The Epistle of Clement is one in which we should scarcely expect to find much reference to the Supernatural, for it is written throughout for the one practical purpose of healing the divisions in the Church of Corinth.  These the writer ascribes to envy, and cites a number of Scripture examples of the evil effects of this disposition and the good effects of the contrary one.  He adheres to this purpose throughout, and every word he writes bears more or less directly on his subject.  Yet in this document, from which, by its design, the subject of the supernatural seems excluded, we have all the leading features of supernatural Christianity.  We have the Father sending the Son (ch. xlii.); we have the Son coming of the seed of Jacob according to the Flesh (ch. xxxii.); we have the words, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the sceptre of the Majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride and arrogance, although He might have done so, but in a lowly condition, as the Holy Spirit had declared regarding Him” (ch. xvi.); and at the end of the same we have:—­

    “If the Lord thus humbled Himself, what shall we do who have through
    Him come under the yoke of His grace?”

Clement describes Him in the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews as One—­

    “Who, being the brightness of His [God’s] Majesty, is by so much
    greater than the angels as He hath by inheritance obtained a more
    excellent name than they.” (Ch. xxxvi.)

We have Clement speaking continually of the Death of Jesus as taking place for the highest of supernatural purposes,—­the reconciliation of all men to God.  “Let us look,” he writes, “steadfastly to the Blood of Christ, and see how precious that Blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world.” (Ch. vii.) Again, “And thus they made it manifest that Redemption should flow through the Blood of the Lord to all them that believe and hope in God.” (Ch. xii.) Again, “On account of the love He bore us, Jesus Christ our Lord gave His Blood for us by the will of God, His Flesh for our flesh, and His Soul for our souls.” (Ch. xlix.) His sufferings are apparently said by Clement to be the sufferings of God.  (Ch. ii.) But, above all, the statement of the truth of our Lord’s Resurrection, and of ours through His, is as explicit as possible:—­

“Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually proves to us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which He has rendered the Lord Jesus the first fruits by raising Him from the dead.” (Ch. xxiv.)

“[The Apostles] having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the Word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was at hand.” (Ch. xlii.)

When we look to Clement’s theology, we find it to have been what would now be called, in the truest and best sense of the word, “Evangelical,” thus:—­