{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>As, then, those who have shaken off sleep forthwith become all awake\r\nwithin; or rather, as those who try to remove a film that is over the\r\neyes, do not supply to them from without the light which they do not\r\npossess, but removing the obstacle from the eyes, leave the pupil\r\nfree; thus also we who are baptized, having wiped off the sins which\r\nobscure the light of the Divine Spirit, have the eye of the spirit\r\nfree, unimpeded, and full of light, by which alone we contemplate the\r\nDivine, the Holy Spirit flowing down to us from above. This is the\r\neternal adjustment of the vision, which is able to see the eternal\r\nlight, since like loves like; and that which is holy, loves that from\r\nwhich holiness proceeds, which has appropriately been termed light.\r\n“Once ye were darkness, now are ye light in the Lord.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_211\" id=\"FNanchor_211\">[211]</a> Hence I am\r\nof opinion man was called by the ancients φώς.<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_212\" id=\"FNanchor_212\">[212]</a> But he has not yet\r\nreceived, say they, the perfect gift. I also assent to this; but he is\r\nin the light, and the darkness comprehendeth him not. There is nothing\r\nintermediate between light and darkness. But the end is reserved till\r\nthe resurrection of those who believe; and it is not the reception of\r\nsome other thing, but the obtaining of the promise previously made.\r\nFor we do not say that both take place together at the same time—both\r\nthe arrival at the end, and the anticipation of that arrival. For\r\neternity and time are not the same, neither is the attempt and the\r\nfinal result; but both have reference to the same thing, and one and\r\nthe same person is concerned in both. Faith, so to speak, is the\r\nattempt generated in time; the final result is the attainment of the\r\npromise, secured for eternity. Now the Lord Himself has most clearly\r\nrevealed the equality of salvation, when He said: “For this is the will\r\nof my Father, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him,\r\nshould have everlasting life; and I will raise him up in the<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_134\">[134]</span> last\r\nday.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_213\" id=\"FNanchor_213\">[213]</a> As far as possible in this world, which is what he means\r\nby the last day, and which is preserved till the time that it shall\r\nend, we believe that we are made perfect. Wherefore He says, “He that\r\nbelieveth on the Son hath everlasting life.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_214\" id=\"FNanchor_214\">[214]</a> If, then, those who\r\nhave believed have life, what remains beyond the possession of eternal\r\nlife? Nothing is wanting to faith, as it is perfect and complete in\r\nitself. If aught is wanting to it, it is not wholly perfect. But faith\r\nis not lame in any respect; nor after our departure from this world\r\ndoes it make us who have believed, and received without distinction\r\nthe earnest of future good, wait; but having in anticipation grasped\r\nby faith that which is future, after the resurrection we receive it\r\nas present, in order that that may be fulfilled which was spoken,\r\n“Be it according to thy faith.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_215\" id=\"FNanchor_215\">[215]</a> And where faith is, there is\r\nthe promise; and the consummation of the promise is rest. So that in\r\nillumination what we receive is knowledge, and the end of knowledge\r\nis rest—the last thing conceived as the object of aspiration. As,\r\nthen, inexperience comes to an end by experience, and perplexity by\r\nfinding a clear outlet, so by illumination must darkness disappear. The\r\ndarkness is ignorance, through which we fall into sins, purblind as\r\nto the truth. Knowledge, then, is the illumination we receive, which\r\nmakes ignorance disappear, and endows us with clear vision. Further,\r\nthe abandonment of what is bad is the adopting<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_216\" id=\"FNanchor_216\">[216]</a> of what is better.\r\nFor what ignorance has bound ill, is by knowledge loosed well; those\r\nbonds are with all speed slackened by human faith and divine grace, our\r\ntransgressions being taken away by one Pæonian medicine, the baptism of\r\nthe Word. We are washed from all our sins, and are no longer entangled\r\nin evil. This is the one grace of illumination, that our characters\r\nare not the same as before our washing. And since knowledge springs up\r\nwith illumination, shedding its beams around the mind, the moment we\r\nhear, we who were untaught become disciples. Does this, I ask, take\r\nplace on the advent of this<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_135\">[135]</span> instruction? You cannot tell the time.\r\nFor instruction leads to faith, and faith with baptism is trained by\r\nthe Holy Spirit. For that faith is the one universal salvation of\r\nhumanity, and that there is the same equality before the righteous and\r\nloving God, and the same fellowship between Him and all, the apostle\r\nmost clearly showed, speaking to the following effect: “Before faith\r\ncame, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should\r\nafterwards be revealed, so that the law became our schoolmaster to\r\nbring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but after that\r\nfaith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_217\" id=\"FNanchor_217\">[217]</a> Do you\r\nnot hear that we are no longer under that law which was accompanied\r\nwith fear, but under the Word, the master of free choice? Then he\r\nsubjoined the utterance, clear of all partiality: “For ye are all\r\nthe children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as\r\nwere baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew\r\nnor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor\r\nfemale: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_218\" id=\"FNanchor_218\">[218]</a> There are not, then,\r\nin the same Word some “illuminated (gnostics); and some animal (or\r\nnatural) men;” but all who have abandoned the desires of the flesh are\r\nequal and spiritual before the Lord. And again he writes in another\r\nplace: “For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether\r\nJews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and we have all drunk of one\r\ncup.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_219\" id=\"FNanchor_219\">[219]</a> Nor were it absurd to employ the expressions of those who\r\ncall the reminiscence of better things the filtration of the spirit,\r\nunderstanding by filtration the separation of what is baser, that\r\nresults from the reminiscence of what is better. There follows of\r\nnecessity, in him who has come to the recollection of what is better,\r\nrepentance for what is worse. Accordingly, they confess that the\r\nspirit in repentance retraces its steps. In the same way, therefore,\r\nwe also, repenting of our sins, renouncing our iniquities, purified\r\nby baptism, speed back to the eternal light, children to the Father.\r\nJesus therefore, rejoicing in spirit, said: “I thank Thee, O Father,\r\nGod of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_136\">[136]</span>\r\nwise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_220\" id=\"FNanchor_220\">[220]</a> the Master\r\nand Teacher applying the name babes to us, who are readier to embrace\r\nsalvation than the wise in the world, who, thinking themselves wise,\r\nare inflated with pride. And He exclaims in exultation and exceeding\r\njoy, as if lisping with the children, “Even so, Father; for so it\r\nseemed good in Thy sight.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_221\" id=\"FNanchor_221\">[221]</a> Wherefore those things which have been\r\nconcealed from the wise and prudent of this present world have been\r\nrevealed to babes. Truly, then, are we the children of God, who have\r\nput aside the old man, and stripped off the garment of wickedness,\r\nand put on the immortality of Christ; that we may become a new, holy\r\npeople by regeneration, and may keep the man undefiled. And a babe, as\r\nGod’s little one, is cleansed from fornication and wickedness. With the\r\ngreatest clearness the blessed Paul has solved for us this question\r\nin his First Epistle to the Corinthians, writing thus: “Brethren, be\r\nnot children in understanding; howbeit in malice be children, but in\r\nunderstanding be men.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_222\" id=\"FNanchor_222\">[222]</a> And the expression, “When I was a child,\r\nI thought as a child, I spake as a child,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_223\" id=\"FNanchor_223\">[223]</a> points out his mode\r\nof life according to the law, according to which, thinking childish\r\nthings, he persecuted, and speaking childish things he blasphemed the\r\nWord, not as having yet attained to the simplicity of childhood, but as\r\nbeing in its folly; for the word νήπιον has two meanings.<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_224\" id=\"FNanchor_224\">[224]</a> “When\r\nI became a man,” again Paul says, “I put away childish things.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_225\" id=\"FNanchor_225\">[225]</a>\r\nIt is not incomplete size of stature, nor a definite measure of time,\r\nnor additional secret teachings in things that are manly and more\r\nperfect, that the apostle, who himself professes to be a preacher of\r\nchildishness, alludes to when he sends it, as it were, into banishment;\r\nbut he applies the name “children” to those who are under the law,\r\nwho are terrified by fear as children are by bugbears; and “men” to\r\nus who are obedient to the Word and masters of ourselves, who have\r\nbelieved, and are saved by voluntary choice, and are rationally, not\r\nirrationally, frightened by terror.<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_137\">[137]</span> Of this the apostle himself shall\r\ntestify, calling as he does the Jews heirs according to the first\r\ncovenant, and us heirs according to promise: “<i>Now I say, as long as\r\nthe heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a servant, though he be\r\nlord of all; but is under tutors and governors, till the time appointed\r\nby the father. So also we, when we were children, were in bondage under\r\nthe rudiments of the world; but when the fulness of the time was come,\r\nGod sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem\r\nthem that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of\r\nsons</i>”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_226\" id=\"FNanchor_226\">[226]</a> by Him. See how He has admitted those to be children\r\nwho are under fear and sins; but has conferred manhood on those who\r\nare under faith, by calling them sons, in contradistinction from the\r\nchildren that are under the law: “For thou art no more a servant,”\r\nhe says, “but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_227\" id=\"FNanchor_227\">[227]</a>\r\nWhat, then, is lacking to the son after inheritance? Wherefore the\r\nexpression, “When I was a child,” may be elegantly expounded thus: that\r\nis, when I was a Jew (for he was a Hebrew by extraction) I thought\r\nas a child, when I followed the law; but after becoming a man, I no\r\nlonger entertain the sentiments of a child, that is, of the law, but\r\nof a man, that is, of Christ, whom alone the Scripture calls man, as\r\nwe have said before. “I put away childish things.” But the childhood\r\nwhich is in Christ is maturity, as compared with the law. Having\r\nreached this point, we must defend our childhood. And we have still\r\nto explain what is said by the apostle: “I have fed you with milk (as\r\nchildren in Christ), not with meat; for ye were not able, neither yet\r\nare ye now able.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_228\" id=\"FNanchor_228\">[228]</a> For it does not appear to me that the expression\r\nis to be taken in a Jewish sense; for I shall oppose to it also that\r\nscripture, “I will bring you into that good land which flows with milk\r\nand honey.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_229\" id=\"FNanchor_229\">[229]</a> A very great difficulty arises in reference to the\r\ncomparison of these scriptures, when we consider. For if the infancy\r\nwhich is characterized by the milk is the beginning of faith in Christ,\r\nthen it is disparaged as childish and imperfect. How is the rest that\r\ncomes after the meat, the rest of the man who is perfect and endowed\r\nwith knowledge,<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_138\">[138]</span> again distinguished by infant milk? Does not this,\r\nas explaining a parable, mean something like this, and is not the\r\nexpression to be read somewhat to the following effect: “<i>I have fed\r\nyou with milk in Christ</i>;” and after a slight stop, let us add, “as\r\nchildren,” that by separating the words in reading we may make out some\r\nsuch sense as this: I have instructed you in Christ with simple, true,\r\nand natural nourishment,—namely, that which is spiritual: for such is\r\nthe nourishing substance of milk swelling out from breasts of love. So\r\nthat the whole matter may be conceived thus: As nurses nourish new-born\r\nchildren on milk, so do I also by the Word, the milk of Christ,\r\ninstilling into you spiritual nutriment.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE INSTRUCTOR.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER VI. THE NAME CHILDREN DOES NOT IMPLY INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_217","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-251"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"de62965aeb75f0c969133000314a5b06080d7649116c692420702c49be52183d","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"GAL","chapter":3,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Gal. iii. 23–25","verse":23,"verse_end":25}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_217","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_217","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_217\" id=\"Footnote_217\">[217]</a> Gal. iii. 23–25.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_217","text_sha256":"18081e5b601a0578cf0983e725c468194ea0d63ca92b52bc2dfc6b760f5c630a","verified":false,"work_id":null}