172 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA THE TRINITY 173

(d) The Logos, the Giver of Life, the Teacher of the Good Life

This Word, the Christ, the cause of our being--for he was in God--as also of our well-being, has now himself appeared to man. He alone is both God and man; he is for us the source of all good. From him we learn the good life and are brought to the life eternal . . . [Tit. ii. 11-13]... This is the 'new song', the Epiphany, which has now shone out among us, of that Word who was in the beginning, and who was before the beginning. And now, quite recently, he has been manifested--the Saviour who was before; he has been manifested who was in Him Who Is, because the Word, who was with God, has appeared as our teacher, he by whom the universe was created. The Word who in the beginning gave us life when he fashioned us, as Creator, has taught us the good life, as our teacher, that he may afterwards, as God, provide us with life eternal. Not that he now has for the first time pitied us for our wandering; he pitied us from of old, from the beginning. But now, when we were perishing, he has appeared and has saved us. Protrepticus, i (7)

(e) 'Very God'

Believe, O man, in him who is man and God: believe in him who suffered and is worshipped as the living God; servants, believe in him who was dead; all men, believe in him who is the only God of all men: believe and receive salvation for your reward . . . Ibid. x (106)

With unsurpassable speed and unexampled goodwill the divine power, having shone upon the world, has filled everything with the saving seed. Such a work in so short a time the Lord would not have achieved without the divine power assisting. He was despised for his appearance, but is worshipped for his work; he is the purifying, saving, delectable Word, the divine Word, who is truly God most manifest, made equal to the Ruler of all; because he was the Son, and 'the Word was with God'.

Ibid. x (110)

IV. The Trinity

(a) The Unity of Father, Word, and Spirit

O wonderful mystery! The Father of all things is one; the Word of all things is one; the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere.

Paedagogus, I. vi (42)

(b) Praise to the Trinity

Be merciful to thy children, O Instructor, O Father, charioteer of Israel, Son and Father, both one, O Lord. Grant that we, thy followers, observing thy commandments, may make perfect the likeness of thy image; that through his strength we may know the goodness of God and the kindness of his judgement. Bestow on us all good things; that we may live our lives in thy peace, and be transferred to thy city; that we may sail over the waves of sin without storm, and be borne along in calm, night and day, by the Holy Spirit, the inexpressible Wisdom, until we come to the perfect day. That we may give praise and thanks-giving to the only Father: and the only Son; to Son and Father, the Son our instructor and teacher, together with the Holy Spirit: rendering all praise to the One, in whom are all things, through whom all things are one, through whom is eternity, of whom all men are members, and the Ages' are his glory; all praise to the Good, the Lovely, the Wise, the Just: to him be glory now and for ever. Amen. Ibid. m. xii (101)

V. Man

(a) The Fall: Not Connected with Sex

He [Julius Cassianus, an 'encratite' Gnostic, who attacked marriage] wrests the saying of Paul 'I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve' &c., to mean that human generation arose from this deceit. But the Lord came, admittedly, to 'what was going astray' but not 'straying' from a higher sphere to birth on earth. For generation is part of the creation of the Almighty, and he would not degrade the soul from a higher state to a worse. Rather it was to us who had strayed in our minds that the Saviour came, minds which had been corrupted because through our love of pleasure we disobeyed the commandments. It may be that the first-created man may have anticipated our season and before the time of the grace of marriage desired and sinned.

Stormateis III. xiv (94, 1)

(b) No Inherited Pollution

Let them say where the new-born child committed fornication, or how that can have fallen under Adam's curse which has not yet

Back