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.

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.