“Thus we are shut up to the supposition that there is an unbegotten artificer, who brought the elements together, if they were separate; or, if they were together, artistically blended them so as to generate life, and perfected from all one work.  For it cannot be that a work which is completely wise can be made without a mind which is greater than it.  Nor will it do to say that love is the artificer of all things, or desire, or power, or any such thing.  All these are liable to change, and transient in their very nature.  Nor can that be God which is moved by another, much less what is altered by time and nature, and can be annihilated.”¹⁰⁷⁹

1079 [The conclusion of the discussion is noteworthy, not only from the fairness of the argument, but from the skill with which the position of Clement, as a heathen inquirer, is maintained.—R.]

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