so
much zeal and unanimity by the early fathers. Some of them were bitterly
opposed to Platonism, and yet, though none denounced it more vehemently
than Tertullian, [457:2] we cannot point to any one of them who speaks
of the Three Divine Persons more clearly or copiously. The heretic
thinks, says he, "that we cannot believe in one God in any other way
than if we say that the very same Person is Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost.... These persons assume the number and arrangement of the Trinity
to be a division of the Unity; whereas the Unity, which derives a
Trinity from itself, is not destroyed by it, but has its different
offices performed. They, therefore, boast that two and three Gods are
preached by us, but that they themselves are worshippers of one God; as
if the Unity, when improperly contracted, did not create heresy, and a
Trinity, when properly considered, did not constitute truth." [457:3]

Every one at all acquainted with the ecclesiastical literature of this
period must acknowledge that the disciples now firmly maintained the
doctrine of the Atonement. The Gnostics and the Manichaeans discarded
this article from their systems, as it was entirely foreign to the
spirit of their philosophy; but, though the Church teachers enter into
scarcely any explanation of it, by attempting to shew how the violated
law required a propitiation, they proclaim it as a glorious truth which
should inspire all the children of God with joy and confidence. Clemens
Alexandrinus gives utterance only to the common faith when he
declares--"Christians are redeemed from corruption by the blood of the
Lord." "The Word poured forth His blood for us to save human nature."
"The Lord gave Himself a victim for us." [458:1] The early writers also
mention faith as the means by which we are to appropriate the benefits
of the Redeemer's sacrifice. Thus, Justin Martyr represents Christ as
"purifying by His blood those who believe on Him." [458:2] Clemens
Alexandrinus, in like manner, speaks of "the one mode of salvation by
faith in God," [458:3] and says that "we have believed in God through
the _voice of the Word_." [458:4] In the "Letter to Diognetus" the
doctrine of justification by faith through the imputed righteousness of
the Saviour is beautifully exhibited. "For what else," says the writer,
"could cover our sins but His righteousness? In whom was it a possible
that we, the lawless and the unholy, could be justified, save by the Son
of God alo