Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
For they do not attach themselves to the very nature of the matter so as to grasp with true knowledge that all things created for our use are good — marriage, for instance, and the begetting of children, undertaken with self-control — but that it is better than the good to become, through likeness to the divine, free from passion and virtuous. Instead, being drawn by things outside that are either useful or troublesome, they abstain from some and not from others; but the very things from which they hold back they show themselves to loathe, thereby slandering creation and the Creator, and even while seeming to conduct themselves faithfully they hold an unholy judgment. But the command "you shall not desire" needs neither the compulsion born of fear, which forces abstention from pleasures, nor a wage held out by promise persuading one to check the impulses; nor is obedience for the sake of the commandment. But those who have obeyed God for the sake of a promise choose it on account of the promise, having been taken by the bait of pleasure,
nor indeed would turning away from things perceived by sense in itself bring about kinship with things perceived by mind; rather, conversely, it is the kinship with things perceived by mind that becomes, according to nature, a turning-about for the one with knowledge, away from things of sense, by his choosing the good in accordance with the selection of what is noble, knowingly — marveling at creation and hallowing its Maker, and hallowing likeness to the divine. "But I will free myself from desire," he will say, "for the sake of my kinship with you, Lord. For the order that has been created is good, and all things are well governed, nothing comes to be without cause; I must be among your own, Almighty; even while I am here, I am beside you; I wish to be delivered from every fear, so that I may draw close to you, and to be satisfied with little, practicing your just selection of the noble things from among things alike."
Most mystically and most reverently the apostle, teaching us the truly grateful choice, has shown that it is made not by a rejection of the other things as base, but as a better choice among things already noble, when he said: "So then he who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage does better," with a view to what is seemly and to sitting attentively by the Lord without distraction. We know that things hard to obtain are not necessary, while the necessary things have been made, out of God's love of the good, easy to obtain. For this reason Democritus says well that nature and teaching are much alike, and he has briefly given the reason as well: for teaching reshapes the man, and reshaping produces a second nature, and it makes no difference whether one is molded to be of such a kind by nature, or transformed in due course by time and learning. Both of these the Lord has furnished — the one according to creation, the other according to the re-creation and renewal that come through the covenant. And that which is advantageous to the more sovereign part is the more choiceworthy, and most sovereign of all is the understanding. Whoever, then, finds the things that are truly noble to be sweetest, procures for himself from his own resources the fruit he longs for — steadfastness of soul. "And he who listens to me," it says, "shall rest in peace, trusting, and shall be at ease without fear of any evil." "Know that you trust with your whole heart and your understanding in God." By this manner it is possible for the one with knowledge already to become god: "I said, you are gods, and sons of the Most High."
Empedocles likewise claims that wise souls are transformed into gods, putting it in words something like these: "and at the last they become seers and singers of hymns and healers and leaders among men who dwell upon the earth; from these they spring up as gods, greatest in honors."
The human being, then, is simply thus molded in outward form by the kindred spirit; for he is not fashioned without shape or figure in the workshop of nature, where the coming-to-be of man is mysteriously brought to completion, the craft and the substance being common to all; but any particular man is stamped according to the impression that comes to be in his soul from whatever he chooses. In this way we say that Adam was made perfect as regards his molding, for nothing was lacking to him of the features that mark out the form and shape of a human being. But that which he was to receive in his becoming — his perfection — and by which he was to be justified through obedience, this was the part left to be made manly, lying within his own power. And when it was he who chose the cause, and still more when he chose the very thing forbidden, God is not to blame; for coming-to-be is twofold, one belonging to things begotten, the other to things that come about.
And the courage proper to man, being one who has passions, they say, makes the one who partakes of it, in respect of its essence, fearless and unconquered, and spiritedness stands as the bodyguard of the mind in endurance and steadfastness and things of that kind; while over desire are set self-control and saving prudence. But God is without passion, without spiritedness, and without desire; and he is not fearless in the sense that he does not avoid terrors, nor self-controlled in the sense that he rules over desires; for the divine nature could not fall into anything terrible, nor does God flee cowardice, just as he will not feel desire, so as then to rule over desire. Mysteriously, then, it was also said of us, in the Pythagorean saying, that man too must become one, since the chief priest is himself singular, God likewise being one according to his unchangeable disposition of ever running toward the good.
Straightway the Savior, along with desire, did away also with spiritedness, which is a desire for revenge; for in general the passionate element belongs to every kind of desire, and the man deified into freedom from passion becomes, without stain, a thing of one nature. Just as those at sea who are held taut by an anchor draw up the anchor, yet do not draw it to themselves but rather draw themselves toward the anchor, so those who in the life of knowledge draw God to themselves, without realizing it, are themselves being drawn toward God; for he who serves God serves himself. In the contemplative life, then, a man takes care of himself by worshiping God, and through his own sincere purification beholds God, who is holy, in holiness; for self-control, conceived as standing ever present, watching over and beholding itself without ceasing, is made like to God, so far as is possible.
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