CHRIST Our Lord; to whom be glory for ever and ever; Amen. 51. Let us, therefore, as many as have transgressed by any of the suggestions of the adversary, pray for forgiveness and let those, who have been the leaders of the sedition and dissension among you, look to the common object of our hope. For as many as have their conversation in fear and charity, would rather they themselves should fall into trials than their neighbors and choose to be condemned themselves, rather than to violate that good and equitable concord which hath been transmitted to us. For it is good for a man to confess wherein he hath transgressed, rather than to harden his heart, as the hearts of those were hardened, who raised up sedition against Moses the servant of GOD: whose punishment was manifest to all men; for they went down alive into the grave; death swallowed them up. Pharaoh and his host, and all the rulers of Egypt, their chariots also and their horsemen, were overwhelmed in the Red Sea and perished, for no other reason than because they hardened their foolish hearts, after so many signs had been done in the land of Egypt, by Moses the servant of GOD. 52. Beloved, the LORD is in want of nothing: neither requires he any thing of us, but that we should confess our sins unto him. For so saith the holy David: "I will confess unto the LORD, and it shall please him better than a young bullock, that hath horns and hoofs. Let the poor see it, and be glad.' And again he saith, "Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise; and pay thy vows unto the most Highest. And call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.' "The sacrifice of GoD is a broken spirit."y 53. Ye know, beloved, ye know full well the holy Scriptures; and have thoroughly searched into the oracles of GOD. Call them, therefore, to your remembrance. For when Moses went up into the mount, and tarried there forty days and forty nights, in fasting and humiliation, GoD said unto him, "Arise, Moses, - get • Num. xvi. ' Ps. li. 17. Exod. xiv. Ps. Ixix. 31. * Ps. 1. 14. thee down quickly from hence, for thy people have committed wickedness: they whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them, and have made to themselves molten images. And the LORD said unto him, I have spoken unto thee once and again, saying, I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiff-necked people. Let me therefore destroy them, and I will blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of thee a nation mighty and wonderful, and much greater than they. But Moses said, not so, LORD: forgive now this people their sin; and if not, blot me also out of the book of the living." O admirable charity! O insuperable perfection! The servant speaks boldly to his LORD; he beseeches him either to forgive the people, or that he himself may also be destroyed with them. 54. Who, then, is there among you that is generous? who, that is compassionate? who, that is filled with charity? let him say, if this sedition, and strife and schism be upon my account, I am ready to depart, to go away whithersoever ye please; and to do whatso a • CLEMENT here professes* no more than he practised. It is highly probable, as EPIPHANIUS asserts, that he was appointed, by St. Peter, to be Bishop of Rome, but declined accepting the office as long as Linus and Cletus (or Anencletus) lived. This seems the most probable cause of the difficulty of ascertaining the succession of the first bishops of Rome CHRYSOSTOM, in his 11th Homily on the Epistle to the Ephesians, (Vol. iii. p. 824. Savile.) expresses his readiness to act up to this precept; "If you entertain," he says, "such suspicions respecting me, I am ready to resign my office, and to retire whithersoever ye will, only so that the unity of the Church may be preserved." GREGORY NAZIANZEN actually resigned the see of Constantinople, rather than be the cause of disputes in the Church. See CAVE'S Life [of Gregory.] Sect 6. [What does Clement profess? The probability of his practice of the resignation of a bishopric, is extremely slight scarcely any; as will be apparent ifthe value of EPIPHANIUS' single testimony to an event so far removed from his own know. ledge he duly estimated, and placed in counterpoise with the discrepant accounts of earlier and more trustworthy writers.-But it is astonishing that this passage should have been thought to bear on the question, when the least attention to the context might suffice to convince the reader that Clement has not the slightest reference to himself in his recommendations for others; and that those recommendations (being addressed distributively to members of a Church which could have had but one bishop) were adapted to the circumstances of persons filling inferior office in the Church, not to the different obligations and responsibilities of a bishop.] ever the multitude command me; only let the flock of CHRIST be in peace, with the elders that are set over it. He that shall do this, shall obtain to himself a very great honor in the LORD: and every place will be ready to receive him. "For the earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof.' These things they who have their conversation toward GoD not to be repented of, both have done, and will always be ready to do. 55. Nay, to produce examples even of the Gentiles : many kings and rulers, in times of pestilence, being warned by their oracles, have given themselves up to death, that they might, by their own blood, deliver their country. Many have forsaken their cities, that seditions might no longer continue. We know how many among ourselves have given themselves up into bonds that thereby they might free others. Many have sold themselves into bondage, and received the price, that with it they might feed others. Nay, even women, strengthened by the grace of GoD, have performed many manly actions. The blessed Judith,a when her city was besieged, desired the elders that they would suffer her to go into the camp of their enemies. Thus she went out, and exposed herself to danger for the love she bare to her country, and her people that were besieged: and the LORD delivered Holofernes into the hand of a woman. Again, Esther, being made perfect in the faith, exposed herself to a danger equally great, that she might deliver the twelve tribes of Israel, who were in danger of being destroyed. For by fasting and humbling herself she entreated the great maker of all b Ps. xxiv. 1. St. Paul mentions "Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in CHRIST JESUS, who have for my life laid down their own necks." Rom. xvi. 3, 4, and Epaphroditus, who "for the work of CHRIST was nigh unto death not regarding his life." Phil. ii. 30. BARONIUS relates that St. Alban, the proto-martyr of Britain, gave himself up and was put to death under Diocletian, A. D. 303, instead of a fugitive who had taken refuge from persecution under his roof. In the early ages of Christianity many, under the designation of Parabolani, gave themselves up to the care of the sick, at the peril of their own lives. These were so numerous, that a law was passed to limit their number. Codex Theodos. Lib. xvi. Tit. 2. leg. 42. (FELL.) Judith viii. ix. x. xi. • Esth. vii. viii. things, the GoD of the worlds; so that beholding the humiliation of her soul, he delivered the people, for whose sake she was in peril. 66 : 56. Let us, therefore, pray for those who are fallen into any sin; that meekness and humility may be given unto them, so that they may submit not unto us, but unto the will of GOD. For by these means they shall obtain a fruitful and perfect remembrance, with mercy, both in our prayers to GOD, and in our mention of them before his saints. Let us receive correction, at which no man ought to repine. Beloved, the admonition which we exercise toward one another is good, and exceedingly profitable for it unites us the more closely to the will of God. For thus saith the holy Scripture: "The LORD chastened and corrected me; but he did not give me over unto death.” "For whom the LORD loveth, he chasteneth, and scourge the very son whom he receiveth." "The righteous," saith he, "shall instruct me in mercy, and reprove me but let not the oil of sinners anoint my head with its fatness." And again he saith,* Happy is the man whom GoD correcteth: but despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. For he maketh sore, and again restoreth; he woundeth, and his hands make whole. Six times out of trouble he shall deliver thee: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine, he shall redeem thee from death; and in war he shall defend the from the hand of iron. He shall hide thee from the scourge of the tongue : neither shalt thou be afraid of evils when they come. shalt laugh at the wicked and sinners; neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. For the wild beasts shall be at peace with thee. Then shalt thou know that thy house shall be in peace; and the habitation of thy tabernacle shall not err. Thou shalt also know that thy seed shall be great; and thy offspring as all the grass of the field. And thou shalt come to the grave as ripe corn, that is taken in due time, like as a shock of corn cometh in, in its season." Ye see, beloved, that there is a protection to those who are corrected of the LORD. For he is a good instructer; and is Prov. iii. 11. Thou willing that we should be admonished by his holy discipline. 57. Do ye, therefore, who laid the foundation of the sedition, submit yourselves unto your elders;' and be instructed unto repentance, bending the knees of your hearts. Learn to be subject; laying aside all proud and arrogant boasting of your tongues. For it is better for you to be found in the sheep-fold of CHRIST little and approved, than to appear superior to others, and to be cast out of his hope." For thus speaks the excellent and all-virtuous Wisdom, "Behold I will pour out the word of my spirit upon you; I will make known my speech unto you. Because I called, and ye would not hear: I stretched out my words, and ye regarded not: but ye set at nought all my counsel, and disobeyed my reproof; therefore I also will laugh at your calamity, and exult when your desolation cometh; and when trouble cometh suddenly upon you, and destruction as a whirlwind, or when persecution or siege cometh upon you. For it shall come to pass, when ye call upon me, I will not hear you: the wicked shall seek me; but they shall not find me. For they hated knowledge, and did not seek the fear of the LORD: neither would they take heed to my counsels, but laughed my reproofs to scorn. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own ways; and shall be filled with their own wickedness." 58. Now GOD, the inspector of all things, the Father. of spirits, and the LORD of all flesh, who hath chosen our Lord JESUS CHRIST, and us, by him, to be his peculiar people, grant to every soul of man that calleth upon his glorious and holy name, faith, fear, peace, patience, long-suffering, temperance, holiness, and sobriety, unto all well-pleasing to his name: through our high priest and protector JESUS CHRIST; by whom be glory and majesty, and power, and honor, unto Him now and for evermore. Amen. 1 Pet. v. 5. * ἐκ τῆς ἔλπιδος αὐτον—perhaps we should read ἐκ τῆς ἐπαύλιδος—' out of his fold.' Prov. i. 23. The book of Proverbs is often quoted by this title, by the early Christian writers. • δεσπότης. |