The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Clemens Romanus (Clement of Rome)

Clement of Rome. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. Lake, Kirsopp, editor. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1912.

Foolish, imprudent, silly, and uninstructed men[*](Exhortation against those who act otherwise) mock and deride us, wishing to exalt themselves in their own conceits.

For what can mortal man do, or what is the strength of him who is a child of earth?

For it is written There was no shape before mine eyes, but I heard a sound and a voice.

What then? Shall a mortal be pure before the Lord? Or shall a man be blameless in his deeds, seeing that he believeth not in his servants, and hath noted perversity in his angels?

Yea, the heaven is not pure before him. Away then, ye who inhabit houses of clay, of which, even of the same clay, we ourselves were made. He smote them as a

moth, and from morning until evening they do not endure; they perished, without being able to help themselves.

He breathed on them and they died because they had no wisdom.

But call now, if any shall answer thee, or if thou shalt see any of the holy angels; for wrath destroyeth the foolish, and envy putteth to death him that is in error.

I have seen the foolish taking root, but their habitation was presently consumed.

Let their sons be far from safety; let them be mocked in the gates of those less than they, with none to deliver; for what was prepared for them the righteous shall eat, and they themselves shall not be delivered from evil