Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Faith, then, in the knowledge of God is the first thing; and, joined with the Savior's teaching, the conviction that one must in no way act unjustly — this is what befits our thinking to be proper to the knowledge of God. By this measure the most excellent being on earth is the most God-fearing man, and the most excellent in heaven is the angel, who by nearness of place already partakes more purely of the eternal and blessed life. But most perfect and most holy and most sovereign and most ruling and most kingly and most beneficent of all stands the essence of the Son, closest of every being to the one and only Almighty. This is the greatest preeminence, which orders all things according to the will of the Father and steers the universe in the best way, working all things by a power unwearied and untiring, through which it exercises oversight, beholding even the hidden thoughts. For the Son of God never departs from his own watch-post, neither being divided nor cut off nor passing from place to place, but being everywhere always and contained nowhere, wholly mind, wholly the Father's light, wholly eye — seeing all things, hearing all things, knowing all things, searching out the powers by his power. To him is subject the whole host of angels and of gods, to the Word who is the Father's own and who has taken up the holy stewardship "on account of him who subjected it," through whom also all men belong to him. But some belong to him "according to knowledge," others not yet; and some as friends, others as faithful servants, and others simply as servants.
This teacher is the one who instructs the gnostic in mysteries.
and the believer in good hopes, and the hardhearted through corrective discipline by way of perceptible action. From this comes providence, both private and public and everywhere. That he is the Son of God, and that this is the Savior and Lord whom we proclaim, the divine prophecies plainly set forth. So it is that the Master over everyone, Greek and foreigner alike, wins over those who consent freely; he forces no one, though able to grant deliverance to whoever is willing, but acts through free choosing, and on his own side completes everything toward the one capable of grasping hold of that hope. This is he who gave philosophy also to the Greeks through the lesser angels; for angels have been apportioned by divine and ancient ordinance according to the nations. But "the Lord's own portion" is the glory of those who believe. For it must be that the Master is indifferent toward humanity as a whole — and that would follow either from powerlessness, an idea one cannot properly voice, since it marks weakness, or from a refusal despite having the power, which is foreign to a good nature (nor is he slack through self-indulgence, seeing he took on flesh capable of suffering for our sake) — or, as fits one who has become Ruler over everyone, he tends to all alike. For he is Savior, not of some and not of others; but according to the fitness each one possessed, he apportioned his own beneficence, to Greeks and to barbarians and to those among them foreordained, but called in their own proper time, both faithful and elect.
Never, then, could he who has called all equally, yet has apportioned special honors to those who have believed in a special way, be envious toward any. Nor could the Lord of all ever be hindered by another, especially since above all he carries out the purpose of the Father, who is good and all-powerful. But envy does not touch the Lord, who is without passion and has come to be without beginning. Nor indeed are the affairs of men such as to be objects of envy on the Lord's part; the one who envies is a different sort, one whom passion has touched. And surely one cannot say that the Lord is unwilling to save mankind through ignorance, as though he did not know what care is owed to each. For ignorance never touches the Son, who was made counselor to the Father before the world's foundation. This was the wisdom "in" which the all-powerful God "took delight"; for the Son is "God's" own "might," existing, as prior to everything that came into being, the Father's most originative Word, and might properly be called his "wisdom" and also the teacher of those fashioned through him. Nor indeed, being drawn aside by any pleasure, would he ever abandon his care for mankind, he who even took up the flesh that had become subject to passion by nature and trained it into a condition of freedom from passion. And how could he be Savior and Lord, if not Savior and Lord of all? But he is Savior of those who have believed, because he willed to know them, and Lord of those who have disobeyed, until, becoming able to make confession, they attain the fitting and corresponding benefit that comes through him. And the entire operation of the Lord is directed back toward the All-Powerful One, the Son being, one might say, a kind of activity belonging to the Father.
The Savior, then, could never be a hater of mankind, he who, on account of his surpassing love for man, did not disdain the frailty of human flesh, but clothed himself in it, and arrived to bring deliverance shared by mankind alike; for trust in it is open equally to whoever chooses it. Nor could he ever neglect his own work, since to man alone among the other living creatures understanding has been implanted by God at creation. Nor could any other government of men be better or more harmonious for God than the one that has been ordained. For it befits that by nature the better should always lead the worse, and that the government of the latter be entrusted to the one able to administer it well. And that which truly rules and governs is the divine Word and his providence, overseeing all things, yet passing over none of its own concerns in its care. These would be those who have chosen to be his own — those brought to perfection through faith. Thus, through the purpose of the all-powerful Father, the Son stands established as cause of every good thing, the first-working power of motion, ungraspable by sense. For it was not what he was that appeared to those unable to receive it because of the weakness of the flesh; but taking up a perceptible flesh, he came to show what is possible for men according to obedience to the commandments.
Being, then, a paternal power, he easily prevails over whatever he wills.
leaving not even the smallest part of his own governance uncared for; for otherwise the whole would no longer be well accomplished by him. And it belongs, I think, to the greatest power that the exact examination of all the parts, extending even to the smallest, should look to the first administrator of the whole, who by the Father's will governs the salvation of all, with some set in order and ruled under others, until one arrives at the great high priest. For from one origin above, working according to the will, hang the first and second and third ranks; then at the end of what is manifest, at the summit, comes the blessed order of angels, and so on down even to ourselves, others under others being arranged, saved and saving from one and through one. Just as a very long chain of iron is moved together by the power of the Heraclean stone, extended through many iron rings, so also, drawn by the Holy Spirit, the virtuous are made kin to the first abode, and others in succession down to the last, while those who are bad through weakness, having fallen into ill condition through unjust insatiableness, neither holding nor being held, slip down entangled in their passions and fall to the ground. For this is a law from above, that whoever wishes may choose virtue.
Wherefore also the commandments, both those under the law and those before the law, since they were not for the lawless ("for law is not laid down for the righteous man"), ordained that the one who chose eternal and blessed life should receive it as a prize, while they permitted the one who took pleasure in wickedness to abide with what he had chosen; and again, that the soul continually being improved should receive, for its increasing knowledge of virtue and righteousness, a better rank in the whole, "stretching forward" with each advance toward a condition free from passion, until it "arrives at the perfect man," the preeminence of knowledge together with inheritance. These saving revolutions are apportioned according to the order of transformation, both by times and places and honors and knowledges and inheritances and ministries, each in its turn, until it reaches the higher and closer contemplation of the Lord in eternity. And what draws one toward this contemplation is the object of love itself, for everyone who has given himself wholly over to the love of knowledge in contemplation.
Wherefore also the commandments, both the earlier and the later, which the Lord gave, drawing from one single source, neither disregarded as lawless those who lived before the law, nor allowed those who had no share in barbarian philosophy to be left unbridled. For to some he gave commandments, to others philosophy, and thus he "shut up" unbelief until his coming, so that everyone who has not believed is without excuse. For he leads, by each of the two paths of advancement, the Greek and the barbarian, toward the perfection that comes through faith. But if any Greek, passing beyond the leading part of Greek philosophy, set out at once toward the true teaching, this man has outthrown the mark, even if he be an ordinary person, having chosen the short way of salvation through faith unto perfection.
All things, then, which in no way prevented man's choice from being voluntary, he made and showed to be helpers toward virtue, so that in some manner, even to those able to see but dimly, the one who is truly the sole almighty good God might be revealed, saving from age to age through the Son, yet in every way wholly blameless of evil. For toward the salvation of the whole, all things have been ordained by the Lord of all, both universally and in particular. It is, then, the work of saving righteousness always to lead each thing forward to the better, as far as is possible for it. For toward the preservation and continuance of the better, even the lesser things are administered in proportion to their own characters. At once everything virtuous changes into better dwellings, having as the cause of its transformation the choice of knowledge, which the soul possessed as its own sovereign power. And the necessary disciplines, through the goodness of the great Judge who oversees all, both by means of the attendant angels and by various preliminary judgments and by the judgment that is complete, compel those who have become too callous to repent.
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