The Second Epistle of
Clement.
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Chapter I.—We Ought to Think
Highly of Christ.
Brethren
, it is fitting that you
should think of Jesus Christ as of God,—as the Judge of the
living and the dead. And it does not become us to think lightly
of our salvation; for if we think little of Him, we shall also hope but
to obtain little [from Him]. And those of us who hear carelessly
of these things, as if they were of small importance, commit sin, not
knowing whence we have been called, and by whom, and to what place, and
how much Jesus Christ submitted to suffer for our sakes. What
return, then, shall we make to Him, or what fruit that shall be worthy
of that which He has given to us? For, indeed, how great are the
benefits
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which we owe to
Him! He has graciously given us light; as a Father, He has called
us sons; He has saved us when we were ready to perish. What
praise, then, shall we give to Him, or what return shall we make for
the things which we have received?
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We were
deficient
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in understanding,
worshipping stones and wood, and gold, and silver, and brass, the works
of men’s hands;
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and our whole life
was nothing else than death. Involved in blindness, and with such
darkness
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before our eyes, we
have received sight, and through His will have laid aside that cloud by
which we were enveloped. For He had compassion on us, and
mercifully saved us, observing the many errors in which we were
entangled, as well as the destruction to which we were
exposed,
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and that we had no
hope of salvation except it came to us from Him. For He called us
when we were not,
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and willed that out
of nothing we should attain a real existence.
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No title, not even a
letter, is preserved in A. I. inserts “Clement’s
(Epistle) to the Corinthians II.”
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Literally, “holy
things.”
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Comp.
Ps. cxvi. 12
.
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Literally,
“lame.” I.
πονηροί
(wicked).
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Literally, “of
men.”
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Literally,
“being full of such darkness in our sight.”
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Literally,
“having beheld in us much error and destruction.”
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Comp.
Hos. ii. 23; Rom. iv. 17, ix.
25
.
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Literally,
“willed us from not being to be.”