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
And Metrodorus, though an Epicurean, spoke thus, divinely inspired:
“Remember, O Menestratus, that, being a mortal endowed with a
circumscribed life, thou hast in thy soul ascended, till thou hast
seen endless time, and the infinity of things; and what is to be, and
what has been;” when with the blessed choir, according to Plato, we
shall gaze on the blessed sight and vision; we following with Zeus, and
others with other deities, if we may be permitted so to say, to receive
initiation into the most blessed mystery: which we shall celebrate,
ourselves being perfect and untroubled by the ills which awaited us at
the end of our time; and introduced to the knowledge of perfect and
tranquil visions, and contemplating them in pure sunlight; we ourselves
pure, and now no longer distinguished by that, which, when carrying it
about, we call the body, being bound to it like an oyster to its shell.
The Pythagoreans call heaven the Antichthon [the opposite Earth].
And in this land, it is said by Jeremiah, “I will place thee among
the children, and give thee the chosen land as inheritance of God
Omnipotent;”[906] and they who inherit it shall reign over the earth.
Myriads on myriads of examples rush on my mind which I might adduce.
But for the sake of symmetry the discourse must now stop, in order
that we may not exemplify the saying of Agatho the tragedian:
“Treating our by-work as work,
And doing our work as by-work.”
It having been, then, as I think, clearly shown in what way it is to be
understood that the Greeks were called thieves by the Lord, I willingly
leave the dogmas of the philosophers. For were we to go over their
sayings, we should gather together directly such a quantity of notes,
in showing that the whole of the Hellenic wisdom was derived from the
Barbarian philosophy. But this speculation, we shall, nevertheless,
again touch on, as necessity requires, when we collect the opinions
current among the Greeks respecting first principles.
But from what has been said, it tacitly devolves on us to consider in
what way the Hellenic books are to be perused by the man who is able to
pass through the billows in them. Therefore
“Happy is he who possesses the wealth of the divine mind,”
as appears according to Empedocles:
“But wretched he, who cares for dark opinion about the gods.”
He divinely showed knowledge and ignorance to be the boundaries of
happiness and misery. “For it behoves philosophers to be acquainted
with very many things,” according to Heraclitus; and truly must
“He, who seeks to be good, err in many things.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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