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
to make in the knowledge of many. We shall, however, treat of prayer
in due course by and by. But we ought to have works that cry aloud, as
becoming “those who walk in the day.”[693] “Let thy works shine,”[694]
and behold a man and his works before his face. “For behold God and His
works.”[695] For the gnostic must, as far as is possible, imitate God.
And the poets call the elect in their pages godlike and gods, and equal
to the gods, and equal in sagacity to Zeus, and having counsels like
the gods, and resembling the gods,--nibbling, as seems to me, at the
expression, “in the image and likeness.”[696]
Euripides accordingly says, “Golden wings are round my back, and I am
shod with the winged sandals of the Sirens; and I shall go aloft into
the wide ether, to hold converse with Zeus.”
But I shall pray the Spirit of Christ to wing me to my Jerusalem. For
the Stoics say that heaven is properly a city, but places here on earth
are not cities; for they are called so, but are not. For a city is
an important thing, and the people a decorous body, and a multitude
of men regulated by law as the church by the word--a city on earth
impregnable--free from tyranny; a product of the divine will on earth
as in heaven. Images of this city the poets create with their pen. For
the Hyperboreans, and the Arimaspian cities, and the Elysian plains,
are commonwealths of just men. And we know Plato’s city placed as a
pattern in heaven.
BOOK V.
CHAPTER I.
ON FAITH.
Of the gnostic so much has been cursorily, as it were, written. We
proceed now to the sequel, and must again contemplate faith; for there
are some that draw the distinction, that faith has reference to the
Son, and knowledge to the Spirit. But it has escaped their notice
that, in order to believe truly in the Son, we must believe that He
is the Son, and that He came, and how, and for what, and respecting
His passion; and we must know who is the Son of God. Now neither is
knowledge without faith, nor faith without knowledge. Nor is the Father
without the Son; for the Son is with the Father. And the Son is the
true teacher respecting the Father; and that we may believe in the Son,
we must know the Father, with whom also is the Son. Again, in order
that we may know the Father, we must believe in the Son, that it is the
Son of God who teaches; for from faith to knowledge by the Son is the
Father. And the knowledge of the Son and Father, which is according to
the gnostic rule--that which in reality is gnostic--is the attainment
and comprehension of the truth by the truth.
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