, and were gone to their reward in heaven? Clement invites us to
contemplate Enoch, and Abraham, and David, and Elijah, and Job, with
many of their brethren in faith and holiness; he bids us look to them
with reverence and gratitude, but it is only to imitate their good
examples. He tells us to think of St. Paul and St. Peter and their
brethren in faith and holiness; but it is in order to listen to their
godly admonitions, and to follow them in all pious obedience to the will
of our heavenly Father, as they followed Christ. I must content myself
with a very few brief extracts from this Epistle[28]:

[Footnote 28: I am induced to mention here that two Epistles,
ascribed to St. Clement, written in Arabic, and now appended to
Wetstein's Greek Testament (Amsterdam, 1751), are believed by
many to be genuine, whilst others say they are spurious. At all
events they are productions of the earliest times. The
manuscript was procured at Constantinople. I have examined the
Latin translation carefully, and in some points submitted my
doubts to a very learned Syriac scholar. The general subject is
the conduct of those who have professed celibacy, whilst of the
invocation of saints no trace whatever is to be found. The
passages most closely bearing on the point before us are to the
following effect:

The writer urges Christians to be careful to maintain good
works, especially in the cause of charity, visiting the sick and
afflicted, praying with them, and praying for them, and
persevering always in prayer; asking and seeking of God in joy
and watchfulness, without hatred or malice. In the Lord's
husbandry, he says, it well becomes us to be good workmen, who
are like the Apostles, imitating the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, who are ever anxious for the salvation of men.

"Therefore (he adds, at the close of the first of these
Epistles) let us look to and imitate those faithful ones, that
we may behave ourselves as is meet in the Lord. So shall we
serve the Lord, and please him, in righteousness and justice
without a stain. Finally, farewell in the Lord, and rejoice in
the Lord, all ye holy ones. Peace and joy be with you from God
the Father, by Jesus Christ our Lord."] {83}

Ch. 21. "Take heed, beloved, lest the many loving-kindnesses of the Lord
prove our condemnation, if we do not live as is worthy of him, nor do
w