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

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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"I must decrease," said the prophet John, [3359] and the Word of the Lord alone, in which the law terminates, "increase." Understand now for me the mystery of the truth, granting pardon if I shrink from advancing further in the treatment of it, by announcing this alone: "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not even one thing." [3360] Certainly He is called "the chief corner stone; in whom the whole building, fitly joined together, groweth into an holy temple of God," [3361] according to the divine apostle.

I pass over in silence at present the parable which says in the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who cast a net into the sea and out of the multitude of the fishes caught, makes a selection of the better ones." [3362]

And now the wisdom which we possess announces the four virtues [3363] in such a way as to show that the sources of them were communicated by the Hebrews to the Greeks. This may be learned from the following: "And if one loves justice, its toils are virtues. For temperance and prudence teach justice and fortitude; and than these there is nothing more useful in life to men."

Above all, this ought to be known, that by nature we are adapted for virtue; not so as to be possessed of it from our birth, but so as to be adapted for acquiring it.

[3359] John iii. 30.

[3360] John i. 3.

[3361] Eph. ii. 20, 21.

[3362] Matt. xiii. 47, 48.

[3363] Prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance.

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