{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020356.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020356.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020356.htm","text":"Fit objects for admiration are the Stoics, who say that the soul is not affected by the body, either to vice by disease, or to virtue by health; but both these things, they say, are indifferent. And indeed Job, through exceeding continence, and excellence of faith, when from rich he became poor, from being held in honour dishonoured, from being comely unsightly, and sick from being healthy, is depicted as a good example, putting the Tempter to shame, blessing his Creator; bearing what came second, as the first, and most clearly teaching that it is possible for the gnostic to make an excellent use of all circumstances. And that ancient achievements are proposed as images for our correction, the apostle shows, when he says, \u201cSo that my bonds in Christ are become manifest in all the palace, and to all the rest; and several of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear,\u201d 2699 \u2014since martyrs\u2019 testimonies are examples of conversion gloriously sanctified. \u201cFor what things the Scripture speaks were written for our instruction, that we, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, might have the hope of consolation.\u201d 2700 When pain is present, the soul appears to decline from it, and to deem release from present pain a precious thing. At that moment it slackens from studies, when the other virtues also are p. 413 neglected. And yet we do not say that it is virtue itself which suffers, for virtue is not affected by disease. But he who is partaker of both, of virtue and the disease, is afflicted by the pressure of the latter; and if he who has not yet attained the habit of self-command be not a high-souled man, he is distraught; and the inability to endure it is found equivalent to fleeing from it.\nThe same holds good also in the case of poverty. For it compels the soul to desist from necessary things, I mean contemplation and from pure sinlessness, forcing him, who has not wholly dedicated himself to God in love, to occupy himself about provisions; as, again, health and abundance of necessaries keep the soul free and unimpeded, and capable of making a good use of what is at hand. \u201cFor,\u201d says the apostle, \u201csuch shall have trouble in the flesh. But I spare you. For I would have you without anxiety, in order to decorum and assiduity for the Lord, without distraction.\u201d 2701\nThese things, then, are to be abstained from, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of the body; and care for the body is exercised for the sake of the soul, to which it has reference. For on this account it is necessary for the man who lives as a gnostic to know what is suitable. Since the fact that pleasure is not a good thing is admitted from the fact that certain pleasures are evil, by this reason good appears evil, and evil good. And then, if we choose some pleasures and shun others, it is not every pleasure that is a good thing.\nSimilarly, also, the same rule holds with pains, some of which we endure, and others we shun. But choice and avoidance are exercised according to knowledge; so that it is not pleasure that is the good thing, but knowledge by which we shall choose a pleasure at a certain time, and of a certain kind. Now the martyr chooses the pleasure that exists in prospect through the present pain. If pain is conceived as existing in thirst, and pleasure in drinking, the pain that has preceded becomes the efficient cause of pleasure. But evil cannot be the efficient cause of good. Neither, then, is the one thing nor the other evil. Simonides accordingly (as also Aristotle) writes, \u201cthat to be in good health is the best thing, and the second best thing is to be handsome, and the third best thing is to be rich without cheating.\u201d\n \u201cYou must, to escape poverty, throw\nYourself, O Cyrnus down from\nThe steep rocks into the deep sea.\u201d\nOn the other hand, Antiphanes, the comic poet, says, \u201cPlutus (Wealth), when it has taken hold of those who see better than others, makes them blind.\u201d Now by the poets he is proclaimed as blind from his birth:\u2014\n \u201cAnd brought him forth blind who saw not the sun.\u201d\nSays the Chalcidian Euphorion:\u2014\n \u201cRiches, then, and extravagant luxuries,\nWere for men the worst training for manliness.\u201d\nWrote Euripides in Alexander:\u2014\n \u201cAnd it is said,\nPenury has attained wisdom through misfortune;\nBut much wealth will capture not\nSparta alone, but every city.\u201d\n\u201cIt is not then the only coin that mortals have, that which is white silver or golden, but virtue too,\u201d as Sophocles says.\nOur holy Saviour applied poverty and riches, and the like, both to spiritual things and objects of sense. For when He said, \u201cBlessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake,\u201d 2702 He clearly taught us in every circumstance to seek for the martyr who, if poor for righteousness\u2019 sake, witnesses that the righteousness which he loves is a good thing; and if he \u201chunger and thirst for righteousness\u2019 sake,\u201d testifies that righteousness is the best thing. Likewise he, that weeps and mourns for righteousness\u2019 sake, testifies to the best law that it is beautiful. As, then, \u201cthose that are persecuted,\u201d so also \u201cthose that hunger and thirst\u201d for righteousness\u2019 sake, are called \u201cblessed\u201d by Him who approves of the true desire, which not even famine can put a stop to. And if \u201cthey hunger after righteousness itself,\u201d they are blessed. \u201cAnd blessed are the poor,\u201d whether \u201cin spirit\u201d or in circumstance\u201d\u2014that is, if for righteousness\u2019 sake. It is not the poor simply, but those that have wished to become poor for righteousness\u2019 sake, that He pronounces blessed\u2014those who have despised the honours of this world in order to attain \u201cthe good;\u201d likewise also those who, through chastity, have become comely in person and character, and those who are of noble birth, and honourable, having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore \u201chave received power to become the sons of God,\u201d 2703 and \u201cto tread on serpents and scorpions,\u201d and to rule over demons and \u201cthe host of the adversary.\u201d 2704 And, in fine, the Lord\u2019s discipline 2705 draws the soul away gladly from the body, even if it wrench itself away in its removal. \u201cFor he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life shall find it,\u201d 2706 if we only join that which is mortal of us with p. 414 the immortality of God. It is the will of God [that we should attain] the knowledge of God, which is the communication of immortality. He therefore, who, in accordance with the word of repentance, knows his life to be sinful will lose it\u2014losing it from sin, from which it is wrenched; but losing it, will find it, according to the obedience which lives again to faith, but dies to sin. This, then, is what it is \u201cto find one\u2019s life,\u201d \u201cto know one\u2019s self.\u201d\nThe conversion, however, which leads to divine things, the Stoics say, is affected by a change, the soul being changed to wisdom. And Plato: \u201cOn the soul taking a turn to what is better, and a change from a kind of nocturnal day.\u201d Now the philosophers also allow the good man an exit from life in accordance with reason, in the case of one depriving him of active exertion, so that the hope of action is no longer left him. And the judge who compels us to deny Him whom we love, I regard as showing who is and who is not the friend of God. In that case there is not left ground for even examining what one prefers\u2014the menaces of man or the love of God. And abstinence from vicious acts is found, somehow, [to result in] the diminution and extinction of vicious propensities, their energy being destroyed by inaction. And this is the import of \u201cSell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me\u201d 2707 \u2014that is, follow what is said by the Lord. Some say that by what \u201cthou hast\u201d He designated the things in the soul, of a nature not akin to it, though how these are bestowed on the poor they are not able to say. For God dispenses to all according to desert, His distribution being righteous. Despising, therefore, the possessions which God apportions to thee in thy magnificence, comply with what is spoken by me; haste to the ascent of the Spirit, being not only justified by abstinence from what is evil, but in addition also perfected, by Christlike beneficence. 2708 In this instance He convicted the man, who boasted that he had fulfilled the injunctions of the law, of not loving his neighbour; and it is by beneficence that the love which, according to the gnostic ascending scale, is Lord of the Sabbath, proclaims itself. 2709 We must then, according to my view, have recourse to the word of salvation neither from fear of punishment nor promise of a gift, but on account of the good itself. Such, as do so, stand on the right hand of the sanctuary; but those who think that by the gift of what is perishable they shall receive in exchange what belongs to immortality are in the parable of the two brothers called \u201chirelings.\u201d And is there not some light thrown here on the expression \u201cin the likeness and image,\u201d in the fact that some live according to the likeness of Christ, while those who stand on the left hand live according to their image? There are then two things proceeding from the truth, one root lying beneath both,\u2014the choice being, however, not equal, or rather the difference that is in the choice not being equal. To choose by way of imitation differs, as appears to me, from the choice of him who chooses according to knowledge, as that which is set on fire differs from that which is illuminated. Israel, then, is the light of the likeness which is according to the Scripture. But the image is another thing. What means the parable of Lazarus, by showing the image of the rich and poor? And what the saying, \u201cNo man can serve two masters, God and Mammon?\u201d\u2014the Lord so terming the love of money. For instance, the covetous, who were invited, responded not to the invitation to the supper, not because of their possessing property, but of their inordinate affection to what they possessed. \u201cThe foxes,\u201d then, have holes. He called those evil and earthly men who are occupied about the wealth which is mined and dug from the ground, foxes. Thus also, in reference to Herod: \u201cGo, tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.\u201d 2710 For He applied the name \u201cfowls of the air\u201d to those who were distinct from the other birds\u2014those really pure, those that have the power of flying to the knowledge of the heavenly Word. For not riches only, but also honour, and marriage, and poverty, have ten thousand cares for him who is unfit for them. 2711 And those cares He indicated in the parable of the fourfold seed, when He said that \u201cthe seed of the word which fell unto the thorns\u201d and hedges was choked by them, and could not bring forth fruit. It is therefore necessary to learn how to make use of every occurrence, so as by a good life, according to knowledge, to be trained for the state of eternal life. For it said, \u201cI saw the wicked exalted and towering as the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed,\u201d says the Scripture, \u201cand, lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. Keep innocence, and look on uprightness: for there is a remnant to the man of peace.\u201d 2712 Such will he be who believes unfeignedly with his whole heart, and is tranquil in his whole soul. \u201cFor the different people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from the Lord.\u201d 2713 \u201cThey bless p. 415 with their mouth, but they curse in their heart.\u201d 2714 \u201cThey loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue; but their heart was not right with Him, and they were not faithful to His covenant.\u201d Wherefore \u201clet the false lips become speechless, and let the Lord destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall magnify our tongue, and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak out in his case.\u201d 2715 For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do not exalt themselves against His flock. \u201cLay not up for yourselves, therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break through and steal,\u201d 2716 says the Lord, in reproach perchance of the covetous, and perchance also of those who are simply anxious and full of cares, and those too who indulge their bodies. For amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts \u201cbreak through\u201d the mind and the whole man. But our true \u201ctreasure\u201d is where what is allied to our mind is, since it bestows the communicative power of righteousness, showing that we must assign to the habit of our old conversation what we have acquired by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He is, in truth, \u201cthe bag that waxeth not old,\u201d the provisions of eternal life, \u201cthe treasure that faileth not in heaven.\u201d 2717 \u201cFor I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,\u201d 2718 saith the Lord. And they say those things to those who wish to be poor for righteousness\u2019 sake. For they have heard in the commandment that \u201cthe broad and wide way leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in by it.\u201d 2719 It is not of anything else that the assertion is made, but of profligacy, and love of women, and love of glory, and ambition, and similar passions. For so He says, \u201cFool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?\u201d 2720 And the commandment is expressed in these very words, \u201cTake heed, therefore, of covetousness. For a man\u2019s life does not consist in the abundance of those things which he possesses. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?\u201d 2721 \u201cWherefore I say, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what ye shall put on. For your life is more than meat, and your body than raiment.\u201d 2722 And again, \u201cFor your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.\u201d \u201cBut seek first the kingdom of heaven, and its righteousness,\u201d for these are the great things, and the things which are small and appertain to this life \u201cshall be added to you.\u201d 2723 Does He not plainly then exhort us to follow the gnostic life, and enjoin us to seek the truth in word and deed? Therefore Christ, who trains the soul, reckons one rich, not by his gifts, but by his choice. It is said, therefore, that Zaccheus, or, according to some, Matthew, the chief of the publicans, on hearing that the Lord had deigned to come to him, said, \u201cLord, and if I have taken anything by false accusation, I restore him fourfold;\u201d on which the Saviour said, \u201cThe Son of man, on coming to-day, has found that which was lost.\u201d 2724 Again, on seeing the rich cast into the treasury according to their wealth, and the widow two mites, He said \u201cthat the widow had cast in more than they all,\u201d for \u201cthey had contributed of their abundance, but she of her destitution.\u201d And because He brought all things to bear on the discipline of the soul, He said, \u201cBlessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.\u201d 2725 And the meek are those who have quelled the battle of unbelief in the soul, the battle of wrath, and lust, and the other forms that are subject to them. And He praises those meek by choice, not by necessity. For there are with the Lord both rewards and \u201cmany mansions,\u201d corresponding to men\u2019s lives. \u201cWhosoever shall receive,\u201d says He, \u201ca prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet\u2019s reward; and whosoever shall receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man\u2019s reward; and whoso shall receive one of the least of these my disciples, shall not lose his reward.\u201d 2726 And again, the differences of virtue according to merit, and the noble rewards, He indicated by the hours unequal in number; and in addition, by the equal reward given to each of the labourers\u2014that is, salvation, which is meant by the penny\u2014He indicated the equality of justice; and the difference of those called He intimated, by those who worked for unequal portions of time. They shall work, therefore, in accordance with the appropriate mansions of which they have been deemed worthy as rewards, being fellow-workers in the ineffable administration and service. 2727 \u201cThose, then,\u201d says Plato, \u201cwho seem called to a holy life, are those who, freed and released from those earthly localities as from prisons, have reached the pure dwelling-place on high.\u201d In clearer terms again he p. 416 expresses the same thing: \u201cThose who by philosophy have been sufficiently purged from those things, live without bodies entirely for all time. Although they are enveloped in certain shapes; in the case of some, of air, and others, of fire.\u201d He adds further: \u201cAnd they reach abodes fairer than those, which it is not easy, nor is there sufficient time now to describe.\u201d Whence with reason, \u201cblessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted;\u201d 2728 for they who have repented of their former evil life shall attain to \u201cthe calling\u201d (\u03ba\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd), for this is the meaning of being comforted (\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03b8\u1fc6\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9). And there are two styles of penitents. 2729 That which is more common is fear on account of what is done; but the other which is more special, the shame which the spirit feels in itself arising from conscience. Whether then, here or elsewhere (for no place is devoid of the beneficence of God), He again says, \u201cBlessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.\u201d And mercy is not, as some of the philosophers have imagined, pain on account of others\u2019 calamities, but rather something good, as the prophets say. For it is said, \u201cI will have mercy, and not sacrifice.\u201d 2730 And He 2731 means by the merciful, not only those who do acts of mercy, but those who wish to do them, though they be not able; who do as far as purpose is concerned. For sometimes we wish by the gift of money or by personal effort to do mercy, as to assist one in want, or help one who is sick, or stand by one who is in any emergency; and are not able either from poverty, or disease, or old age (for this also is natural disease), to carry out our purpose, in reference to the things to which we are impelled, being unable to conduct them to the end we wished. Those, who have entertained the wish whose purpose is equal, share in the same honour with those who have the ability, although others have the advantage in point of resources. 2732 And since there are two paths of reaching the perfection of salvation, works and knowledge, He called the \u201cpure in heart blessed, for they shall see God.\u201d 2733 And if we really look to the truth of the matter, knowledge is the purification of the leading faculty of the soul, and is a good activity. Some things accordingly are good in themselves, and others by participation in what is good, as we say good actions are good. But without things intermediate which hold the place of material, neither good nor bad actions are constituted, such I mean as life, and health, and other necessary things or circumstantials. Pure then as respects corporeal lusts, and pure in respect of holy thoughts, he means those are, who attain to the knowledge of God, when the chief faculty of the soul has nothing spurious to stand in the way of its power. When, therefore, he who partakes gnostically of this holy quality devotes himself to contemplation, communing in purity with the divine, he enters more nearly into the state of impassible identity, so as no longer to have science and possess knowledge, but to be science and knowledge.\n\u201cBlessed, then, are the peacemakers,\u201d 2734 who have subdued and tamed the law which wars against the disposition of the mind, the menaces of anger, and the baits of lust, and the other passions which war against the reason; who, having lived in the knowledge both of good works and true reason, shall be reinstated in adoption, which is dearer. It follows that the perfect peacemaking is that which keeps unchanged in all circumstances what is peaceful; calls Providence holy and good; and has its being in the knowledge of divine and human affairs, by which it deems the opposites that are in the world to be the fairest harmony of creation. They also are peacemakers, who teach those who war against the stratagems of sin to have recourse to faith and peace. And it is the sum of all virtue, in my opinion, when the Lord teaches us that for love to God we must gnostically despise death. \u201cBlessed are they,\u201d says He, \u201cwho are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake, for they shall be called the sons of God;\u201d 2735 or, as some of those who transpose the Gospels 2736 say, \u201cBlessed are they who are persecuted by righteousness, for they shall be perfect.\u201d And, \u201cBlessed are they who are persecuted for my sake; for they shall have a place where they shall not be persecuted.\u201d And, \u201cBlessed are ye when men shall hate you, when they shall separate you, when they shall cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man\u2019s sake;\u201d 2737 if we do not detest our persecutors, and undergo punishments at their hands, not hating them under the idea that we have been put to trial more tardily than we looked for; but knowing this also, that every instance of trial is an occasion for testifying.\nPhil. 1:13, 14.\n412:2700 413:2701\n1 Cor. 7:28, 32, 35.\n413:2702 413:2703 413:2704 413:2705\n[Canons Apostolical (so called), li. liii. But see Elucidation I.]\n413:2706\n[Matt. x. 39; John xii. 25. S.]\n414:2707 414:2708 414:2709\n[If love, exerting itself in doing good, overruled the letter of the Sabbatic law, rise to this supremacy of love, which is, of itself, \u201cthe fulfilling of the law.\u201d]\n414:2710 414:2711\n[He regards the estate of marriage and the estate of poverty, as gifts redounding to the benefit of those who accept them as such, and adapt themselves to the same, as stewards.]\n414:2712 414:2713\nIsa. xxix. 13 (\u1f41 \u1f14\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 inserted).\n415:2714 415:2715 415:2716 415:2717 415:2718 415:2719 415:2720 415:2721 415:2722 415:2723\nMatt. 6:32, 33; Luke 12:30, 31.\n415:2724 415:2725 415:2726 415:2727\nTranslated as completed, and amended by Heinsius. In the text it is plainly mutilated and corrupt.\n416:2728 416:2729\n[Clement describes the attrition of the schoolmen (which they say suffices) with the contrition exacted by the Gospel. He knows nothing but the latter, as having promise of the Comforter.]\n416:2730\nHos. vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13, xii. 7.\n416:2731\n[Matt. v. 7. S.]\n416:2732\n[A cheering comment on the widow\u2019s mites, and the apostolic principle of 2 Cor. viii. 12.]\n416:2733\n[Matt. v. 8. S.]\n416:2734\n[Matt. v. 9. S].\n416:2735 416:2736\n[Note that thus in the second century there were those (scholiasts) who interlined and transposed the Gospels, in mss.]\n416:2737","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter V.\u2014On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things.","type":"page"}