DISSERTAT1O14 IV. .295 great difference between the true God, and this "Logos," ór Word : He abounds with instances of this kind, especially in his first book De Somniis. And when he makes God to appear to the patriarchs in form'of an angel, he adds, "they understand the image of God the angel, hisword, as though it were himself, because a little after he calls him, the mighty word, who is the deputy of God." It may be also most properly applicable to this glorious arch- angel, what Philo saith of the word, in his allegories of the law, Book I. where hecites Jacob saying, The God who hathfedme all my life, and the angel who redeemed me from all evil: On which he remarks, that " Jacob speaks very properly of God himself as his feeder ; and the angel, which is his word, as á healer of diseases, or deliverer from evil ; and he gives this rea- son for it, feeding and nourishing are something in nature more considerable than deliverance, and therefore he ascribes the chief benefit to God, and the lower benefit to the angel. I mention net this, as approving the justness of Philo's criticism, but to hewwhat was Philo's opinion of this glorious angel, eminently called the as Logos." It must be granted, that Philo calls com- mon angels also ao¡oi, " Logoi," or words ; but it is abundantly manifest to any man who reads Philo, and Mr. Nye himself acknowledges, there is a great distinction that Philo makes be- tween that first archangel, who is so far superior to all the rest, as to be formed before them all, and to be their Ruler or Direc- tor ; and to be eminently called the " Logos" above all others. IV. That the " Logos" is esteemed by Philo the Son of God, is manifest from thecitations already made : But we may add further out of Dr. Allix, chapter 17. that when the question is put; Prov. xxx. 4. What is his name ? And what is his Son's name? It implies, that God has a Son. And Ps. ii. 7. where God declares ; Thou art my Son, it determines this cha- racter to belong to the Messiah. And Philo accordinglydeclares that the " Logos" is the most ancient Son of God, and his first born before the an°els. And in a citation which Eusebius has out of Philo he makes him " the eternal word of the eternal God, begotten by the Father :" Though it may, perhaps, be doubted, whether Eusebius has cited the very words of Philo. And if Philo did use the words za,a. and ass,nS., andapply them to the son-ship of the "Logos," it may bejustly questioned whether either Philo or Eusebius, considering their character and sentiments, meant any more than wes rav maw,, that is, " 0 Before the worlds were made, or before all ages ;" unless we suppose both the Jew and the christianto blend and confound the ideas of the divine eternal " Logos," or reason of God, with the first-born " Logos," or great archangel, which was too often done.
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