But he appears moft evidently the Patriarch, Jacob's mafter, when he fays to him, Genefis xxviii. 15. Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will

bring thee again into this land: for I will not leave thee till I have done all that which I have

Spoken to thee. With him alfo he is faid to have wrestled, Gen. xxxii. 24. And Jacob was left alone: and there wrestled a man with him, namely the mafter, until the break of day.'

This is God, the Word, the leader of his children, who afterwards faid to him, Gen. xlvi. 3. Fear not to go down into Egypt.'

Thus does this learned man, with the most perfect fatisfaction, ufher in Chrift, governing and directing the Ifraelites, as an inferior God, where no one elfe, that is not under the fame prejudices, can find any other but the Almighty Being, Jehovah himself.

And he advances this, without any apology, as an undoubted fact, which none of his readers would call in queftion. It is a thing not otherwife to be accounted for but by fuppofing, that either Clement thought himself inspired, or followed one whom he believed to have a divine gift of interpreting the fcriptures, which Juftin pretended to be poffeffed of, in the way fhewn above.

What confufed work learned men already began to make, with their thus introducing Christ as a fecond

à fecond God, appears from the following prayer, with which Clement finishes his Pædagogue (e).

It remains now that after this copious panegyric of the Word, we fhut up the whole with prayer to the Word;-Be propitious to thy children, O mafier, father, charioteer of Ifrael, fon • and father, both one, Lord! Grant unto us

that being arrived at the perfect day, giving thanks we may praife, and praifing we may give thanks to the only Father and Son; Son and Father; Son, mafter and teacher; with alfo the holy Spirit; one in all things; in whom are all things; by whom all things are one; by whom is eternity; of whom all are members; whofe the glory, the ages. To him, in all things good, in all things excellent, in all things wife, in all things righteous; To him be glory now and for all ages (ƒ).

By comparing this with the prayer which out Lord taught us, you perceive how far the learned

had

(ε) Όπερ εν λοιπον, επι τοιαύτη πανηγύρει το λογο, τω λόγω πέρα cewμila x.1.2. Clem. Alex. Op. vol. i. p. 311.

(f) From this ftrange rhapfody, as if it was of divine authority, Archbishop Potter gravely concludes, that we have

a most ample teftimony to the confubftantiality of the Son of God, and to his true divinity, and to that of the holy fpirit, against the Arians.' Porro ampliffimum hoc re quosone filij dei, ejufque ac S. Spiritus veræ divinitatis, contra Arianos, teftimonium eft. Not. in loc.

N

had already departed from the fimplicity of the gofpel, with respect to the object of worship. But it is proper to obferve, that however highly Clement thought of Christ as a god, he held him infinitely below the Divine Being himself. For in his Exhortation to the gentiles, in a fine strain of eloquence and devotion, he introduces Chrift himfelf finging praises to God.

Then,' fays he, (g) fhalt thou join the chorus of angels, hymning the Eternal, him who is without beginning, and without end, the only true God; God the word, joining together with us in the fong. The everlasting Jefus, the one

great high priest of the one God, and his Father, prays for mankind, and thus addresses them:' "Hear me, ye innumerable tribes, or ra"ther all ye rational creatures of God, barbarians " and greeks! I call to the whole human race, whofe maker I am, by the will of the Father. "Come unto me, and arrange yourselves under the "one God, and the one word of God!" &c. &c.

(i) Id. Ibid. p. 92. 93.

SECTION

SECTION XX.

Of Tertullian's copying of Juftin's error concerning Chrift.

TERTULLIAN, the moft antient of the latin fathers, flourished about the year 200. He was a man of great learning and irreproachable character; but fevere in his temper, and given to carry things to extremes.

What he advances after Juftin, on the fubject of Chrift being the acting God of the old world, is a proof of this. One inftance from him will fuffice. It is taken from his book against Praxeas, who was unquestionably a Unitarian, though Tertullian misunderstood and mifreprefents his fentiments.

(b) Thus all things,' fays he, were made by the Son, and without him nothing was made. • But

N 2

(b) Sic omnia per filium facta funt, et fine illo factum eft

nihil. Nec putes fola opera que a deo exinde gefta funt. et omnia tradidit in manu ligit, a primordio tradidit. apud deum, et Deus erat fermo, cui data eft omnis poteftas a patre in cœlis et in terra. Non judicat pater quenquam, fed omne judicium tradidit filio: a primordio tamen.

mundi per filium facta, fed et Pater enim qui diligit filium, ejus; utique a primordio diEx quo a primocdio fermo erat

Omnem

But do not imagine, that all the works only of • creation were wrought by the Son; all the tranfallions of the deity have been alfo from that time carried on by him. For the Father who loveth the Son, and hath delivered all things into his band, loveth him alike from the beginning, and from the beginning bath delivered all things to him; because that the Word was with God from the beginning, and the Word was God, to whom all power is given in heaven and earth by the Father. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son: but then all is from the beginning. For the faying, all power, all judgment, all things made by bim, all things delivered into his hand, admits no ex

ception or limitation of time. For they will not be all things, if they are not of all time. It is • the Son therefore, who bath executed all judg•ment from the beginning; who demolished the proud • tower of Babel, dividing their tongues; who pu

Omnem enim dicens poteftatem, et omne judicium, et omnia per eum facta, et omnia tradita in manu ejus, nullam exceptionem temporis permittit; quia omnia non erunt, fi non omnis temporis fuerint. Filius itaque eft qui ab initio judicavit, turrim fuperbiffimam elidens, linguafque difpertiens orbem totum aquaram violentia puniens, pluens fuper Sodoniam et Gomorram ignem et fulphurem; Dominus a Domino. Ipfe enim et ad humana colloquia femper defcendit : ab Adam ufque ad patriarchas et prophetas; in vifione, in fomnio, &c. &c." Tertullian. adverfus Praxeam, p. 509.