Chap. x.--vice is to be forsaken, and virtue followed.
Wherefore, my brethren, let us do the will of the Father who called us, that we may live; and let us earnestly 1 follow after virtue, but forsake every wicked tendency 2 which would lead into transgression; and flee from ungodliness, lest evils overtake us. For if we are diligent in doing good, peace will follow us. On this account, such men cannot find it, i.e., peace, as are 3 influenced by human terrors, and prefer rather present enjoyment to the promise which shall afterwards be fulfilled. For they know not what torment present enjoyment incurs, or what felicity is involved in the future promise. And if, indeed, they themselves only did such things, it would be the more tolerable; but now they persist in imbuing innocent souls with their pernicious doctrines, 4 not knowing that they shall receive a double condemnation, both they and those that hear them.
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Literally, "rather." ↩
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Literally, "malice, as it were, the precursor of our sins." Some deem the text corrupt. ↩
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Literally, according to the ms., "it is not possible that a man should find it who are"--the passage being evidently corrupt. [The evidence of C and S does not clear up the difficulty here, the reading of these authorities being substantially that of A. Lightfoot renders: "For for this cause is a man unable to attain happiness, seeing that they call in the fears of men," etc. Hilgenfeld (2d ed.) assumes here a considerable gap in all the authorities, and inserts two paragraphs, cited in other authors as from Clement. The first and longer passage is from John of Damascus, and it may be accounted for as a loose citation from chap. xx. in the recovered portion of this Epistle. The other is from pseudo-Justin (Questions to the Orthodox, 74) This was formerly assigned by both Hilgenfeld and Lightfoot (against Harnack) to the First Epistle of Clement, lviii., in that portion wanting in A. But the recovered chapters (lviii.-lxiii.) contain, according to C and S, no such passage. Lightfoot thinks the reference in pseudo-Justin is to chap. xvi. of this homily, and that the mention of the Sibyl in the same author is not necessarily part of the citation from Clement. Comp. Lightfoot, pp. 308, 447, 448, 458, 459, and Hilgenfeld, 2d ed., pp. xlviii., 77.--R.] ↩
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[Lightfoot, more literally, "but now they continue teaching evil to innocent souls."--R.] ↩
