{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020364.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020364.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020364.htm","text":"How great also is benignity! \u201cLove your enemies,\u201d it is said, \u201cbless them who curse you, and pray for them who despitefully use you,\u201d 2809 and the like; to which it is added, \u201cthat ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven,\u201d in allusion to resemblance to God. Again, it is said, \u201cAgree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him.\u201d 2810 The adversary is not the body, as some would have it, but the devil, and those assimilated to him, who walks along with us in the person of men, who emulate his deeds in this earthly life. It is inevitable, then, that those who confess themselves to belong to Christ, but find themselves in the midst of the devil\u2019s works, suffer the most hostile treatment. For it is written, \u201cLest he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officers of Satan\u2019s kingdom.\u201d \u201cFor I am persuaded that neither death,\u201d through the assault of persecutors, \u201cnor life\u201d in this world, \u201cnor angels,\u201d the apostate ones, \u201cnor powers\u201d (and Satan\u2019s power is the life which he chose, for such are the powers and principalities of darkness belonging to him), \u201cnor things present,\u201d amid which we exist during the time of life, as the hope entertained by the soldier, and the merchant\u2019s gain, \u201cnor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,\u201d in consequence of the energy proper to a man,\u2014opposes the faith of him who acts according to free choice. \u201cCreature\u201d is synonymous with activity, being our work, and such activity \u201cshall not be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d 2811 You have got a compendious account of the gnostic martyr.\nMatt. 5:44, 45.\n426:2810 426:2811","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter XIV.\u2014The Love of All, Even of Our Enemies.","type":"page"}