. lvi.)

Again:—­

    “Boasts not in accomplishing anything through His own will or
    might.” (Ch. ci.)

Let the reader clearly understand that I do not lay any stress whatsoever on these passages taken by themselves or together; but taken in connection with the intimation of the Word and Sonship asserted in St. John, and reproduced by Justin, they are very significant indeed.

St. John asserts that Jesus is the Word and the Only Begotten—­that He is “Lord” and “God,” and equal with the Father as being His Son (v. 18); but, lest men conceive of the Word as an independent God, he asserts the subordination of the Son as consisting, not in inferiority of nature, but in submission of will.

Justin reproduces in the same terms the teaching of St. John respecting the Logos—­that the Logos was the Only Begotten, God-begotten, Lord and God.  And then, lest his adversaries should assume from this that Christ was an independent God, he guards it by the assertion of the same doctrine of subordination of will; neither the doctrine nor the safeguard being expressly stated in the Synoptics, but contained in them by that wondrous implication by which one part of Divine truth really presupposes and involves all truth.