“The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.

    “The Son is of the Father alone, neither made, nor created, but
    begotten.”

But we have not now so much to do with the orthodoxy of Justin as with the question as to whether his doctrine is anterior to St. John’s, as being less decided in its assertions of our Lord’s equality.

Now there are no words in Justin on the side of our Lord’s subordination at all equal to the words of Christ as given in St. John, “My Father is greater than I.”

The Gospel of St. John is pervaded by two great truths which underlie every part, and are the necessary complements of one another; these are, the perfect equality or identity of the nature of the Son with that of the Father, because He is the true begotten Son of His Father; and the perfect submission of the Will of the Son to that of the Father because He is His Father.

The former appears in such assertions as “The Word was with God,” “The Word was God,” “My Lord and My God,” “I and the Father are one,” “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” “The glory which I had with Thee before the world was,” “All things that the Father hath are mine,” &c.

The latter is inherent in the idea of perfect Sonship, and is asserted in such statements as

    God “gave His only begotten Son” (iii. 16).

    “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His
    hands” (iii. 35).

    “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (v. 19).

    “The Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself
    doeth” (v. 20).

    The Father hath “given to the Son to have life in Himself” (v. 26).

    The Father “hath given Him authority to execute judgment also” (v.
    27).

    “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father” (v. 30).

    “The works which the Father hath given me to finish” (v. 36).

    “I am come in my Father’s name” (v. 43).

    “Him [the Son of Man] hath God the Father sealed” (vi. 27).

    “I live by the Father” (v. 57).

    “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me” (vii. 16).

    “He that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is true” (vii.
    18).

    “I am from Him, and He hath sent me” (vii. 29).

    “I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak
    these things” (viii. 28).

    “Neither came I of myself, but He sent me” (viii. 42).

    “I have power to take it [my life] again; this commandment have I
    received of my Father” (x. 18).

    “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all” (x. 29).

    “I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love” (xv.
    10).

I have read Justin carefully for the purpose of marking every expression in his writings bearing upon the relations of the Son to the Father, and I find none so strongly expressing subordination as these, and the declarations of this kind in the works of Justin are nothing like so numerous as they are in the short Gospel of St. John.