{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020377.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020377.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020377.htm","text":"For he who hopes, as he who believes, sees intellectual objects and future things with the mind. If, then, we affirm that aught is just, and affirm it to be good, and we also say that truth is something, yet we have never seen any of such objects with our eyes, but with our mind alone. Now the Word of God says, \u201cI am the truth.\u201d 2976 The Word is then to be contemplated by the mind. \u201cDo you aver,\u201d it was said, 2977 \u201cthat there are any true philosophers?\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d said I, \u201cthose who love to contemplate the truth.\u201d In the Ph\u0153drus also, Plato, speaking of the truth, shows it as an idea. Now an idea is a conception of God; and this the barbarians have termed the Word of God. The words are as follow: \u201cFor one must then dare to speak the truth, especially in speaking of the truth. For the essence of the soul, being colourless, formless, and intangible, is visible only to God, 2978 its guide.\u201d Now the Word issuing forth was the cause of creation; then also he generated himself, \u201cwhen the Word had become flesh,\u201d 2979 that He might be seen. The righteous man will seek the discovery that flows from love, to which if he hastes he prospers. For it is said, \u201cTo him that knocketh, it shall be opened: ask, and it shall be given to you.\u201d 2980 \u201cFor the violent that storm the kingdom\u201d 2981 are not so in disputatious speeches; but by continuance in a right life and unceasing prayers, are said \u201cto take it by force,\u201d wiping away the blots left by their previous sins.\n \u201cYou may obtain wickedness, even in great abundance.\u00a02982\n \nAnd him who toils God helps;\nFor the gifts of the Muses, hard to win,\nLie not before you, for any one to bear away.\u201d\nThe knowledge of ignorance is, then, the first lesson in walking according to the Word. An ignorant man has sought, and having sought, he finds the teacher; and finding has believed, and believing has hoped; and henceforward having loved, is assimilated to what was loved\u2014endeavouring to be what he first loved. Such is the method Socrates shows Alcibiades, who thus questions: \u201cDo you not think that I shall know about what is right otherwise?\u201d \u201cYes, if you have found out.\u201d \u201cBut you don\u2019t think I have found out?\u201d \u201cCertainly, if you have sought.\u201d\n\u201cThen you don\u2019t think that I have sought?\u201d \u201cYes, if you think you do not know.\u201d 2983 So with the lamps of the wise virgins, lighted at night in the great darkness of ignorance, which the Scripture signified by \u201cnight.\u201d Wise souls, pure as virgins, understanding themselves to be situated amidst the ignorance of the world, kindle the light, and rouse the mind, and illumine the darkness, and dispel ignorance, and seek truth, and await the appearance of the Teacher.\n \u201cThe mob, then,\u201d said I, \u201ccannot become philosopher.\u201d\u00a02984\n \n\u201cMany rod-bearers there are, but few Bacchi,\u201d according to Plato. \u201cFor many are called, but few chosen.\u201d 2985 \u201cKnowledge is not in all,\u201d 2986 says the apostle. \u201cAnd pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.\u201d 2987 And the Poetics of Cleanthes, the Stoic, writes to the following effect:\u2014\n \u201cLook not to glory, wishing to be suddenly wise,\nAnd fear not the undiscerning and rash opinion of the many;\nFor the multitude has not an intelligent, or wise, or right judgment,\nAnd it is in few men that you will find this.\u201d 2988\nAnd more sententiously the comic poet briefly says:\u2014\n \u201cIt is a shame to judge of what is right by much noise.\u201d\nFor they heard, I think, that excellent wisdom, which says to us, \u201cWatch your opportunity in the midst of the foolish, and in the midst of the intelligent continue.\u201d 2989 And again, \u201cThe wise will conceal sense.\u201d 2990 For the many demand demonstration as a pledge of truth, not satisfied with the bare salvation by faith.\n \u201cBut it is strongly incumbent to disbelieve the dominant wicked,\nAnd as is enjoined by the assurance of our muse,\nKnow by dissecting the utterance within your breast.\u201d\n\u201cFor this is habitual to the wicked,\u201d says Empedocles, \u201cto wish to overbear what is true by disbelieving it.\u201d And that our tenets are probable and worthy of belief, the Greeks shall know, the point being more thoroughly investigated in what follows. For we are taught what is like by what is like. For says Solomon, \u201cAnswer a fool according to his folly.\u201d 2991 Wherefore also, to those that ask the wisdom that is with us, we are to hold out things suitable, that with the greatest possible ease they may, through their own ideas, be likely to arrive at faith in the truth. For \u201cI p. 449 became all things to all men, that I might gain all men.\u201d 2992 Since also \u201cthe rain\u201d of the divine grace is sent down \u201con the just and the unjust.\u201d 2993 \u201cIs He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles? Yes, also of the Gentiles: if indeed He is one God,\u201d 2994 exclaims the noble apostle.\nIn Plato we have \u03bd\u1ff7 instead of \u0398\u03b5\u1ff7.\n448:2979 448:2980 448:2981 448:2982\nHesiod, first line, Works and Days, 285. The other three are variously ascribed to different authors.\n448:2983 448:2984 448:2985 448:2986 448:2987 448:2988\nQuoted by Socrates in the Ph\u00e6do, p. 52.\n448:2989 448:2990 448:2991 449:2992 449:2993 449:2994","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter III.\u2014The Objects of Faith and Hope Perceived by the Mind Alone.","type":"page"}