Shepherd of Hermas Vision Second Happy ye who endure the great tribulation that is coming on, and happy they who shall not deny their own life.[13] Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book III "Qui autem, inquiunt, non oderit patrem, vel matrem, vel uxorem, vel filios, non potest meus esse discipulus."[180] Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book VII He knows accurately the declaration, "Unless ye hate father and mother, and besides your own life, and unless ye bear the sign [of the cross]."[124] Clement of Alexandria Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved? But let neither this trouble you, nor the still harder saying delivered in another place in the words, "Whoso hateth not father, and mother, and children, and his own life besides, cannot be My disciple."[28] Tertullian On Idolatry . Parents, wives, children, will have to be left behind, for God's sake.[86] Tertullian Scorpiace In the same manner, therefore, we maintain that the other announcements too refer to the condition of martyrdom. "He," says Jesus, "who will value his own life also more than me, is not worthy of me,"[72] Origen Commentary on Matthew Book XIII But even if the wife of our bosom, or a friend who is kindred in soul, become stumbling-blocks to us, let us not spare them, but let us cut them out from ourselves, and cast them outside of our soul, as not being truly our kindred but enemies of our salvation; for "whosoever hates not his father, and mother,"[150]