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136 A translation in accordance with the Latin version would run thus: "While a certain previous conception of divine power is nevertheless discovered within us." But adopting that in the text the argument is: there is unquestionably a providence implying the exertion of divine power. That power is not exercised by idols or heathen gods. The only other alternative is, that it is exercised by the one self-exitent God.
137 Ps. xxiv. 1; 1 Cor. x. 26,28.
138 [1 Pet. ii. 17. This appeal in behalf of the sanctity of man as man, shows the workings of the apostolic precept.]
139 The expression "conquered by brass or iron" is borrowed from Homer (Il., viii. 534). Brass, or copper, and iron were the metals of which arms were made.
141 Ps. lviii. 4,5. [It was supposed that adders deafened themselves by laying one ear on the earth, and closing the other with the tail.]
142 "They" seems to refer to sanctity and the word.
143 Ps. lviii. 4,5. [It was supposed that adders deafened themselves by laying one ear on the earth, and closing the other with the tail.]
146 [The impact of the Gospel on the slavery and helotism of the Pagans.]
148 [See above, p. 201, and below, the command "thou shalt love thy neighbor."]
149 Ex. xx. 13-16; Deut. vi. 5.
152 [Good will to men made emphatic. Slavery already modified, free-schools established, and homes created. As soon as persecution ceased, we find the Christian hospital. Forster ascribes the first foundation of this kind to Ephraim Syrus. A friend refers me to his Mohammedanism Unveiled, vol. i. p. 283.]
153 [The Catholic instinct is here; and an all-embracing benevolence is its characteristic, not worldly empire.]
155 [He seems to be thinking of 1 Tim. vi. 6, and 1 Tim. iv. 8.]
159 [Eph. v. 14, is probably from a hymn of the Church, which is here referred to as His, as it is adopted into Scripture.]
162 [A quotation from another hymn, in all probability.]
164 Heb. viii. 10-12; Jer. xxxi. 33,34.
165 Il., vi. 236. [The exchange of Glaucus.]
172 [Here are references to baptism and the Eucharist, and to the Trisagion, "Therefore with angels and archangels," which was universally diffused in the Christian Church. Bunsen, Hippol., iii. 63.]
174 ["Who is this that cometh from Edom," seems to be in mind. Isa. lxiii. 1.]
175 Clement here draws a distinction, frequently made by early Christian writers, between the image and the likeness of God. Man never loses the image of God; but as the likeness consists in moral resemblance, he may lose it, and he recovers it only when he becomes righteous, holy, and wise.
177 [Let me quote from an excellent author: "We ought to give the Fathers credit for knowing what arguments were best calculated to affect the minds of those whom they were addressing. It was unnecessary for them to establish, by a long train of reasoning, the probability that a revelation may be made from heaven to man, or to prove the credibility of miracles... The majority, both of the learned and unlearned, were fixed in the belief that the Deity exercised an immediate control over the human race, and consequently felt no predisposition to reject that which purported to be a communication of His will... . Accustomed as they were, however, to regard the various systems proposed by philosophers as matters of curious speculation, designed to exercise the understanding, not to influence the conduct, the chief difficulty of the advocate of Christianity was to prevent them from treating it with the same levity, and to induce them to view it in its true light as a revelation declaring truths of the highest practical importance."
This remark of Bishop Kaye is a hint of vast importance in our study of the early Apologists. It is taken from that author's Account of the Writings of Clement of Alexandria (London, 1835), to which I would refer the student, as the best introduction to these works that I know of. It is full of valuable comment and exposition I make only sparing reference to it, however, in these pages, as otherwise I should hardly know what to omit, or to include.]
2 [See Exhortation to the Heathen, cap. xi. p. 203, supra.]
3 The paedagogus. [This word seems to be used by Clement, with frequent alusion, at least, to its original idea, of one who leads the child to his instructor; which is the true idea, I suppose, in Gal. iii. 24.]