The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Religion
The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
Let us haste, let us run, my fellow-men--us, who are God-loving and
God-like images of the Word. Let us haste, let us run, let us take His
yoke, let us receive, to conduct us to immortality, the good charioteer
of men. Let us love Christ. He led the colt with its parent; and
having yoked the team of humanity to God, directs His chariot to
immortality, hastening clearly to fulfil, by driving now into heaven,
what He shadowed forth before by riding into Jerusalem. A spectacle
most beautiful to the Father is the eternal Son crowned with victory.
Let us aspire, then, after what is good; let us become God-loving men,
and obtain the greatest of all things which are incapable of being
harmed--God and life. Our helper is the Word; let us put confidence
in Him; and never let us be visited with such a craving for silver
and gold, and glory, as for the Word of truth Himself. For it will
not, it will not be pleasing to God Himself if we value least those
things which are worth most, and hold in the highest estimation the
manifest enormities and the utter impiety of folly, and ignorance,
and thoughtlessness, and idolatry. For not improperly the sons of the
philosophers consider that the foolish are guilty of profanity and
impiety in whatever they do; and describing ignorance itself as a
species of madness, allege that the multitude are nothing but madmen.
There is therefore no room to doubt, the Word will say, whether it
is better to be sane or insane; but holding on to truth with our
teeth, we must with all our might follow God, and in the exercise of
wisdom regard all things to be, as they are, His; and besides, having
learned that we are the most excellent of His possessions, let us
commit ourselves to God, loving the Lord God, and regarding this as
our business all our life long. And if what belongs to friends be
reckoned common property, and man be the friend of God--for through
the mediation of the Word has he been made the friend of God--then
accordingly all things become man’s, because all things are God’s, and
the common property of both the friends, God and man.
It is time, then, for us to say that the pious Christian alone is rich
and wise, and of noble birth, and thus call and believe him to be God’s
image, and also His likeness,[157] having become righteous and holy
and wise by Jesus Christ, and so far already like God. Accordingly
this grace is indicated by the prophet, when he says, “I said that ye
are gods, and all sons of the Highest.”[158] For us, yea us, He has
adopted, and wishes to be called the Father of us alone, not of the
unbelieving. Such is then our position who are the attendants of Christ.
“As are men’s wishes, so are their words;
As are their words, so are their deeds;
And as their works, such is their life.”
Good is the whole life of those who have known Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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