Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"p-left\">The soul is not then sent down from heaven to what\r\nis worse. For God works all things up to what is better. But the\r\nsoul which has chosen the best life—the life that is from God and\r\nrighteousness—exchanges earth for heaven. With reason therefore, Job,\r\nwho had attained to knowledge, said, “Now I know that Thou canst do all\r\nthings; and nothing is impossible to Thee. For who tells me of what I\r\nknow not,<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_218\">[218]</span> great and wonderful things with which I was unacquainted?\r\nAnd I felt myself vile, considering myself to be earth and ashes.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_683\" id=\"FNanchor_683\">[683]</a>\r\nFor he who, being in a state of ignorance, is sinful, “is earth and\r\nashes;” while he who is in a state of knowledge, being assimilated as\r\nfar as possible to God, is already spiritual, and so elect. And that\r\nScripture calls the senseless and disobedient “earth,” will be made\r\nclear by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, in reference to Joachim and his\r\nbrethren, “Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord; Write this man,\r\nas man excommunicated.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_684\" id=\"FNanchor_684\">[684]</a> And another prophet says again, “Hear, O\r\nheaven; and give ear, O earth,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_685\" id=\"FNanchor_685\">[685]</a> calling understanding “ear,” and\r\nthe soul of the Gnostic, that of the man who has applied himself to the\r\ncontemplation of heaven and divine things, and in this way has become\r\nan Israelite, “heaven.” For again he calls him who has made ignorance\r\nand hardness of heart his choice, “earth.” And the expression “give\r\near” he derives from the “organs of hearing,” “the ears,” attributing\r\ncarnal things to those who cleave to the things of sense. Such are they\r\nof whom Micah the prophet says, “Hear the word of the Lord, ye peoples\r\nwho dwell with pangs.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_686\" id=\"FNanchor_686\">[686]</a> And Abraham said, “By no means. The Lord\r\nis He who judgeth the earth;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_687\" id=\"FNanchor_687\">[687]</a> “since he that believeth not, is,”\r\naccording to the utterance of the Saviour, “condemned already.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_688\" id=\"FNanchor_688\">[688]</a>\r\nAnd there is written in the Kings<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_689\" id=\"FNanchor_689\">[689]</a> the judgment and sentence of\r\nthe Lord, which stands thus: “The Lord hears the righteous, but the\r\nwicked He saveth not, because they do not desire to know God.” For the\r\nAlmighty will not accomplish what is absurd. What do the heresies say\r\nto this utterance, seeing Scripture proclaims the Almighty God to be\r\ngood, and not the author of evil and wrong, if indeed ignorance arises\r\nfrom one not knowing? But God does nothing absurd. “For this God,” it\r\nis said, “is our God, and there is none to save besides Him.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_690\" id=\"FNanchor_690\">[690]</a>\r\n“For there is no unrighteousness with God,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_691\" id=\"FNanchor_691\">[691]</a> according to the<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_219\">[219]</span>\r\napostle. And clearly yet the prophet teaches the will of God, and the\r\ngnostic proficiency, in these words: “And now, Israel, what doth the\r\nLord God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and walk in all\r\nHis ways, and love Him, and serve Him alone?”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_692\" id=\"FNanchor_692\">[692]</a> He asks of thee,\r\nwho hast the power of choosing salvation. What is it, then, that the\r\nPythagoreans mean when they bid us “pray with the voice?” As seems to\r\nme, not that they thought the Divinity could not hear those who speak\r\nsilently, but because they wished prayers to be right, which no one\r\nwould be ashamed to make in the knowledge of many. We shall, however,\r\ntreat of prayer in due course by and by. But we ought to have works\r\nthat cry aloud, as becoming “those who walk in the day.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_693\" id=\"FNanchor_693\">[693]</a> “Let thy\r\nworks shine,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_694\" id=\"FNanchor_694\">[694]</a> and behold a man and his works before his face.\r\n“For behold God and His works.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_695\" id=\"FNanchor_695\">[695]</a> For the gnostic must, as far as\r\nis possible, imitate God. And the poets call the elect in their pages\r\ngodlike and gods, and equal to the gods, and equal in sagacity to Zeus,\r\nand having counsels like the gods, and resembling the gods,—nibbling,\r\nas seems to me, at the expression, “in the image and likeness.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_696\" id=\"FNanchor_696\">[696]</a></p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","BOOK IV.","CHAPTER XXVI. HOW THE PERFECT MAN TREATS THE BODY AND THE THINGS OF THE WORLD."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_689","paragraph_id":"pg73020-paragraph-299"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"983a0d71dee4ab4e84235e1604e460b73abaf00344e20934a96a9456a7004109","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg73020-Footnote_689","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_689","source_ebook":73020,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_689\" id=\"Footnote_689\">[689]</a> Where?</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"c35077683d75abe553cc6ef5d3ef5a1a978f07dfbcf4bad5c3d56302ad03dc19","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73020/pg73020-images.html#Footnote_689","text_sha256":"91f45115c34f7dcf6eb244ea679ade1f3ff13bf8215b007449b7624d67b19858","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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