2. The words, with some very
slight variation, are to be found there and not to be found elsewhere.
The letter of the Churches was written about A.D. 178 "at the earliest,"
we are told by the author of "Supernatural Religion." Well, we will make
him a present of a few years, and suppose that it was written ten or
twelve years later, _i.e._ about A.D. 190. Now we find that Irenaeus had
written his great work, "Against Heresies," before this date. Surely,
then, the notion of the writer of "Supernatural Religion," that we are
to suppose that this was taken from some lost Apocryphal Gospel when
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, had actually used a written Gospel which
contains it, refutes itself.
We turn to Athenagoras.
We find in his work, "Plea (or Embassy) for the Christians" (ch. x.),
the following:--
"But the Son of God is the Logos of the Father in idea and in
operation, for after the pattern of Him and by Him were all things
made, the Father and the Son being one [I and My Father are one],
and the Son being in the Father, and the Father in the Son, in
oneness and power of spirit," &c.
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