{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>By encouragement He assuages sins, reducing lust, and at the same time\r\ninspiring hope for salvation. For He says by Ezekiel, “If ye return\r\nwith your whole heart, and say, Father, I will hear you, as a holy\r\npeople.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_389\" id=\"FNanchor_389\">[389]</a> And again He says, “Come all to me, who labour, and\r\nare heavy laden, and I will give you rest;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_390\" id=\"FNanchor_390\">[390]</a> and that which is\r\nadded the Lord speaks in His own person. And very clearly He calls to\r\ngoodness by Solomon, when He says, “Blessed is the man who hath found\r\nwisdom, and the mortal who hath found understanding.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_391\" id=\"FNanchor_391\">[391]</a> “For the\r\ngood is found by him who seeks it, and is<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_176\">[176]</span> wont to be seen by him who\r\nhas found it.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_392\" id=\"FNanchor_392\">[392]</a> By Jeremiah, too, He sets forth prudence, when He\r\nsays, “Blessed are we, Israel; for what is pleasing to God is known\r\nby us;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_393\" id=\"FNanchor_393\">[393]</a>—and it is known by the Word, by whom we are blessed and\r\nwise. For wisdom and knowledge are mentioned by the same prophet, when\r\nhe says, “Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life, and give ear to\r\nknow understanding.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_394\" id=\"FNanchor_394\">[394]</a> By Moses, too, by reason of the love He has\r\nto man, He promises a gift to those who hasten to salvation. For He\r\nsays, “And I will bring you into the good land, which the Lord sware\r\nto your fathers.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_395\" id=\"FNanchor_395\">[395]</a> And further, “And I will bring you into the\r\nholy mountain, and make you glad,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_396\" id=\"FNanchor_396\">[396]</a> He says by Isaiah. And still\r\nanother form of instruction is benediction. “And blessed is he,” He\r\nsaith by David, “who has not sinned; and he shall be as the tree\r\nplanted near the channels of the waters, which will yield its fruit\r\nin its season, and his leaf shall not wither”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_397\" id=\"FNanchor_397\">[397]</a> (by this He made\r\nan allusion to the resurrection); “and whatsoever he shall do shall\r\nprosper with him.” Such He wishes us to be, that we may be blessed.\r\nAgain, showing the opposite scale of the balance of justice, He says,\r\n“But not so the ungodly—not so; but as the dust which the wind sweeps\r\naway from the face of the earth.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_398\" id=\"FNanchor_398\">[398]</a> By showing the punishment of\r\nsinners, and their easy dispersion, and carrying off by the wind, the\r\nInstructor dissuades from crime by means of punishment; and by holding\r\nup the merited penalty, shows the benignity of His beneficence in the\r\nmost skilful way, in order that we may possess and enjoy its blessings.\r\nHe invites us to knowledge also, when He says by Jeremiah, “Hadst\r\nthou walked in the way of God, thou wouldst have dwelt for ever in\r\npeace;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_399\" id=\"FNanchor_399\">[399]</a> for, exhibiting there the reward of knowledge, He calls\r\nthe wise to the love of it. And, granting pardon to him who has erred,\r\nHe says, “Turn, turn, as a grape-gatherer to his basket.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_400\" id=\"FNanchor_400\">[400]</a> Do you\r\nsee the goodness of justice, in that it counsels to repentance?<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_177\">[177]</span> And\r\nstill further, by Jeremiah, He enlightens in the truth those who have\r\nerred. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways, and look, and ask for\r\nthe eternal paths of the Lord, what is the good path, and walk in it,\r\nand ye shall find purification for your souls.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_401\" id=\"FNanchor_401\">[401]</a> And in order to\r\npromote our salvation, He leads us to repentance. Wherefore He says,\r\n“If thou repent, the Lord will purify thy heart, and the heart of thy\r\nseed.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_402\" id=\"FNanchor_402\">[402]</a> We might have adduced, as supporters on this question, the\r\nphilosophers who say that only the perfect man is worthy of praise,\r\nand the bad man of blame. But since some slander beatitude, as neither\r\nitself taking any trouble, nor giving any to any one else, thus not\r\nunderstanding its love to man; on their account, and on account of\r\nthose who do not associate justice with goodness, the following remarks\r\nare added. For it were a legitimate inference to say, that rebuke and\r\ncensure are suitable to men, since they say that all men are bad; but\r\nGod alone is wise, from whom cometh wisdom, and alone perfect, and\r\ntherefore alone worthy of praise. But I do not employ such language. I\r\nsay, then, that praise or blame, or whatever resembles praise or blame,\r\nare medicines most essential of all to men. Some are ill to cure, and,\r\nlike iron, are wrought into shape with fire, and hammer, and anvil,\r\nthat is, with threatening, and reproof, and chastisement; while others,\r\ncleaving to faith itself, as self-taught, and as acting of their own\r\nfree-will, grow by praise:</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE INSTRUCTOR.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER X. THAT THE SAME GOD, BY THE SAME WORD, RESTRAINS FROM SIN BY THREATENING, AND SAVES HUMANITY BY EXHORTING."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_392","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-321"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"719dc8eba01c3565bf4e023e06484b13f1df54172e4e971f67457176c0a13369","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PRO","chapter":2,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Prov. ii. 4","verse":4,"verse_end":4},{"book":"JER","chapter":2,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Jer. ii. 24","verse":24,"verse_end":24}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_392","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 1867 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_392","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_392\" id=\"Footnote_392\">[392]</a> In Prov. ii. 4. 5, iii. 15, Jer. ii. 24, we have the\r\nsense of these verses.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_392","text_sha256":"59504705028299f38e3db87d15bd1d2ca8bcfe64f937ddff2b4dd8df7ca2569a","verified":false,"work_id":null}