they permit us to suppose that, had occasion called for it, he would have received the church's doctrine as the substantial expression of his own unformulated thoughts. For the late Dr. Baur's assertion, that the Son of God, so far as the apostolical Fathers speak of him as a pre-existent being, is identical with the Holy Spirit, there is not a shadow of reason, at all events in Clement's Epistle. One might with much greater propriety maintain that the Spirit is identical with Jesus Christ; though neither position is tenable. It is unnecessary to add that, if the acts attributed by Clement to the Spirit in Old Testament times involve his personality, they equally involve Clement's belief in his preexistence. In short, his manner of alluding to the subject harmonizes best with the supposition that he held, in a concrete form, the church's view of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. 87. The Trinity. Our judgment as to whether there be any distinct preparations for, or anticipations of, the doctrine of the Trinity as subsequently developed in the history of the church, will depend on the conclusions arrived at relatively to the two points last examined. If Christ be really represented by Clement as the pre-existent Son of God, who discharges divine functions and performs divine works; and if the Holy Spirit be personal and pre-existent; then the foundation is clearly laid for the doctrine of the Trinity, however far Clement may be from a formal recognition thereof; and we may reasonably say, as in previous cases, that, had he found opportunity, he would have accepted the church's doctrine as the natural, if not fully satisfactory, expression of his own belief. There is only one passage which can be deemed, in any sense, to hint at the doctrine of the Trinity; it is in c. 46 :Η οὐχὶ ἕνα Θεὸν ἔχομεν καὶ ἕνα Χριστόν; καὶ ἓν πνεῦμα τῆς χάριτος τὸ ἐκχοθὲν ἐφ' ἡμᾶς; but it is too slight a foundation on which to build; though it would be a very natural course to refer to the New Testament baptismal formula as furnishing an analogy to, and perhaps an expla nation of, Clement's words. § 8. The Atonement of Christ. An impartial examination of his epistle can leave little doubt that Clement believed the death of Christ to have effected for men something outside of them, as well as produced a spiritual effect in them. The strongest words bearing on this subject are found in cc. 7, 16, and 49. They run as follows: c. 7, "Let us gaze intently on the blood of Christ, and let us see how precious to God is his blood, which, having been shed for our salvation, has brought the grace of repentance to the entire world;" c. 49, "Because of the love he had towards us, Jesus Christ our Lord gave his blood on our behalf by the will of God, and his flesh for our flesh, and his soul for our souls;" in c. 16 the fiftythird chapter of Isaiah is quoted as a prophecy of Jesus Christ and his sufferings, and is plainly considered to express their significance. As Dr. Dorner remarks in his Christology, regarding one of these passages in conjunction with others to be adduced afterwards: "Every explanation is forced which does not find in them the idea of substitution, and that both in a subjective and objective sensesubjective in Christ's substitutionary spirit or disposition, and objective in that his substitutionary spirit and deed had their correspondent objective result." Several other more or less distinct allusions to the efficacy of the blood of Christ occur. For example, in c. 12 the red thread hung by Rahab in the window of her house, as a sign to the invading Israelites, is treated as a type of the redemption to be wrought out by the blood of Christ for all who believe and hope in God. Whatever opinion we may entertain as to the typical value of this thread of Rahab's, Clement's view of the death of Christ is plain enough. Again, in c. 21 we read: "let us pay heed to Jesus Christ, who was given for us"; in c. 2 the Corinthians are praised for keeping the sufferings of Christ before their eyes, to wit, not merely as an example, though this is included, but as a principle of self-sacrifice in them, and a source of great blessing, Further, in cc. 36 and 58 Christ is designated our high-priest, a term which first acquires full force, especially as taken in comection with βοηθός, προστάτης and the remarks made above, when we apply it in the sense of the church. The death of Christ would thus seem to have been regarded by Clement as having taken place to redeem men from penalties otherwise inevitable, and to bring to them blessings otherwise inaccessible. A clearly worked-out doctrine there is not; but there certainly is a recognition of that concrete basis on which the church subsequently built its doctrine of the atonement. § 9. Justification by Faith. Clement's clearest utterance concerning the nature and significance of faith is contained in c. 32, where we read: "All these, then, were honored and magnified, not through themselves or their works, or the just deeds which they wrought, but through his will. We also, therefore, called by his will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our wisdom or intelligence or piety or works which we have wrought in sanctity of heart, but by faith, by which the omnipotent God hath justified all from the beginning." Nothing can be more distinct. We are justified by faith, not by works. The coincidence with the fourth and fifth chapters of the Epistle to the Romans is very obvious and complete. Clement alludes to faith as a moral and spiritual force, in eight passages. In four passages God is plainly its object; in one clearly, and in three others it may, perhaps, without force be maintained to refer to Christ. In c. 3 we read: "each quits the fear of God, and is dim-sighted in his faith;" in c. 10" for his faith and hospitality a son was given to Abraham in his old age"; in c. 12 the faith and hospitality of Rahab are praised; and in c. 31 we read that Abraham was blessed because he wrought righteousness and truth through faith, that is, in God. Of these passages, the last is the only one that can be said to have any special force; and the context forbids basing any definite judgment on it. Clement's immediate object seems to have been to enumerate ai ódoì tŷs evλoyías, and he apparently ranks faith as one mode among others of attaining to blessing. Abraham wrought righteousness and truth dià TioTews; Isaac, μετὰ πεποιθήσεως ἡδέως ἐγένετο θυσία; Jacob, ἐξεχώρησεν μετὰ тaπELOPрoσúvηs. In this case, however, any seeming inconsistency is attributable to the practical character of what he writes, and to vagueness in the use of language. The sec tion in which the above expressions occur, finishes with the strong declaration regarding the nullity of everything but faith quoted above; as though Clement had intended by the close to obliterate any ambiguity occurring in the course of his exhortations. We must here observe the rule of explaining obscurer by clearer passages. Where Clement meant to treat of the relative value of different principles, he leaves no doubt as to the position due to faith. We must further remember that owing to the purely practical purpose of his epistle, Clement naturally gave full prominence to each particular moral or spiritual force as it came into view.1 Clement never quite distinctly teaches that we are justified by faith in the blood of Christ; but that a connection existed for his mind between faith and the death of Christ in the justification of sinners may be concluded on various 1 This is a very simple principle, which has been greatly neglected by too many interpreters of our canonical scriptures. The sacred writers were not so fearful of speaking strongly, now in one direction, and then in another direction apparently incompatible with the first, as we are now. We stand in constant awe of being misunderstood by some weak brother or sister. Thoroughly examined, there is scarcely a proof of the inspiration of scripture stronger than these formal, logical inconsistencies; for the man of spiritual insight feels and sees these very inconsistencies to be living truth-truth drawn directly from the everflowing wells of life, and given to the thirsty without being first disintegrated and recompounded, and thus deprived of freshness and vigor. Life is light, and light is life. grounds first, from the universal significance attributed to Tíoτis in c. 32; secondly, from such expressions as TiGTIS ÉV Xploτ in c. 22; thirdly, from the words referring to Isaac in c. 31, where he is said to have freely become a sacrifice, knowing what was to come, to wit, what Christ would do; and lastly, in connection with the foregoing, from the stress elsewhere laid on Christ's death as the salvation of the entire world and the source of such virtues as repentance. For with his ethical and practical tendencies, Clement must have conceived salvation to have been appropriated through the medium of some such human act or organ as faith. In the light of c. 32 it is impossible to suppose that Clement should have recognized any other principle by which this salvation is mediated, save faith. The words Beßaíav πiστι vμŵv in c. 1 may also be taken to involve the presupposition of Christ as the object and content of faith, particularly as viewed in connection with the next clause τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ εὐσέβειαν. Roman Catholic writers, indeed, endeavor to show that Clement places works and charity on the same level with faith, as principles of acceptance before God. But the pas sages on which they rely for proof are, to say the least, very feeble. One is contained in c. 30, where we read: "let us put on concord, being humble-minded, continent, removing far from all whispering and slander, justifying ourselves by works, and not by words." That the opposition here lies between works and mere words, and not between deeds and faith, as a principle of justification, is as plain as possible, especially from what follows: "He who speaketh much shall hear in reply, Does a man of many words think to be just? Do not be great in words!" The contrast is between reality and pretence, not between works and faith, which are equally realities and equally important in their relative positions, in Clement's estimation. The other passage is c. 50: "Blessed are we, beloved, if we have fulfilled the commands of God in concord of love, in order that our sins may be remitted to us through love (d' ȧyáπηs).” The following |