The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

For the Scripture says: But to the sinner said God: Wherefore dost thou declare my ordinances, and takest my covenant in thy mouth?

Thou hast hated instruction, and cast my words behind thee. If thou sawest a thief thou didst run with him, and thou didst make thy portion with the adulterers. Thy mouth hath multiplied iniquity, and thy tongue did weave deceit. Thou didst sit to speak evil against thy brother, and thou didst lay a stumbling-block in the way of thy mother’s son.

Thou hast done these things and I kept silent; thou didst suppose, O wicked one, that I shall be like unto thee.

I will reprove thee and set thyself before thy face.[*](The Syriac reads Set thy sins before thy face. This is no doubt a guess, but it gives the meaning.)

Understand then these things, ye who forget God, lest he seize you as doth a lion, and there be none to deliver.

The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me, and therein is a way in which I will show to him the salvation of God.