{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020247.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020247.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020247.htm","text":"Contemplate a little, if agreeable to you, the divine beneficence. The first man, when in Paradise, sported free, because he was the child of God; but when he succumbed to pleasure (for the serpent allegorically signifies pleasure crawling on its belly, earthly wickedness nourished p. 203 for fuel to the flames), was as a child seduced by lusts, and grew old in disobedience; and by disobeying his Father, dishonoured God. Such was the influence of pleasure. Man, that had been free by reason of simplicity, was found fettered to sins. The Lord then wished to release him from his bonds, and clothing Himself with flesh\u2014O divine mystery!\u2014vanquished the serpent, and enslaved the tyrant death; and, most marvellous of all, man that had been deceived by pleasure, and bound fast by corruption, had his hands unloosed, and was set free. O mystic wonder! The Lord was laid low, and man rose up; and he that fell from Paradise receives as the reward of obedience something greater [than Paradise]\u2014namely, heaven itself. Wherefore, since the Word Himself has come to us from heaven, we need not, I reckon, go any more in search of human learning to Athens and the rest of Greece, and to Ionia. For if we have as our teacher Him that filled the universe with His holy energies in creation, salvation, beneficence, legislation, prophecy, teaching, we have the Teacher from whom all instruction comes; and the whole world, with Athens and Greece, has already become the domain of the Word. 1009 For you, who believed the poetical fable which designated Minos the Cretan as the bosom friend of Zeus, will not refuse to believe that we who have become the disciples of God have received the only true wisdom; and that which the chiefs of philosophy only guessed at, the disciples of Christ have both apprehended and proclaimed. And the one whole Christ is not divided: \u201cThere is neither barbarian, nor Jew, nor Greek, neither male nor female, but a new man,\u201d 1010 transformed by God\u2019s Holy Spirit. Further, the other counsels and precepts are unimportant, and respect particular things,\u2014as, for example, if one may marry, take part in public affairs, beget children; but the only command that is universal, and over the whole course of existence, at all times and in all circumstances, tends to the highest end, viz., life, is piety, 1011 \u2014all that is necessary, in order that we may live for ever, being that we live in accordance with it. Philosophy, however, as the ancients say, is \u201ca long-lived exhortation, wooing the eternal love of wisdom;\u201d while the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, \u201cenlightening the eyes.\u201d Receive Christ, receive sight, receive thy light,\n \u201cIn order that you may know well both God and man.\u201d\u00a01012\n \n\u201cSweet is the Word that gives us light, precious above gold and gems; it is to be desired above honey and the honey-comb.\u201d 1013 For how can it be other than desirable, since it has filled with light the mind which had been buried in darkness, and given keenness to the \u201clight-bringing eyes\u201d of the soul? For just as, had the sun not been in existence, night would have brooded over the universe notwithstanding the other luminaries of heaven; so, had we nor known the Word, and been illuminated by Him; we should have been nowise different from fowls that are being fed, fattened in darkness, and nourished for death. Let us then admit the light, that we may admit God; let us admit the light, and become disciples to the Lord. This, too, He has been promised to the Father: \u201cI will declare Thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee.\u201d 1014 Praise and declare to me Thy Father God; Thy utterances save; Thy hymn teaches 1015 that hitherto I have wandered in error, seeking God. But since Thou leadest me to the light, O Lord, and I find God through Thee, and receive the Father from Thee, I become \u201cThy fellow-heir,\u201d 1016 since Thou \u201cwert not ashamed of me as Thy brother.\u201d 1017 Let us put away, then, let us put away oblivion of the truth, viz., ignorance; and removing the darkness which obstructs, as dimness of sight, let us contemplate the only true God, first raising our voice in this hymn of praise: 1018 Hail, O light! For in us, buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of death, light has shone forth from heaven, purer than the sun, sweeter than life here below. That light is eternal life; and whatever partakes of it lives. But night fears the light, and hiding itself in terror, gives place to the day of the Lord. Sleepless light is now over all, and the west has given credence to the east. For this was the end of the new creation. For \u201cthe Sun of Righteousness,\u201d who drives His chariot over all, pervades equally all humanity, like \u201cHis Father, who makes His sun to rise on all men,\u201d and distils on them the dew of the truth. He hath changed sunset into sunrise, and through the cross brought death to life; and having wrenched man from destruction, He hath raised him to the skies, transplanting mortality into immortality, and translating earth to heaven\u2014He, the husbandman of God,\n \u201cPointing out the favourable signs and rousing the nations\nTo good works, putting them in mind of the true sustenance;\u201d 1019\nhaving bestowed on us the truly great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly teaching, putting His laws p. 204 into our minds, and writing them on our hearts. What laws does He inscribe? \u201cThat all shall know God, from small to great;\u201d and, \u201cI will be merciful to them,\u201d says God, \u201cand will not remember their sins.\u201d 1020 Let us receive the laws of life, let us comply with God\u2019s expostulations; let us become acquainted with Him, that He may be gracious. And though God needs nothing let us render to Him the grateful recompense of a thankful heart and of piety, as a kind of house-rent for our dwelling here below.\n \u201cGold for brass,\nA hundred oxen\u2019s worth for that of nine;\u201d 1021\nthat is, for your little faith He gives you the earth of so great extent to till, water to drink and also to sail on, air to breathe, fire to do your work, a world to dwell in; and He has permitted you to conduct a colony from here to heaven: with these important works of His hand, and benefits in such numbers, He has rewarded your little faith. Then, those who have put faith in necromancers, receive from them amulets and charms, to ward off evil forsooth; and will you not allow the heavenly Word, the Saviour, to be bound on to you as an amulet, and, by trusting in God\u2019s own charm, be delivered from passions which are the diseases of the mind, and rescued from sin?\u2014for sin is eternal death. Surely utterly dull and blind, and, like moles, doing nothing but eat, you spend your lives in darkness, surrounded with corruption. But it is truth which cries, \u201cThe light shall shine forth from the darkness.\u201d Let the light then shine in the hidden part of man, that is, the heart; and let the beams of knowledge arise to reveal and irradiate the hidden inner man, the disciple of the Light, the familiar friend and fellow-heir of Christ; especially now that we have come to know the most precious and venerable name of the good Father, who to a pious and good child gives gentle counsels, and commands what is salutary for His child. He who obeys Him has the advantage in all things, follows God, obeys the Father, knows Him through wandering, loves God, loves his neighbour, fulfils the commandment, seeks the prize, claims the promise. But it has been God\u2019s fixed and constant purpose to save the flock of men: for this end the good God sent the good Shepherd. And the Word, having unfolded the truth, showed to men the height of salvation, that either repenting they might be saved, or refusing to obey, they might be judged. This is the proclamation of righteousness: to those that obey, glad tidings; to those that disobey, judgment. The loud trumpet, when sounded, collects the soldiers, and proclaims war. And shall not Christ, breathing a strain of peace to the ends of the earth, gather together His own soldiers, the soldiers of peace? Well, by His blood, and by the word, He has gathered the bloodless host of peace, and assigned to them the kingdom of heaven. The trumpet of Christ is His Gospel. He hath blown it, and we have heard. \u201cLet us array ourselves in the armour of peace, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and taking the shield of faith, and binding our brows with the helmet of salvation; and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,\u201d 1022 let us sharpen. So the apostle in the spirit of peace commands. These are our invulnerable weapons: armed with these, let us face the evil one; \u201cthe fiery darts of the evil one\u201d let us quench with the sword-points dipped in water, that, have been baptized by the Word, returning grateful thanks for the benefits we have received, and honouring God through the Divine Word. \u201cFor while thou art yet speaking,\u201d it is said, \u201cHe will say, Behold, I am beside thee.\u201d 1023 O this holy and blessed power, by which God has fellowship with men! Better far, then, is it to become at once the imitator and the servant of the best of all beings; for only by holy service will any one be able to imitate God, and to serve and worship Him only by imitating Him. The heavenly and truly divine love comes to men thus, when in the soul itself the spark of true goodness, kindled in the soul by the Divine Word, is able to burst forth into flame; and, what is of the highest importance, salvation runs parallel with sincere willingness\u2014choice and life being, so to speak, yoked together. Wherefore this exhortation of the truth alone, like the most faithful of our friends, abides with us till our last breath, and is to the whole and perfect spirit of the soul the kind attendant on our ascent to heaven. What, then, is the exhortation I give you? I urge you to be saved. This Christ desires. In one word, He freely bestows life on you. And who is He? Briefly learn. The Word of truth, the Word of incorruption, that regenerates man by bringing him back to the truth\u2014the goad that urges to salvation\u2014He who expels destruction and pursues death\u2014He who builds up the temple of God in men, that He may cause God to take up His abode in men. Cleanse the temple; and pleasures and amusements abandon to the winds and the fire, as a fading flower; but wisely cultivate the fruits of self-command, and present thyself to God as an offering of first-fruits, that there may be not the work alone, but also the grace of God; and both are requisite, that the friend of Christ may be rendered worthy of the kingdom, and be counted worthy of the kingdom.\np. 205\n[The Catholic instinct is here; and an all-embracing benevolence is its characteristic, not worldly empire.]\n203:1010\nGal. iii. 28, vi. 15.\n203:1011\n[He seems to be thinking of 1 Tim. vi. 6, and 1 Tim. iv. 8.]\n203:1012 203:1013 203:1014 203:1015\n[Eph. v. 14, is probably from a hymn of the Church, which is here referred to as His, as it is adopted into Scripture.]\n203:1016 203:1017 203:1018\n[A quotation from another hymn, in all probability.]\n203:1019 204:1020\nHeb. viii. 10-12; Jer. 31:33, 34.\n204:1021\nIl., vi. 236. [The exchange of Glaucus.]\n204:1022 204:1023","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapt...","type":"page"}