In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "All things were made by Him." "The Word was made flesh." Now what is a word or λδγος? As understood by St. John and the men of his time, it is thought embodied in language. It is that which is in us set forth in that medium of articulates sounds which God has given to us, in order that we may make our very selves known to our fellows. The most true and fitting words give us the most exact conception of the heart and soul of him whose words they are; and so the Personal and Eternal Word is the setting forth, so to speak, of the hidden intellect, love, and goodness of God, so that His creatures may be able to apprehend Him, Whom neither man nor angel hath seen or can see. So that the Word, being perfect, is the perfect utterance, or showing forth, or manifestation of all that is in God.

… The most absolute declaration of the Godhead of Christ is in this Gospel, but no in the words of the Evangelist. It is the confession of St. Thomas, "My Lord and my God." The Evangelist is merely the recorder of this. So that, if his Gospel be a reliable record of facts, the most unqualified declaration of our Lord’s Essential Divinity took place in His own presence, before His Ascension, and many years before any one book of the New Testament was in existence.

… [I]t removes all shadow of a doubt that when St. Matthew wrote "God with us," he meant "God with us" in the person of the Son or Word, as distinguished from the Father, for he gives us the historical facts of which St. John states the doctrinal reality. He tells us the circumstances under which the "Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us;" and so, as the Word was God, it was really and in no figure, God actually and personally "with us."