Clement of Alexandria: STROMATA (MISCELLANIES), Part V, Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 85

Wherefore we ought to offer to God sacrifices not costly, but such as He loves. And that compounded incense which is mentioned in the Law, is that which consists of many tongues and voices in prayer, [3559] or rather of different nations and natures, prepared by the gift vouchsafed in the dispensation for "the unity of the faith," and brought together in praises, with a pure mind, and just and right conduct, from holy works and righteous prayer. For in the elegant language of poetry,--

"Who is so great a fool, and among men

So very easy of belief, as thinks

The gods, with fraud of fleshless bones and bile

All burnt, not fit for hungry dogs to eat,

Delighted are, and take this as their prize,

And favour show to those who treat them thus,"

though they happen to be tyrants and robbers?

But we say that the fire sanctifies [3560] not flesh, but sinful souls; meaning not the all-devouring vulgar fire [3561] but that of wisdom, which pervades the soul passing through the fire.

[3559] [Again, for the Gospel-day, he spiritualizes the incense of the Law.]

[3560] Consult Matt. iii. 11; Luke iii. 16; Heb. iv. 12. [See what is said of the philosophic ekpurosis (book v. cap. i. [153]p. 446, supra, this volume) by our author. These passages bear on another theological matter, of which see Kaye, p. 466.]

[3561] [See useful note of Kaye, p. 309.]

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