{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020367.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020367.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020367.htm","text":"Moreover, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle 2833 Clement also, drawing a picture of the Gnostic, says: 2834 \u201cFor 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;\u201d and so forth.\nThen more clearly: \u201cLet 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.\u201d \u201cFor hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom.\u201d \u201cFor faith and hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved.\u201d \u201cFrom patience and faith they walked about in goat-skins, and sheep-skins, and folds of camels\u2019 hair, proclaiming the kingdom of Christ. We name His prophets Elias, and Eliseus, and Ezekiel, and John.\u201d\n\u201cFor Abraham, who for his free faith was called \u2018the friend of God,\u2019 was not elated by glory, but modestly said, \u2018I am dust and ashes.\u2019 2835 And of Job it is thus written: \u2018Job was just and blameless, true and pious, abstaining from all evil.\u2019\u201d 2836 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, \u201cNo one is pure from defilement, not even if his life were but for one day.\u201d 2837 \u201cMoses, \u2018the servant who was faithful in all his house,\u2019 said to Him who uttered the oracles from the bush, \u2018Who am I, that Thou sendest me? I am slow of speech, and of a stammering tongue,\u2019 to minister the voice of God in human speech. And again: \u2018I am smoke from a pot.\u2019\u201d \u201cFor p. 429 God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.\u201d 2838\n\u201cDavid too, of whom the Lord, testifying, says, \u2018I found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse. With my holy oil I anointed him.\u2019 2839 But he also says to God, \u2018Pity 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.\u2019\u201d 2840 Then, alluding to sin which is not subject to the law, in the exercise of the moderation of true knowledge, he adds, \u201cAgainst Thee only have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight.\u201d 2841 For the Scripture somewhere says, \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is a lamp, searching the recesses of the belly.\u201d 2842 And the more of a Gnostic a man becomes by doing right, the nearer is the illuminating Spirit to him. \u201cThus the Lord draws near to the righteous, and none of the thoughts and reasonings of which we are the authors escape Him\u2014I mean the Lord Jesus,\u201d the scrutinizer by His omnipotent will of our heart, \u201cwhose blood was consecrated 2843 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.\u201d For blessed is he who shall do and teach the Lord\u2019s commands worthily; and he is of a magnanimous mind, and of a mind contemplative of truth. \u201cLet us direct our wives to what is good; let them exhibit,\u201d says he, \u201cthe 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.\u201d\n\u201cNow all those things are confirmed by the faith that is in Christ.\u2018Come, ye children,\u2019 says the Lord, \u2018hearken 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? \u2019 2844 Then He subjoins the gnostic mystery of the numbers seven and eight.\u2018Stop thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.\u2019 2845 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. \u2018The 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.\u2019 2846 \u2018Many are the stripes of sinners; but those who hope in the Lord, mercy shall compass about.\u2019\u201d 2847 \u201cA multitude of mercy,\u201d he nobly says, \u201csurrounds him that trusts in the Lord.\u201d\nFor it is written in the Epistle to the Corinthians, \u201cThrough 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.\u201d And, showing more expressly the peculiar nature of knowledge, he added: \u201cThese 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.\u201d\n[The use of this title is noticeable here, on many accounts, as historic.]\n428:2834\n[See vol. i. p. 5\u201311, et seqq. S.]\n428:2835 428:2836 428:2837 429:2838 429:2839 429:2840 429:2841 429:2842 429:2843\n\u1f21\u03b3\u03b9\u03ac\u03c3\u03b8\u03b7. Clemens Romanus has \u1f10\u03b4\u03cc\u03b8\u03b7. [Vol. i. p. 11, this series.]\n429:2844 429:2845 429:2846 429:2847","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter XVII.\u2014Passages from Clement\u2019s Epistle to the Corinthians on Martyrdom.","type":"page"}