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
man can serve two masters, God and Mammon?”--the Lord so terming the
love of money. For instance, the covetous, who were invited, responded
not to the invitation to the supper, not because of their possessing
property, but of their inordinate affection to what they possessed.
“The foxes,” then, have holes. He called those evil and earthly men who
are occupied about the wealth which is mined and dug from the ground,
foxes. Thus also, in reference to Herod: “Go, tell that fox, Behold,
I cast out devils, and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the
third day I shall be perfected.”[507] For He applied the name “fowls
of the air” to those who were distinct from the other birds--those
really pure, those that have the power of flying to the knowledge of
the heavenly Word. For not riches only, but also honour, and marriage,
and poverty, have ten thousand cares for him who is unfit for them.
And those cares He indicated in the parable of the fourfold seed,
when He said that “the seed of the word which fell unto the thorns”
and hedges was choked by them, and could not bring forth fruit. It is
therefore necessary to learn how to make use of every occurrence, so
as by a good life, according to knowledge, to be trained for the state
of eternal life. For it said, “I saw the wicked exalted and towering
as the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed,” says the Scripture, “and,
lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. Keep
innocence, and look on uprightness: for there is a remnant to the man
of peace.”[508] Such will he be who believes unfeignedly with his whole
heart, and is tranquil in his whole soul. “For the different people
honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from the Lord.”[509]
“They bless with their mouth, but they curse in their heart.”[510]
“They loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue;
but their heart was not right with Him, and they were not faithful
to His covenant.” Wherefore “let the false lips become speechless,
and let the Lord destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall
magnify our tongue, and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For
the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I
arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak out in
his case.”[511] For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do
not exalt themselves against His flock. “Lay not up for yourselves,
therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and
thieves break through and steal,”[512] says the Lord, in reproach
perchance of the covetous, and perchance also of those who are simply
anxious and full of cares, and those too who indulge their bodies. For
amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts “break through” the mind and
the whole man. But our true “treasure” is where what is allied to our
mind is, since it bestows the communicative power of righteousness,
showing that we must assign to the habit of our old conversation what
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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