PASSAGES FROM CLEMENT’S EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS
ON MARTYRDOM.
Moreover, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Clement also,
drawing a picture of the Gnostic, says: “For who that has sojourned
among you has not proved your perfect and firm faith? and has not
admired your sound and gentle piety? and has not celebrated the
munificent style of your hospitality? and has not felicitated your
complete and sure knowledge? For ye did all things impartially, and
walked in the ordinances of God;” and so forth.
Then more clearly: “Let us fix our eyes on those who have yielded
perfect service to His magnificent glory. Let us take Enoch, who, being
by his obedience found righteous, was translated; and Noah, who, having
believed, was saved; and Abraham, who for his faith and hospitality
was called the friend of God, and was the father of Isaac.” “For
hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom.” “For faith and
hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved.” “From patience and faith they
walked about in goat-skins, and sheep-skins, and folds of camels’ hair,
proclaiming the kingdom of Christ. We name His prophets Elias, and
Eliseus, and Ezekiel, and John.”
“For Abraham, who for his free faith was called ‘the friend of God,’
was not elated by glory, but modestly said, ‘I am dust and ashes.’[600]
And of Job it is thus written: ‘Job was just and blameless, true and
pious, abstaining from all evil.’”[601] He it was who overcame the
tempter by patience, and at once testified and was testified to by God;
who keeps hold of humility, and says, “No one is pure from defilement,
not even if his life were but for one day.”[602] “Moses, ‘the servant
who was faithful in all his house,’ said to Him who uttered the oracles
from the bush, ‘Who am I, that Thou sendest me? I am slow of speech,
and of a stammering tongue, to minister the voice of God in human
speech. And again: ‘I am smoke from a pot.’” “For God resisteth the
proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”[603]
“David too, of whom the Lord, testifying, says, ‘I found a man after
my own heart, David the son of Jesse. With my holy oil I anointed
him.’[604] But he also says to God, ‘Pity me, O God, according to Thy
mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse
me from my sin. For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before
me.’”[605] Then, alluding to sin which is not subject to the law, in
the exercise of the moderation of true knowledge, he adds, “Against
Thee only have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight.”[606] For the
Scripture somewhere says, “The Spirit of the Lord is a lamp, searching
the recesses of the belly.”[607] And the more of a Gnostic a man
becomes by doing right, the nearer is the illuminating Spirit to him.
“Thus the Lord draws near to the righteous, and none of the thoughts
and reasonings of which we are the authors escape Him--I mean the Lord
Jesus,” the scrutinizer by His omnipotent will of our heart, “whose
blood was consecrated[608] for us. Let us therefore respect those who
are over us, and reverence the elders; let us honour the young, and
let us teach the discipline of God.” For blessed is he who shall do
and teach the Lord’s commands worthily; and he is of a magnanimous
mind, and of a mind contemplative of truth. “Let us direct our wives to
what is good; let them exhibit,” says he, “the lovable disposition of
chastity; let them show the guileless will of their meekness; let them
manifest the gentleness of their tongue by silence; let them give their
love not according to their inclinations, but equal love in sanctity
to all that fear God. Let our children share in the discipline that is
in Christ; let them learn what humility avails before God; what is the
power of holy love before God, how lovely and great is the fear of the
Lord, saving all that walk in it holily, with a pure heart: for He is
the Searcher of the thoughts and sentiments, whose breath is in us, and
when He wills He will take it away.”
“Now all those things are confirmed by the faith that is in Christ.
‘Come, ye children,’ says the Lord, ‘hearken to me, and I will teach
you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man that desireth life, that
loveth to see good days?’[609] Then He subjoins the gnostic mystery
of the numbers seven and eight. ‘Stop thy tongue from evil, and thy
lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace,
and pursue it.’[610] For in these words He alludes to knowledge
(_gnosis_), with abstinence from evil and the doing of what is
good, teaching that it is to be perfected by word and deed. ‘The eyes
of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are to their prayer. But
the face of God is against those that do evil, to root out their memory
from the earth. The righteous cried, and the Lord heard, and delivered
him out of all his distresses.’[611] ‘Many are the stripes of sinners;
but those who hope in the Lord, mercy shall compass about.’”[612] “A
multitude of mercy,” he nobly says, “surrounds him that trusts in the
Lord.”
For it is written in the Epistle to the Corinthians, “Through Jesus
Christ our foolish and darkened mind springs up to the light. By Him
the Sovereign Lord wished us to taste the knowledge that is immortal.”
And, showing more expressly the peculiar nature of knowledge, he
added: “These things, then, being clear to us, looking into the depths
of divine knowledge, we ought to do all things in order which the
Sovereign Lord commanded us to perform at the appointed seasons. Let
the wise man, then, show his wisdom not in words only, but in good
deeds. Let the humble not testify to himself, but allow testimony to be
borne to him by another. Let not him who is pure in the flesh boast,
knowing that it is another who furnishes him with continence. Ye see,
brethren, that the more we are subjected to peril, the more knowledge
are we counted worthy of.”