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| Chapter V.—On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things.
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Chapter V.—On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things.
Fit objects for admiration are the Stoics, who say
that the soul is not affected by the body, either to vice by disease, or
to virtue by health; but both these things, they say, are indifferent. And
indeed Job, through exceeding continence, and excellence of faith,
when from rich he became poor, from being held in honour dishonoured,
from being comely unsightly, and sick from being healthy, is depicted
as a good example, putting the Tempter to shame, blessing his Creator;
bearing what came second, as the first, and most clearly teaching that it
is possible for the gnostic to make an excellent use of all circumstances.
And that ancient achievements are proposed as images for our correction,
the apostle shows, when he says, “So that my bonds in Christ are
become manifest in all the palace, and to all the rest; and several of
the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold
to speak the word of God without fear,”2699
—since martyrs’
testimonies are examples of conversion gloriously sanctified. “For
what things the Scripture speaks were written for our instruction, that
we, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, might have the
hope of consolation.”2700
When pain is present, the soul appears to decline
from it, and to deem release from present pain a precious thing. At that
moment it slackens from studies, when the other virtues also are
neglected. And yet we do not say
that it is virtue itself which suffers, for virtue is not affected by
disease. But he who is partaker of both, of virtue and the disease,
is afflicted by the pressure of the latter; and if he who has not
yet attained the habit of self-command be not a high-souled man, he
is distraught; and the inability to endure it is found equivalent to
fleeing from it.
The same holds good also in the case of
poverty. For it compels the soul to desist from necessary things,
I mean contemplation and from pure sinlessness, forcing him, who has
not wholly dedicated himself to God in love, to occupy himself about
provisions; as, again, health and abundance of necessaries keep the
soul free and unimpeded, and capable of making a good use of what is
at hand. “For,” says the apostle, “such shall have
trouble in the flesh. But I spare you. For I would have you without
anxiety, in order to decorum and assiduity for the Lord, without
distraction.”2701
| 2701
1 Cor. vii. 28, 32, 35. |
These things, then, are to be abstained from, not
for their own sakes, but for the sake of the body; and care for the body
is exercised for the sake of the soul, to which it has reference. For on
this account it is necessary for the man who lives as a gnostic to know
what is suitable. Since the fact that pleasure is not a good thing is
admitted from the fact that certain pleasures are evil, by this reason
good appears evil, and evil good. And then, if we choose some pleasures
and shun others, it is not every pleasure that is a good thing.
Similarly, also, the same rule holds with pains,
some of which we endure, and others we shun. But choice and avoidance
are exercised according to knowledge; so that it is not pleasure that
is the good thing, but knowledge by which we shall choose a pleasure
at a certain time, and of a certain kind. Now the martyr chooses the
pleasure that exists in prospect through the present pain. If pain is
conceived as existing in thirst, and pleasure in drinking, the pain
that has preceded becomes the efficient cause of pleasure. But evil
cannot be the efficient cause of good. Neither, then, is the one thing
nor the other evil. Simonides accordingly (as also Aristotle) writes,
“that to be in good health is the best thing, and the second best
thing is to be handsome, and the third best thing is to be rich without
cheating.”
And Theognis of Megara says:—
“You must, to escape poverty, throw
Yourself, O Cyrnus down from
The steep rocks into the deep sea.”
On the other hand, Antiphanes,
the comic poet, says, “Plutus (Wealth), when it has taken hold of
those who see better than others, makes them blind.” Now by the
poets he is proclaimed as blind from his birth:—
“And brought him forth blind who saw not the sun.”
Says the Chalcidian
Euphorion:—
“Riches, then, and extravagant luxuries,
Were for men the worst training for manliness.”
Wrote Euripides in
Alexander:—
“And it is said,
Penury has attained wisdom through misfortune;
But much wealth will capture not
Sparta alone, but every
city.”
“It is not then the only coin that mortals
have, that which is white silver or golden, but virtue too,”
as Sophocles says.
Chapter VI.—Some Points in the Beatitudes.
Our holy Saviour applied poverty and riches, and the
like, both to spiritual things and objects of sense. For when He said,
“Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’
sake,”2702
He clearly taught us in every circumstance
to seek for the martyr who, if poor for righteousness’ sake,
witnesses that the righteousness which he loves is a good thing; and
if he “hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake,”
testifies that righteousness is the best thing. Likewise he, that weeps
and mourns for righteousness’ sake, testifies to the best law that
it is beautiful. As, then, “those that are persecuted,” so
also “those that hunger and thirst” for righteousness’
sake, are called “blessed” by Him who approves of the true
desire, which not even famine can put a stop to. And if “they
hunger after righteousness itself,” they are blessed. “And
blessed are the poor,” whether “in spirit” or in
circumstance”—that is, if for righteousness’ sake. It
is not the poor simply, but those that have wished to become poor for
righteousness’ sake, that He pronounces blessed—those who
have despised the honours of this world in order to attain “the
good;” likewise also those who, through chastity, have become comely
in person and character, and those who are of noble birth, and honourable,
having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore
“have received power to become the sons of God,”2703
and “to tread on serpents and scorpions,” and to rule
over demons and “the host of the adversary.”2704
And, in fine, the Lord’s discipline2705
| 2705 [Canons Apostolical (so called), li. liii. But see Elucidation I.] | draws the soul away gladly
from the body, even if it wrench itself away in its removal. “For
he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life
shall find it,”2706
if we only join that which
is mortal of us with
the immortality of God. It is the
will of God [that we should attain] the knowledge of God, which is the
communication of immortality. He therefore, who, in accordance with the
word of repentance, knows his life to be sinful will lose it—losing
it from sin, from which it is wrenched; but losing it, will find it,
according to the obedience which lives again to faith, but dies to
sin. This, then, is what it is “to find one’s life,”
“to know one’s self.”
The conversion, however, which leads to divine
things, the Stoics say, is affected by a change, the soul being changed
to wisdom. And Plato: “On the soul taking a turn to what is better,
and a change from a kind of nocturnal day.” Now the philosophers
also allow the good man an exit from life in accordance with reason,
in the case of one depriving him of active exertion, so that the hope
of action is no longer left him. And the judge who compels us to deny
Him whom we love, I regard as showing who is and who is not the friend
of God. In that case there is not left ground for even examining what
one prefers—the menaces of man or the love of God. And abstinence
from vicious acts is found, somehow, [to result in] the diminution
and extinction of vicious propensities, their energy being destroyed
by inaction. And this is the import of “Sell what thou hast, and
give to the poor, and come, follow Me”2707
—that is, follow what
is said by the Lord. Some say that by what “thou hast” He
designated the things in the soul, of a nature not akin to it, though
how these are bestowed on the poor they are not able to say. For
God dispenses to all according to desert, His distribution being
righteous. Despising, therefore, the possessions which God apportions to
thee in thy magnificence, comply with what is spoken by me; haste to the
ascent of the Spirit, being not only justified by abstinence from what
is evil, but in addition also perfected, by Christlike beneficence.2708
In
this instance He convicted the man, who boasted that he had fulfilled
the injunctions of the law, of not loving his neighbour; and it is by
beneficence that the love which, according to the gnostic ascending scale,
is Lord of the Sabbath, proclaims itself.2709
| 2709 [If love, exerting itself in doing good, overruled
the letter of the Sabbatic law, rise to this supremacy of love, which
is, of itself, “the fulfilling of the law.”] | We
must then, according to my view, have recourse to the word of salvation
neither from fear of punishment nor promise of a gift, but on account
of the good itself. Such, as do so, stand on the right hand of the
sanctuary; but those who think that by the gift of what is perishable
they shall receive in exchange what belongs to immortality are in the
parable of the two brothers called “hirelings.” And is there
not some light thrown here on the expression “in the likeness
and image,” in the fact that some live according to the likeness
of Christ, while those who stand on the left hand live according to
their image? There are then two things proceeding from the truth, one
root lying beneath both,—the choice being, however, not equal,
or rather the difference that is in the choice not being equal. To
choose by way of imitation differs, as appears to me, from the choice
of him who chooses according to knowledge, as that which is set on fire
differs from that which is illuminated. Israel, then, is the light of the
likeness which is according to the Scripture. But the image is another
thing. What means the parable of Lazarus, by showing the image of the
rich and poor? And what the saying, “No man can serve two masters,
God and Mammon?”—the Lord so terming the love of money. For
instance, the covetous, who were invited, responded not to the invitation
to the supper, not because of their possessing property, but of their
inordinate affection to what they possessed. “The foxes,”
then, have holes. He called those evil and earthly men who are occupied
about the wealth which is mined and dug from the ground, foxes. Thus
also, in reference to Herod: “Go, tell that fox, Behold, I cast
out devils, and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I
shall be perfected.”2710
For He applied the name “fowls of the
air” to those who were distinct from the other birds—those
really pure, those that have the power of flying to the knowledge of
the heavenly Word. For not riches only, but also honour, and marriage,
and poverty, have ten thousand cares for him who is unfit for them.2711
And those cares He indicated in the parable of
the fourfold seed, when He said that “the seed of the word which
fell unto the thorns” and hedges was choked by them, and could
not bring forth fruit. It is therefore necessary to learn how to make
use of every occurrence, so as by a good life, according to knowledge,
to be trained for the state of eternal life. For it said, “I saw the
wicked exalted and towering as the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed,”
says the Scripture, “and, lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his
place was not found. Keep innocence, and look on uprightness: for there
is a remnant to the man of peace.”2712
Such will he be
who believes unfeignedly with his whole heart, and is tranquil in his
whole soul. “For the different people honour me with their lips,
but their heart is far from the Lord.”2713
“They bless
with their mouth, but they curse
in their heart.”2714
“They loved Him with their mouth, and lied
to Him with their tongue; but their heart was not right with Him, and
they were not faithful to His covenant.” Wherefore “let the
false lips become speechless, and let the Lord
destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall magnify our tongue,
and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For the affliction of
the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I arise, saith the
Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak
out in his case.”2715
For it is to the humble that Christ
belongs, who do not exalt themselves against His flock. “Lay
not up for yourselves, therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth
and rust destroy, and thieves break through and steal,”2716
says the Lord, in reproach perchance of the covetous, and perchance
also of those who are simply anxious and full of cares, and those too
who indulge their bodies. For amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts
“break through” the mind and the whole man. But our true
“treasure” is where what is allied to our mind is, since
it bestows the communicative power of righteousness, showing that we
must assign to the habit of our old conversation what we have acquired
by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He is, in truth,
“the bag that waxeth not old,” the provisions of eternal
life, “the treasure that faileth not in heaven.”2717
“For I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,”2718
saith
the Lord. And they say those things to those who wish to be poor for
righteousness’ sake. For they have heard in the commandment that
“the broad and wide way leadeth to destruction, and many there are
who go in by it.”2719
It is not of anything else that the assertion
is made, but of profligacy, and love of women, and love of glory, and
ambition, and similar passions. For so He says, “Fool, this night
shall thy soul be required of thee; and whose shall those things be which
thou hast prepared?”2720
And the commandment is expressed in these very
words, “Take heed, therefore, of covetousness. For a man’s
life does not consist in the abundance of those things which he
possesses. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul?”2721
“Wherefore I say, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what ye shall put on. For
your life is more than meat, and your body than raiment.”2722
And again, “For your Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things.” “But seek first the kingdom of
heaven, and its righteousness,” for these are the great things,
and the things which are small and appertain to this life “shall
be added to you.”2723
Does He not plainly then
exhort us to follow the gnostic life, and enjoin us to seek the truth in
word and deed? Therefore Christ, who trains the soul, reckons one rich,
not by his gifts, but by his choice. It is said, therefore, that Zaccheus,
or, according to some, Matthew, the chief of the publicans, on hearing
that the Lord had deigned to come to him, said, “Lord, and if I
have taken anything by false accusation, I restore him fourfold;”
on which the Saviour said, “The Son of man, on coming to-day,
has found that which was lost.”2724
Again, on seeing the
rich cast into the treasury according to their wealth, and the widow
two mites, He said “that the widow had cast in more than they
all,” for “they had contributed of their abundance, but she
of her destitution.” And because He brought all things to bear
on the discipline of the soul, He said, “Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth.”2725
And the meek are those who
have quelled the battle of unbelief in the soul, the battle of wrath,
and lust, and the other forms that are subject to them. And He praises
those meek by choice, not by necessity. For there are with the Lord both
rewards and “many mansions,” corresponding to men’s
lives. “Whosoever shall receive,” says He, “a prophet
in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward; and
whosoever shall receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man,
shall receive a righteous man’s reward; and whoso shall receive one
of the least of these my disciples, shall not lose his reward.”2726
And again, the differences of virtue according to merit, and the noble
rewards, He indicated by the hours unequal in number; and in addition, by
the equal reward given to each of the labourers—that is, salvation,
which is meant by the penny—He indicated the equality of justice;
and the difference of those called He intimated, by those who worked
for unequal portions of time. They shall work, therefore, in accordance
with the appropriate mansions of which they have been deemed worthy
as rewards, being fellow-workers in the ineffable administration and
service.2727
| 2727 Translated as
completed, and amended by Heinsius. In the text it is plainly mutilated
and corrupt. | “Those, then,” says Plato, “who
seem called to a holy life, are those who, freed and released from those
earthly localities as from prisons, have reached the pure dwelling-place
on high.” In clearer terms again he
expresses the same thing:
“Those who by philosophy have been sufficiently purged from
those things, live without bodies entirely for all time. Although
they are enveloped in certain shapes; in the case of some, of air, and
others, of fire.” He adds further: “And they reach abodes
fairer than those, which it is not easy, nor is there sufficient
time now to describe.” Whence with reason, “blessed
are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted;”2728
for they who have repented of their former evil life shall attain
to “the calling” (κλῆσιν),
for this is the meaning of being comforted (παρακληθῆναι).
And there are two styles of penitents.2729
| 2729 [Clement describes the attrition of the
schoolmen (which they say suffices) with the contrition
exacted by the Gospel. He knows nothing but the latter, as having
promise of the Comforter.] | That which is more common
is fear on account of what is done; but the other which is more
special, the shame which the spirit feels in itself arising from
conscience. Whether then, here or elsewhere (for no place is devoid
of the beneficence of God), He again says, “Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” And mercy is not, as some
of the philosophers have imagined, pain on account of others’
calamities, but rather something good, as the prophets say. For it
is said, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”2730
And He2731
means by the merciful, not only those who do
acts of mercy, but those who wish to do them, though they be not able;
who do as far as purpose is concerned. For sometimes we wish by the
gift of money or by personal effort to do mercy, as to assist one in
want, or help one who is sick, or stand by one who is in any emergency;
and are not able either from poverty, or disease, or old age (for this
also is natural disease), to carry out our purpose, in reference to the
things to which we are impelled, being unable to conduct them to the end
we wished. Those, who have entertained the wish whose purpose is equal,
share in the same honour with those who have the ability, although others
have the advantage in point of resources.2732
And since
there are two paths of reaching the perfection of salvation, works
and knowledge, He called the “pure in heart blessed, for they
shall see God.”2733
And if we really look to the truth of the
matter, knowledge is the purification of the leading faculty of the soul,
and is a good activity. Some things accordingly are good in themselves,
and others by participation in what is good, as we say good actions are
good. But without things intermediate which hold the place of material,
neither good nor bad actions are constituted, such I mean as life,
and health, and other necessary things or circumstantials. Pure then as
respects corporeal lusts, and pure in respect of holy thoughts, he means
those are, who attain to the knowledge of God, when the chief faculty of
the soul has nothing spurious to stand in the way of its power. When,
therefore, he who partakes gnostically of this holy quality devotes
himself to contemplation, communing in purity with the divine, he enters
more nearly into the state of impassible identity, so as no longer to
have science and possess knowledge, but to be science and knowledge.
“Blessed, then, are the
peacemakers,”2734
who have subdued and tamed the law which
wars against the disposition of the mind, the menaces of anger, and the
baits of lust, and the other passions which war against the reason; who,
having lived in the knowledge both of good works and true reason, shall
be reinstated in adoption, which is dearer. It follows that the perfect
peacemaking is that which keeps unchanged in all circumstances what
is peaceful; calls Providence holy and good; and has its being in the
knowledge of divine and human affairs, by which it deems the opposites
that are in the world to be the fairest harmony of creation. They also
are peacemakers, who teach those who war against the stratagems of sin
to have recourse to faith and peace. And it is the sum of all virtue,
in my opinion, when the Lord teaches us that for love to God we must
gnostically despise death. “Blessed are they,” says He,
“who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for they
shall be called the sons of God;”2735
or, as some of those who
transpose the Gospels2736
| 2736
[Note that thus in the second century there were those (scholiasts)
who interlined and transposed the Gospels, in mss.] | say, “Blessed are they
who are persecuted by righteousness, for they shall be perfect.”
And, “Blessed are they who are persecuted for my sake; for
they shall have a place where they shall not be persecuted.”
And, “Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, when they shall
separate you, when they shall cast out your name as evil, for the Son of
man’s sake;”2737
if we do not detest our persecutors, and undergo
punishments at their hands, not hating them under the idea that we have
been put to trial more tardily than we looked for; but knowing this also,
that every instance of trial is an occasion for testifying.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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