Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Such men, according to David, will find rest on the holy mountain of God, in the highest church, in which the philosophers of God are gathered together—those who are truly Israelites, clean of heart, having no trace of deceit within them, who have not stayed resting on the seventh day, but through the good work of divine assimilation have ascended beyond it to the inheritance of eighth-day blessedness, clinging in pure contemplation to a vision that cannot be sated. "And I have other sheep too," says the Lord, "not belonging to this flock," judged worthy, according to the measure of their faith, of a different flock and dwelling. "But my sheep hear my voice," understanding the commandments gnostically; that is, receiving them with a great and worthy mind, together with the requital and consequence that follows upon deeds. So that when we hear, "Your faith has saved you," we do not understand him to mean simply that those who have believed in whatever manner will be saved, unless works also follow. Indeed he spoke this saying to Jews alone, to those who had lived lawfully and blamelessly, to whom only faith in the Lord remained lacking.
One could not, then, be faithful together with intemperance; rather, even if he does not depart the flesh, he must lay aside the passions, so as to be able to pass into his own proper abode. Now knowing is more than believing, just as, after being saved, being deemed worthy of the highest honor is more than the mere being saved. Through much discipline, then, the faithful man among us, having stripped off the passions, passes on to the better abode in place of the former one, bearing as his greatest punishment the peculiar mark of repentance for the sins he committed after baptism. He is grieved, indeed, all the more, either at not yet obtaining, or at not obtaining at all, what he sees others have received. And besides, he is ashamed of his transgressions, which are indeed the greatest punishments for the faithful man. For the righteousness of God is a good thing, and what is good in him is just. And even should the punishments cease at some point, upon the completion of the atonement and each one's purification, those found worthy of the other fold still retain the greatest abiding grief—that of not being together with those glorified for righteousness.
Thus Solomon, calling the gnostic wise, says the following concerning those who marvel at the dignity of his abode: "For they will see the end of the wise man and not understand what the Lord planned concerning him and for what he made him secure; and concerning his glory they will say: this is he whom we once held in derision and as a byword of reproach—we fools; we counted his life sheer folly and his death without honor; how then has he come to be numbered among God's children, and his portion set among the holy ones?" Not only the faithful man, then, but the pagan too is judged most justly. For since God, knowing beforehand, was aware that this man would not believe, still, so that he might reach the fulfillment proper to himself, granted him philosophy—prior to faith—and set the sun, moon, and stars before him for worship, "which God made for the nations," says the law, "that they might not, becoming utterly godless, be utterly destroyed as well." But those who were ungrateful even in this commandment, having devoted themselves to carved images, are judged, unless they repent—some, because though able they were unwilling to believe God; others, because though willing they did not labor to attain to being faithful;
and indeed those too who, from the veneration of the stars, did not run back up to their Maker. For this was a way given to the nations, to look up toward God through the worship of the stars. But those who were unwilling to remain even upon these, the stars given to them, but fell away even from these to stones and wood, "were reckoned," it says, "as dust, and as a drop from a bucket"—superfluous unto salvation, cast off from the body. Just as, then, simply being saved belongs to the middling things, while doing so rightly and fittingly is an achievement, so too every action of the gnostic is an achievement, while the action of the simply faithful man might be called a middling action, not yet performed according to reason nor indeed rightly done with understanding, yet altogether the reverse of the sinning way of the pagan; for it is not the mere doing of good, but the directing of one's actions toward a defined goal and the acting in step with reason, which the scriptures put forward as proper.
Just as, then, the lyre must not be touched by those unskilled in playing the lyre, nor the flute by those unskilled in flute-playing, so too matters must not be touched by those who have not received knowledge and do not know how they are to be used throughout the whole of life. Indeed, the contest for freedom is fought not only in wars by the athletes of war, but also at banquets and on the couch and in the courts, by those anointed by reason, ashamed to become captives of pleasure: "never will I exchange virtue for unjust gain." And unjust gain, plainly, is pleasure and pain, and desire and fear, and, to sum it up, the passions of the soul, whose immediate delight is painful in what follows. "For what profit is it," it says, "if you gain the world but lose your soul?" So it becomes evident that whoever fails to carry out good deeds does not even grasp what is truly to their own advantage. And if this is so, such men are not even able to ask rightly of God to receive good things, being ignorant of the things that are truly good; nor, even if they received them, would they perceive the gift, nor would they enjoy in any worthy measure that which they did not know—through both inexperience in using well what has been given and through excessive ignorance, not yet knowing how the divine gifts are to be used. And ignorance is the cause of not-knowing.
And it seems to me the boast of a vainglorious soul—except when well-grounded in conscience—to declaim over the things that happen by circumstance: "against these let him contrive whatever he must; for the good, together with me, and justice, will be my ally, and never shall I be caught, doing what is right." And this good conscience preserves both holiness toward God and justice toward men, keeping the soul pure by dignified thoughts and chaste words and righteous deeds. Thus having received the Lord's power, the soul practices being god, counting nothing evil but ignorance and deeds out of step with right reason, and offering gratitude continually, for every circumstance, to God, through upright listening and sacred reading, through honest search, through consecrated offering, through blessed prayer—praising, hymning, blessing, chanting psalms. Such a soul is at no moment ever cut off from God. Fittingly, then, it has been said: "And those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love." You see what things wisdom discusses concerning the gnostics.
Correspondingly, then, the dwellings too differ according to the merit of those who have come to believe. So Solomon: "For there will be given to him the elect gift of faith, and a lot more pleasant within the sanctuary of the Lord." Here the comparative degree points to the lesser things situated inside God's sanctuary, which is the church entire, while leaving room to conceive also a superlative, where the Lord himself dwells. These three dwellings, being the elect ones, are signified by the numbers found in the gospel—thirty, sixty, and a hundred. And the complete inheritance belongs to whoever, growing to full maturity, comes to bear the Lord's own image; and this likeness (ὁμοίωσις) is not, as some imagine, a likeness of bodily shape (for this notion is godless), nor indeed likeness in virtue with reference to the first cause—for this account too is impious, expecting that man's virtue and that of the almighty God are the same. "You supposed, lawlessness," it says, "that I would be like you"; but it is enough for the disciple to become as the teacher, says the teacher. According to the likeness of God, then, he who is enrolled unto adoption and friendship with God becomes, in the joint inheritance of the lords and gods, a fellow heir—if, as the Lord himself taught, he is made perfect according to the gospel.
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