{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020252.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020252.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020252.htm","text":"Now, O you, my children, our Instructor is like His Father God, whose son He is, sinless, p. 210 blameless, and with a soul devoid of passion; God in the form of man, stainless, the minister of His Father\u2019s will, the Word who is God, who is in the Father, who is at the Father\u2019s right hand, and with the form of God is God. He is to us a spotless image; to Him we are to try with all our might to assimilate our souls. He is wholly free from human passions; wherefore also He alone is judge, because He alone is sinless. As far, however, as we can, let us try to sin as little as possible. For nothing is so urgent in the first place as deliverance from passions and disorders, and then the checking of our liability to fall into sins that have become habitual. It is best, therefore, not to sin at all in any way, which we assert to be the prerogative of God alone; next to keep clear of voluntary transgressions, which is characteristic of the wise man; thirdly, not to fall into many involuntary offences, which is peculiar to those who have been excellently trained. Not to continue long in sins, let that be ranked last. But this also is salutary to those who are called back to repentance, to renew the contest.\nAnd the Instructor, as I think, very beautifully says, through Moses: \u201cIf any one die suddenly by him, straightway the head of his consecration shall be polluted, and shall be shaved,\u201d 1037 designating involuntary sin as sudden death. And He says that it pollutes by defiling the soul: wherefore He prescribes the cure with all speed, advising the head to be instantly shaven; that is, counselling the locks of ignorance which shade the reason to be shorn clean off, that reason (whose seat is in the brain), being left bare of the dense stuff of vice, may speed its way to repentance. Then after a few remarks He adds, \u201cThe days before are not reckoned irrational,\u201d 1038 by which manifestly sins are meant which are contrary to reason. The involuntary act He calls \u201csudden,\u201d the sin He calls \u201cirrational.\u201d Wherefore the Word, the Instructor, has taken the charge of us, in order to the prevention of sin, which is contrary to reason.\nHence consider the expression of Scripture, \u201cTherefore these things saith the Lord;\u201d the sin that had been committed before is held up to reprobation by the succeeding expression \u201ctherefore,\u201d according to which the righteous judgment follows. This is shown conspicuously by the prophets, when they said, \u201cHadst thou not sinned, He would not have uttered these threatenings.\u201d \u201cTherefore thus saith the Lord;\u201d \u201cBecause thou hast not heard these words, therefore these things the Lord;\u201d and, \u201cTherefore, behold, the Lord saith.\u201d For prophecy is given by reason both of obedience and disobedience: for obedience, that we may be saved; for disobedience, that we may be corrected.\nOur Instructor, the Word, therefore cures the unnatural passions of the soul by means of exhortations. For with the highest propriety the help of bodily diseases is called the healing art\u2014an art acquired by human skill. But the paternal Word is the only P\u00e6onian physician of human infirmities, and the holy charmer of the sick soul. \u201cSave,\u201d it is said, \u201cThy servant, O my God, who trusteth in Thee. Pity me, O Lord; for I will cry to Thee all the day.\u201d 1039 For a while the \u201cphysician\u2019s art,\u201d according to Democritus, \u201cheals the diseases of the body; wisdom frees the soul from passion.\u201d But the good Instructor, the Wisdom, the Word of the Father, who made man, cares for the whole nature of His creature; the all-sufficient Physician of humanity, the Saviour, heals both body and soul. \u201cRise up,\u201d He said to the paralytic; \u201ctake the bed on which thou liest, and go away home;\u201d 1040 and straightway the infirm man received strength. And to the dead He said, \u201cLazarus, go forth;\u201d 1041 and the dead man issued from his coffin such as he was ere he died, having undergone resurrection. Further, He heals the soul itself by precepts and gifts\u2014by precepts indeed, in course of time, but being liberal in His gifts, He says to us sinners, \u201cThy sins be forgiven thee.\u201d 1042\nWe, however, as soon as He conceived the thought, became His children, having had assigned us the best and most secure rank by His orderly arrangement, which first circles about the world, the heavens, and the sun\u2019s circuits, and occupies itself with the motions of the rest of the stars for man\u2019s behoof, and then busies itself with man himself, on whom all its care is concentrated; and regarding him as its greatest work, regulated his soul by wisdom and temperance, and tempered the body with beauty and proportion. And whatever in human actions is right and regular, is the result of the inspiration of its rectitude and order.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter II.\u2014Our Instructor\u2019s Treatment of Our Sins.","type":"page"}