The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Religion
The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
said, “God talked with Moses as a friend with a friend.”[485] That,
then, which is true being clear to God, forthwith generates truth.
And the gnostic loves the truth. “Go,” it is said, “to the ant, thou
sluggard, and be the disciple of the bee;” thus speaks Solomon.[486]
For if there is one function belonging to the peculiar nature of each
creature, alike of the ox, and horse, and dog, what shall we say is the
peculiar function of man? He is like, it appears to me, the Centaur, a
Thessalian figment, compounded of a rational and irrational part, of
soul and body. Well, the body tills the ground, and hastes to it; but
the soul is raised to God: trained in the true philosophy, it speeds
to its kindred above, turning away from the lusts of the body, and
besides these, from toil and fear, although we have shown that patience
and fear belong to the good man. For if “by the law is the knowledge
of sin,”[487] as those allege who disparage the law, and “till the law
sin was in the world;”[488] yet “without the law sin was dead,”[489] we
oppose them. For when you take away the cause of fear, sin, you have
taken away fear; and much more, punishment, when you have taken away
that which gives rise to lust. “For the law is not made for the just
man,”[490] says the Scripture. Well, then, says Heraclitus, “They would
not have known the name of Justice if these things had not been.” And
Socrates says, “that the law was not made for the sake of the good.”
But the cavillers did not know even this, as the apostle says, “that
he who loveth his brother worketh not evil;” for this, “Thou shalt not
kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal; and if
there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in the word, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”[491] So also is it said, “Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself.”[492] And “if he that loveth his neighbour
worketh no evil,” and if “every commandment is comprehended in this,
the loving our neighbour,” the commandments, by menacing with fear,
work love, not hatred. Wherefore the law is productive of the emotion
of fear. “So that the law is holy,” and in truth “spiritual,”[493]
according to the apostle. We must, then, as is fit, in investigating
the nature of the body and the essence of the soul, apprehend the
end of each, and not regard death as an evil. “For when ye were the
servants of sin,” says the apostle, “ye were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things in which ye are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from
sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[494] The
assertion, then, may be hazarded, that it has been shown that death
is the fellowship of the soul in a state of sin with the body; and
life the separation from sin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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