Clement of Rome: EPISTLE TO CORINTHIANS Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 45

Chapter LII. — Such a confession is pleasing to God.

The Lord, brethren, stands in need of nothing; and He desires nothing of any one, except that confession be made to Him. For, says the elect David, "I will confess unto the Lord; and that will please Him more than a young bullock that hath horns and hoofs. Let the poor see it, and be glad." [232] And again he saith, "Offer [233] unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. And call upon Me in the day of thy trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." [234] For "the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit." [235]


[232] Ps. lxix. 31, 32.

[233] Or, "sacrifice."

[234] Ps. l. 14, 15.

[235] Ps. li. 17.


Chapter LIII. — The love of Moses towards his people.

Ye understand, beloved, ye understand well the Sacred Scriptures, and ye have looked very earnestly into the oracles of God. Call then these things to your remembrance. When Moses went up into the mount, and abode there, with fasting and humiliation, forty days and forty nights, the Lord said unto him, "Moses, Moses, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people whom thou didst bring out of the land of Egypt have committed iniquity. They have speedily departed from the way in which I commanded them to walk, and have made to themselves molten images." [236] And the Lord said unto him, "I have spoken to thee once and again, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: let Me destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make thee a great and wonderful nation, and one much more numerous than this." [237] But Moses said, "Far be it from Thee, Lord: pardon the sin of this people; else blot me also out of the book of the living." [238] O marvellous [239] love! O insuperable perfection! The servant speaks freely to his Lord, and asks forgiveness for the people, or begs that he himself might perish [240] along with them.


[236] Ex. xxxii. 7, etc.; Deut. ix. 12, etc.

[237] Ex. xxxii. 9, etc.

[238] Ex. xxxii. 32.

[239] Or, "mighty."

[240] Literally, "be wiped out."

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