Read the little book containing Clement’s two _Epistles to the
Corinthians_. The first accuses them of having disturbed the peace
and harmony proper to civil life by sedition, disturbance, and
schism, and exhorts them to desist from such evil ways. The style is
simple and clear, in its absence of elaboration approaching that of
ecclesiastical writers. The author, however, deserves censure for
putting certain worlds beyond the ocean, for using the phoenix as an
incontrovertible argument, for calling our Lord Jesus Christ chief
priest and president, not even using the loftier terms that befit
God, although he nowhere openly blasphemes Him. The second letter,
containing advice and exhortation to a better life, at the beginning
proclaims Christ as God, although certain foreign expressions, from
which even the first letter is not altogether free, are introduced as
if from Holy Writ. Certain passages are strangely interpreted. The
sentiments are somewhat poor and at times inconsistent.
In the same little work also read Polycarp’s _Epistle to the
Philippians_, full of good advice, combined with clearness and
simplicity, after the ecclesiastical method of interpretation.
The author also says that he sent the letters of the God-inspired
Ignatius to them, asking to be informed if they had heard anything of
him.