The Second 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.

But neither let it grieve your mind that we see[*](The prosperity of the righteous) the unrighteous enjoying wealth, and the servants of God oppressed.

Let us then have faith, brothers and sisters: we are contending in the contest of the living God, and we are being trained by the life which now is, that we may gain the crown in that which is to come.

None of the righteous has attained a reward quickly, but waits for it;

for if God should pay the recompense of the righteous speedily, we should immediately be training ourselves in commerce and not in godliness; for we should seem to be righteous when we were pursuing not

piety but gain. For this reason divine judgment punishes[*](This translation takes the aorist as gnomic, and regards spirit as meaning a human spirit. But Harnack prefers to take the aorist as historical and refers the passage to the fall of Satan.) a spirit which is not righteous and loads it with chains.