voice but the Word of God, who is also His Son ?-The Word was God, and begotten of God." (Lib. ii., p. 100.)

CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS. A.D. 194.

This eminent father belongs to the debatable ground between the second and third centuries; but, in conformity with the chronology of Cave and Lardner, is here assigned to the former. He He is said to have been a presbyter, and succeeded Pantænus as president of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, probably about the year 190. His principal remaining works are an Exhortation to the Gentiles; a treatise entitled, Pædagogus, or the Instructer; with eight books of Stromata, or miscellaneous discourses.

Some effort has recently been made to trace the introduction of the eternal filiation to the Alexandrian fathers. The preceding citations, from writers wholly unconnected with the church of Alexandria, are decisive against this theory. And, in addition to this, the statements of the doctrine, and the allusions to it, by Clement, the first of the fathers of this school whose writings we possess, and in several respects the most eminent, are incidental, and by no means numerous. Though sufficient to show the identity of his opinions with those of his predecessors, they are neither in number nor in kind what would have been necessary for the establishment and illustration of a doctrine now recently introduced. In fact, if my own impression be correct, Clement more frequently distinguishes our Lord, not as the Son, but as the Logos, a title much more in harmony with the genius of the Alexandrian school.

33. "The image of God is His Word. The Divine Word is the legitimate Son of [His] mind, the archetypal light of light; but man is the image of His Word." (Admonitio ad Gentes, T. i., p. 78.)

34. "The Divine Word, who was truly and most manifestly God, was equal to the Governor of the universe, inasmuch as He was His Son." (Ib., T. i., p. 86.)

35. After citing the oracle at the baptism, which he does partly in the words of Psalm ii. 7, he thus proceeds: "Let us then inquire of these wise persons whether Christ, who is to-day regenerated, is already perfect, or, which is most absurd, is in any respect deficient? If so, He would have something to learn; but since He is God, that were irrational. There is no superior to the Word, no instructer to the only Instructer. Will they not rather acknowledge, that the perfect Word begotten of a perfect Father was, according to the pre-arrangement of the economy, perfectly regenerated?" (Pædag., lib. i., c. vi., T. i., p. 113.)

36. "The Son, who is His Word, is in the Father: He is announced as just from their mutual relation; the name which indicates power being equally declarative of love.” (Ib., lib. i., c. viii, T. i., p. 140.)

37. "The apostle John says, No man hath seen God at any time; the ONLY-BEGOTTEN GOD, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared [Him]." (Stromata, lib. v., T. ii., p. 695.)

we

38. "We are not as the Lord, although indeed desire it, yet are we not able. For no disciple is above his Master. It is enough if we be as the Master, not in respect to essence, for that which is only by appointment cannot be equal to that which is by nature. But it is possible for us to be immortal, and to know the contemplation of things, and to be declared to be sons, and to behold the Father, from such things only as are immediately connected with Him.” (Ib., lib. ii., T. ii., p. 469.)

39. "God, indeed, being inscrutable, cannot be the subject of science. But the Son is Wisdom, and Science, and Truth, and whatsoever else appertains to them; and

of each of His powers there is no understanding the timit." (Ib., lib. iv., c. xxv., T. ii., p. 635.)

40. "The most perfect and the most holy nature, the most sovereign and most princely, the most royal and most beneficent, is the nature of the Son, who is most closely connected with Him who alone is Almighty. This is the transcendent Excellence who orders all things according to the will of the Father, and governs the universe in the best manner, exerting His agency on all things with unwearied and inexhaustible power, and contemplating His own hidden counsels through which He operates. For the Son of God never departs from His watch-tower, is not divided or separated, nor traverses from place to place, being everywhere, at all times, and never circumscribed, all mind, all paternal light, all eye, seeing all things, hearing all things, knowing áll things, and scrutinizing all powers by His power.Unto Him are subjected all the hosts of angels and of gods, [even] to the paternal Word, who is appointed to the sacred economy in behalf of Him who hath subjected it [unto Him].-That He is the Son of God, and that He is the Saviour and the Lord, as we have stated, the Divine prophecies do evidently establish." (Strom., lib. vii., c. ii., T. ii., p. 831.)

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41. "The Power of God is the Son, who was the most princely Word of the Father, and His Wisdom before all created existences." (Ib., p. 832.)

Before we enter upon the third century, it may not be improper to quote a heathen testimony to the doctrine of the Trinity, which incidentally bears upon our present subject. It is found in a witty but profane dialogue, entitled Philopatris, and ascribed to Lucian of Samosata, who flourished towards the close of the second century. Bishop Bull thought it genuine. Other learned men

have taken different views both of its author and its chronology. The presumption is against its genuineness, but the entire subject is involved in doubt.

The interlocutors in this piece are Critias, a heathen, and Triephon, who personates a Christian. The former asks, "By whom shall I swear? Trieph. By the God that rules on high, the great, the immortal, the heavenly, the Son of the Father, the Spirit proceeding from the Father, one in three and three in one. Regard these as Jupiter, and think this God." Shortly afterwards Triephon begs Critias to tell him what he had heard in the assemblies of the Christians, of which he had before complained; to which he replies, "By the Son out of the Father, (ròv viòv tòv èk warpós,) this shall not be done." (Philopat., Opp. Lucian, p. 1120.)

SECTION IV.

TESTIMONIES FROM THE BEGINNING

OF THE THIRD

CENTURY TO THE COUNCIL OF NICE.

TERTULLIAN, A.D. 200.

QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENS TERTULLIANUS, the first of the Latin fathers, was a presbyter of Carthage. He has left a considerable number of works, most of which, it is probable, were written after he became a Montanist. The validity of their evidence, in the present case, however, is not affected by this circumstance; since the heresy of Montanus did not interfere with the catholic doctrine on the person of Christ, and on the Trinity.

42. "We learn, that the Word was produced of God, and begotten by production, and on that account [was] the Son of God, and called God, from the unity of the substance; for God is a Spirit. And as a ray is extended from the sun, a part from the whole, the sun being in the ray, because the ray is [a part] of the sun; neither is its substance divided, but extended [only]; even so is spirit from spirit, and God from God, as light kindled from light. The original of the matter remains entire and complete, although many scions of its qualities are borrowed; so also, that which has sprung from God is God and the Son of God, and both are one." (Apologet., c. xxi., p. 21.) This favourite illustration of Christian antiquity may be found several times repeated in the writings of Tertullian; as especially Adv. Prax., c. viii., p. 639; c. xiii., p. 645.

43. Speaking of our Lord's miracles, he says, that by these "He proved Himself to be the Word of God; that