His
apostles assembled together after His Resurrection, where Thomas is
related to have said to Him the words, "My Lord and my God;" and in the
words "The Word was God" taken in connection with "the Word was made
flesh." The indirect, but certain, proofs by implication that Jesus
fully shared with His Father the Divine Nature are numerous, as, for
instance, that He wields all the power of Godhead, in that "whatsoever
things [the Father] doeth these doeth the Son likewise"--that He is
equal in point of nature with the Father, because God is His own proper
Father ([Greek: idios])--that He raises from the dead whom He
wills--that He and the Father are One--that when Esaias saw the glory of
God in the temple he saw Christ's glory; and, because of all this, He is
the object of faith, even of the faith which saves.

But, as my purpose is not to show that either Justin or St. John hold
the Godhead of our Lord, but rather to compare the statements of the one
with the other; and, inasmuch as to cite the passages in which Justin
Martyr assumes that our Blessed Lord possesses all Divine attributes
would far exceed the limits which I have proposed to myself, I shall not
further cite the passages in St. John, which only _imply_ our Lord's
Godhead, but proceed to cite the _direct_ statements of Justin (or
rather some of them) on this head.

Whereas, then, St. John categorically asserts the Godhead of our Lord in
one, or, at the most, two places, Justin directly asserts it nearly
forty times. The following are noticeable:--

"And Trypho said, You endeavour to prove an incredible and well-nigh
impossible thing; [namely] that God endured to be born and become
man. [69:1] If I undertook, said I, [Justin] to prove this by
doctrines or arguments of men, you should not bear with me. But if I
quote frequently Scriptures, and so many of them, referring to this
point, and ask you to comprehend them, you are hard-hearted in the
recognition of the mind and will of God." (Dial. ch. lxviii.)

Again:--

"This very Man Who was crucified is proved to have been set forth
expressly as God and Man, and as being crucified and as dying."
[69:2] (Dial. ch. lxxi.)

Again, Justin accuses the Jews of having mutilated the Prophetical
Scriptures, by having cut out of them the following prophecy respecting
our Lord's descent into hell:--

"The Lord God remembered His dead people of Israel who lay in the
gr