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| Chapter XXI.—Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic.
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Chapter XXI.—Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic.
Here I find perfection apprehended variously
in relation to Him who excels in every virtue. Accordingly one is
perfected as pious, and as patient, and as continent, and as a worker,
and as a martyr, and as a Gnostic. But I know no one of men perfect in
all things at once, while still human, though according to the mere
letter of the law, except Him alone who for us clothed Himself with
humanity. Who then is perfect? He who professes abstinence from what
is bad. Well, this is the way to the Gospel and to well-doing. But
gnostic perfection in the case of the legal man is the acceptance of
the Gospel, that he that is after the law may be perfect. For so he,
who was after the law, Moses, foretold that it was necessary to hear
in order that we might, according to the apostle, receive Christ, the
fulness of the law.2873
But now in the Gospel the Gnostic
attains proficiency not only by making use of the law as a step, but by
understanding and comprehending it, as the Lord who gave the Covenants
delivered it to the apostles. And if he conduct himself rightly (as
assuredly it is impossible to attain knowledge (gnosis) by bad
conduct); and if, further, having made an eminently right confession, he
become a martyr out of love, obtaining considerable renown as among men;
not even thus will he be called perfect in the flesh beforehand; since
it is the close of life which claims this appellation, when the gnostic
martyr has first shown the perfect work, and rightly exhibited it, and
having thankfully shed his blood, has yielded up the ghost: blessed then
will he be, and truly proclaimed perfect, “that the excellency of
the power may be of God, and not of us,” as the apostle says. Only
let us preserve free-will and love: “troubled on every side, yet not
distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken;
cast down, but not destroyed.”2874
For those who strive
after perfection, according to the same apostle, must “give no
offence in anything, but in everything approve themselves not to men,
but to God.” And, as a consequence, also they ought to yield to
men; for it is reasonable, on account of abusive calumnies. Here is the
specification: “in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities,
in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in
watchings, in fastings, in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in
kindness, in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in
the power of God,”2875
that we may be the temples of God,
purified “from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit.”
“And I,” He says, “will receive you; and I will be to
you for a Father, and ye shall be to Me for sons and daughters, saith the
Lord Almighty.”2876
“Let us then,” he
says, “perfect holiness in the fear of God.” For though fear
beget pain, “I rejoice,” he says, “not that ye were made
sorry, but that ye showed susceptibility to repentance. For ye sorrowed
after a godly sort, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For
godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be regretted;
but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For this same thing that ye
sorrowed after a godly sort, what earnestness it wrought in you; yea,
what clearing of yourselves; yea, what compunction; yea, what fear; yea,
what desire; yea, what zeal; yea, revenge! In all things ye have showed
yourselves clear in the matter.”2877
Such are the
preparatory exercises of gnostic discipline. And since the omnipotent
God Himself “gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ;”2878
we are then to strive
to reach manhood as befits the Gnostic, and to be as perfect as we can
while still abiding in the flesh, making it our study with perfect concord
here to concur with the will of God, to the restoration of what is the
truly perfect nobleness and relationship, to the fulness of Christ,
that which perfectly depends on our perfection.
And now we perceive where, and how, and when the
divine apostle mentions the perfect man, and how he shows the differences
of the perfect. And again, on the other hand: “The
manifestation of the Spirit is
given for our profit. For to one is given the word of wisdom by the
Spirit; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;
to another faith through the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing
through the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another
prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another diversities
of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: and all these
worketh the one and the same Spirit, distributing to each one according
as He wills.”2879
Such being the case, the prophets are
perfect in prophecy, the righteous in righteousness, and the martyrs
in confession, and others in preaching, not that they are not sharers
in the common virtues, but are proficient in those to which they are
appointed. For what man in his senses would say that a prophet was not
righteous? For what? did not righteous men like Abraham prophesy?
“For to one God has given warlike deeds,
To another the accomplishment of the dance,
To another the lyre and song,”2880
says Homer. “But each
has his own proper gift of God”2881
—one in one way,
another in another. But the apostles were perfected in all. You will
find, then, if you choose, in their acts and writings, knowledge,
life, preaching, righteousness, purity, prophecy. We must know, then,
that if Paul is young in respect to time2882
—having flourished immediately after the
Lord’s ascension—yet his writings depend on the Old Testament,
breathing and speaking of them. For faith in Christ and the knowledge of
the Gospel are the explanation and fulfilment of the law; and therefore
it was said to the Hebrews, “If ye believe not, neither shall
you understand;”2883
that is, unless you believe what is prophesied
in the law, and oracularly delivered by the law, you will not understand
the Old Testament, which He by His coming expounded.
Chapter XXII.—The True Gnostic Does Good, Not from Fear of Punishment or Hope of Reward, But Only for the Sake of Good Itself.
The man of understanding and perspicacity is,
then, a Gnostic. And his business is not abstinence from what is
evil (for this is a step to the highest perfection), or the doing of
good out of fear. For it is written, “Whither shall I flee,
and where shall I hide myself from Thy presence? If I ascend into
heaven, Thou art there; if I go away to the uttermost parts of the
sea, there is Thy right hand; if I go down into the depths, there is
Thy Spirit.”2884
Nor any more is he to do so from
hope of promised recompense. For it is said, “Behold the Lord,
and His reward is before His face, to give to every one according to
his works; what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and hath not
entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love
Him.”2885
But only
the doing of good out of love, and for the sake of its own excellence,
is to be the Gnostic’s choice. Now, in the person of God it is said
to the Lord, “Ask of Me, and I will give the heathen for Thine
inheritance;”2886
teaching Him to ask a truly regal request—that
is, the salvation of men without price, that we may inherit and possess
the Lord. For, on the contrary, to desire knowledge about God for any
practical purpose, that this may be done, or that may not be done,
is not proper to the Gnostic; but the knowledge itself suffices as the
reason for contemplation. For I will dare aver that it is not because
he wishes to be saved that he, who devotes himself to knowledge for the
sake of the divine science itself, chooses knowledge. For the exertion
of the intellect by exercise is prolonged to a perpetual exertion. And
the perpetual exertion of the intellect is the essence of an intelligent
being, which results from an uninterrupted process of admixture, and
remains eternal contemplation, a living substance. Could we, then,
suppose any one proposing to the Gnostic whether he would choose the
knowledge of God or everlasting salvation; and if these, which are
entirely identical, were separable, he would without the least hesitation
choose the knowledge of God, deeming that property of faith, which from
love ascends to knowledge, desirable, for its own sake. This, then, is
the perfect man’s first form of doing good, when it is done not for
any advantage in what pertains to him, but because he judges it right to
do good; and the energy being vigorously exerted in all things, in the
very act becomes good; not, good in some things, and not good in others;
but consisting in the habit of doing good, neither for glory, nor, as the
philosophers say, for reputation, nor from reward either from men or God;
but so as to pass life after the image and likeness of the Lord.
And if, in doing good, he be met with anything
adverse, he will let the recompense pass without resentment as if it were
good, he being just and good “to the just and the unjust.”
To such the Lord says, “Be ye, as your Father is perfect.”
To him the flesh is dead; but he himself lives
alone, having consecrated the sepulchre into a holy temple to the Lord,
having turned towards God the old sinful soul.
Such an one is no longer continent, but has
reached a state of passionlessness,
waiting to put on the divine image. “If thou doest alms,”
it is said, “let no one know it; and if thou fastest, anoint
thyself, that God alone may know,”2887
and not a single human
being. Not even he himself who shows mercy ought to know that he does
show mercy; for in this way he will be sometimes merciful, sometimes
not. And when he shall do good by habit, he will imitate the nature of
good, and his disposition will be his nature and his practice. There
is no necessity for removing those who are raised on high, but there
is necessity for those who are walking to reach the requisite goal,
by passing over the whole of the narrow way. For this is to be drawn
by the Father, to become worthy to receive the power of grace from God,
so as to run without hindrance. And if some hate the elect, such an one
knows their ignorance, and pities their minds for its folly.
As is right, then, knowledge itself loves and
teaches the ignorant, and instructs the whole creation to honour God
Almighty. And if such an one teaches to love God, he will not hold virtue
as a thing to be lost in any case, either awake or in a dream, or in any
vision; since the habit never goes out of itself by falling from being
a habit. Whether, then, knowledge be said to be habit or disposition;
on account of diverse sentiments never obtaining access, the guiding
faculty, remaining unaltered, admits no alteration of appearances by
framing in dreams visionary conceptions out of its movements by day.
Wherefore also the Lord enjoins “to watch,” so that our
soul may never be perturbed with passion, even in dreams; but also to
keep the life of the night pure and stainless, as if spent in the day.
For assimilation to God, as far as we can, is preserving the mind in its
relation to the same things. And this is the relation of mind as mind.
But the variety of disposition arises from
inordinate affection to material things. And for this reason, as
they appear to me, to have called night Euphrone; since then the
soul, released from the perceptions of sense, turns in on itself,
and has a truer hold of intelligence (φρόνησις).2888
| 2888 Euphrone is plainly
“kindly, cheerful.” | Wherefore the mysteries
are for the most part celebrated by night, indicating the withdrawal
of the soul from the body, which takes place by night. “Let
us not then sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For
they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunken, are
drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting
on the breastplate of faith and love, and as an helmet the hope of
salvation.”2889
And as to what, again, they say of
sleep, the very same things are to be understood of death. For each
exhibits the departure of the soul, the one more, the other less;
as we may also get this in Heraclitus: “Man touches night in
himself, when dead and his light quenched; and alive, when he sleeps
he touches the dead; and awake, when he shuts his eyes, he touches the
sleeper.”2890
| 2890 As it
stands in the text the passage is unintelligable, and has been variously
amended successfully. | “For blessed are those that have
seen the Lord,”2891
| 2891
Clement seems to have read Κύριον
for καιρόν
in Rom. xiii. 11. | according to the apostle; “for
it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and
put on the armour of light.”2892
By day and light he
designates figuratively the Son, and by the armour of light metaphorically
the promises.
So it is said that we ought to go washed to
sacrifices and prayers, clean and bright; and that this external adornment
and purification are practiced for a sign. Now purity is to think holy
thoughts. Further, there is the image of baptism, which also was handed
down to the poets from Moses as follows:—
“And she having drawn water,
and wearing on her body clean clothes.”2893
| 2893 Homer, Odyss., iv. 750, 760; xvii. 48,
58. |
It is Penelope that is going
to prayer:—
“And Telemachus,
Having washed his hands in the hoary sea, prayed to Athene.”2894
It was a custom of the Jews to
wash frequently after being in bed. It was then well said,—
“Be pure, not by washing of water, but in the mind.”
For sanctity, as I conceive it,
is perfect pureness of mind, and deeds, and thoughts, and words too,
and in its last degree sinlessness in dreams.
And sufficient purification to a man,
I reckon, is thorough and sure repentance. If, condemning
ourselves for our former actions, we go forward, after
these things taking thought,2895
| 2895 Explaining μετανοέω
etymologically. | and divesting our mind both of the things
which please us through the senses, and of our former transgressions.
If, then, we are to
give the etymology of ἐπιστήμη,
knowledge, its signification is to be
derived from στάσις,
placing; for our soul, which was formerly borne, now in one way, now
in another, it settles in objects. Similarly faith is to be explained
etymologically, as the settling (στάσις)
of our soul respecting that which is.
But we desire to learn about the man who is always
and in all things righteous; who, neither dreading the penalty proceeding
from the law,
nor fearing to entertain hatred
of evil in the case of those who live with him and who prosecute the
injured, nor dreading danger at the hands of those who do wrong, remains
righteous. For he who, on account of these considerations, abstains from
anything wrong, is not voluntarily kind, but is good from fear. Even
Epicurus says, that the man who in his estimation was wise, “would
not do wrong to any one for the sake of gain; for he could not persuade
himself that he would escape detection.” So that, if he knew he
would not be detected, he would, according to him, do evil. And such are
the doctrines of darkness. If, too, one shall abstain from doing wrong
from hope of the recompense given by God on account of righteous deeds,
he is not on this supposition spontaneously good. For as fear makes that
man just, so reward makes this one; or rather, makes him appear to be
just. But with the hope after death—a good hope to the good, to the
bad the reverse—not only they who follow after Barbarian wisdom,
but also the Pythagoreans, are acquainted. For the latter also proposed
hope as an end to those who philosophize. Whereas Socrates2896
also, in the Phædo, says “that
good souls depart hence with a good hope;” and again, denouncing
the wicked, he sets against this the assertion, “For they live
with an evil hope.” With him Heraclitus manifestly agrees in
his dissertations concerning men: “There awaits man after death
what they neither hope nor think.” Divinely, therefore, Paul
writes expressly, “Tribulation worketh, patience, and patience
experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.”2897
For the patience is on account of the hope in the future. Now hope is
synonymous with the recompense and restitution of hope; which maketh
not ashamed, not being any more vilified.
But he who obeys the mere call,
as he is called, neither for fear, nor for enjoyments,
is on his way to knowledge (γνῶσις).
For he does not consider whether any extrinsic lucrative gain or
enjoyment follows to him; but drawn by the love of Him who is the true
object of love, and led to what is requisite, practices piety. So that
not even were we to suppose him to receive from God leave to do things
forbidden with impunity; not even if he were to get the promise that he
would receive as a reward the good things of the blessed; but besides,
not even if he could persuade himself that God would be hoodwinked
with reference to what he does (which is impossible), would he ever
wish to do aught contrary to right reason, having once made choice
of what is truly good and worthy of choice on its own account, and
therefore to be loved. For it is not in the food of the belly, that we
have heard good to be situated. But he has heard that “meat will
not commend us,”2898
nor marriage, nor abstinence from marriage
in ignorance; but virtuous gnostic conduct. For the dog, which is an
irrational animal, may be said to be continent, dreading as it does the
uplifted stick, and therefore keeping away from the meat. But let the
predicted promise be taken away, and the threatened dread cancelled,
and the impending danger removed, and the disposition of such people
will be revealed.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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