Quotes From the Early Christians
Clement of Alexandria:
“The spiritual man will pray that he may never fall from virtue, giving his most strenuous cooperation in order that he may become unfailing. . . . Now that he has made it his choice to live perfectly, he subjects himself to training, for the attainment of the stability of knowledge on each side. . . . However, this is not apart from the exercise of will, or the force of reason, knowledge, and providence. Rather, it is through them . . .”
Clement of Alexandria:
“For it is in this manner that one truly follows the Savior: by aiming at sinlessness and at His perfection.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“Repentance, then, is a result of faith. For unless a man believes that to which he was addicted to be sin, he will not abandon it. And he must believe that punishment looms over the transgressor. He must believe that salvation belongs to the one who lives according to the commandments. Otherwise, he will not reform.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“He that repents of what he did, no longer does or says the things he did. . . . He, then, who has received the forgiveness of sins should sin no more.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“Being very merciful, God has promised a second repentance for those who fall into some transgression yet remain in the faith. In that manner, if anyone is tempted after his calling, and is overcome by force and fraud, he may still receive repentance. But he must not turn away from that repentance. ‘For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins.’ . . . But continual and successive repentings of sins does not differ at all from the case of those who have not believed at all.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“He, then, who from among the Gentiles and from that old life has come to faith, has obtained forgiveness of sins once. But he who has sinned after this should fear, even though he may obtain pardon because of his repentance, for he is as one no longer washed to the forgiveness of sins. . . . The frequent asking of forgiveness, then, for those things in which we often transgress is only the imitation of repentance. It is not repentance itself.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“True repentance means to be no longer bound in the same sins for which He denounced death against Himself. Rather, it is to eradicate them completely from the soul. For on their extirpation, God takes up His abode again in you.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“God gives forgiveness of past sins. However, as to future sins, each one procures this for himself. He does this by repenting, by condemning the past deeds, and by begging the Father to blot them out. For only the Father is the one who is able to undo what is done.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“When we hear, ‘Your faith has saved you,’ we do not understand Him to say absolutely that those who have believed in any way whatever will be saved. For works must also follow. But it was to the Jews alone that He spoke this utterance. Those persons were Jews who kept the Law and lived blamelessly. All they lacked was faith in the Lord. No one, then, can be a believer and at the same time be licentious.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“To those who were righteous according to the Law, faith was lacking. For that reason, the Lord, in healing them, said, ‘Your faith has saved you.’”
Clement of Alexandria:
“Rightly, then, to those who have believed and obey, grace will abound beyond measure.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“We have discovered faith to be the first movement towards salvation. After faith, fear, hope, and repentance (accompanied by temperance and patience) lead us to love and knowledge.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“‘For by grace we are saved’ – but not, indeed, without good works. Rather, we must be saved by being molded for what is good, acquiring an inclination for it. And we must possess the healthy mind that is fixed on the pursuit of the good.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“Neither praises nor censures, neither rewards nor punishments, are right if the soul does not have the power of inclination and disinclination and if evil is involuntary. . . . In no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate sins, . . . punishments are justly inflicted.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“The Lord clearly shows sins and transgressions to be in our own power, by prescribing modes of cure corresponding to the maladies.”
Clement of Alexandria:
“Choice depended on the man as being free. But the gift depended on God as the Lord. And He gives to those who are willing, are exceedingly earnest, and who ask. So their salvation becomes their own. For God does not compel.”
Clement of Rome:
“On account of his hospitality and godliness, Lot was saved out of Sodom when all the country round was punished by means of fire and brimstone, the Lord thus making it manifest that He does not forsake those that hope in Him, but gives up such as depart from Him to punishment and torture.”
Clement of Rome:
“For what reason was our father Abraham blessed? Was it not because he worked righteousness and truth through faith?”
Commodianus:
“If you wish to live, surrender yourselves to the second law. . . . Turn yourselves to Christ, and you will be co-workers with God.”
Cyprian:
“He shows that our prayers and fastings are of less avail if they are not aided by almsgiving. . . . Life is redeemed from dangers by almsgiving. Souls are delivered from death by almsgiving.”