We will suppose that all the
ecclesiastical literature, inspired and uninspired, previous to the
Council of Nice, had been blotted out utterly, and the Four Gospels
alone preserved. And we will suppose some critic taking upon himself to
argue that the Gospel of St. John was written after the Nicene Creed. On
the principles and mode of argument of the author of "Supernatural
Religion," he would actually be able to prove his absurdity, for he
would be able to allege that the doctrine and terminology of the Fathers
of the first General Council was "opposed to" that of the Fourth Gospel;
and so they could not possibly have acknowledged its authority if they
had even "seen" it. For he (the critic) would allege that the words of
St. John respecting the Incarnation are not adopted by the Creed which
the Nicene Fathers put forth; instead of inserting into the Creed the
words [Greek: ho logos sarx egeneto], which, the critic would urge, they
_must have done_ if they would successfully oppose foes who appealed to
the letter of Scripture, they used other terms, as the participles
[Greek: sarkothenta] and [Greek: enanthropesanta].
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