Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Methodius/Two Fragments, Uncertain/Fragment II

by Methodius

II.

Perhaps these three persons of our ancestors, being in an image the consubstantial representatives of humanity, are, as also Methodius thinks, types of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity,^[1] the innocent and unbegotten Adam being the type and resemblance of God the Father Almighty, who is uncaused, and the cause of all; his begotten son^[2] shadowing forth the image of the begotten Son and Word of God; whilst Eve, that proceedeth forth from Adam,^[3] signifies the person and procession of the Holy Spirit.^[4]

Footnotes

1. [Such is the fact, no doubt, as to the ancestors of the Jewish race; the fatherly character of Abraham, the filial character of Isaac, and the missionary offices of Jacob—whose wisdom and organizing faculties are so conspicuous—interpreting, in some degree, “the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity.” This seems to be hinted, indeed, in the formula, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Isaac’s submission to be sacrificed upon Mount Moriah, and Jacob’s begetting and sending forth the twelve patriarchs, singularly identify them as types of the Atoning Son and the regenerating Spirit, whose gifts and mission were imparted to the twelve Apostles.]
2. [Abel.]
3. [Note the single procession. The formula of the Hebrews, however, above noted, supplies a type of the Filioque and the ab utroque in the true sense of those terms.]
4. [Recur to chap. v. of The Banquet, p. 333, supra.]