RECORDS OF THE CHURCH.

No. XVI.

THE HOLY CHURCH THROUGHOUT ALL THE WORLD DOTH

ACKNOWLEDGE THEE.

Extracts from the Address of St. Clement of Alexandria to the
Heathen.

AMPHION of Thebes, and Arion of Methymna, were both men
of song, but both a fable. And this song is sung to this day in
the chorus of the Greeks.-Now the one fascinated the dolphin,
and the other raised the wall of Thebes by his skill in music.
And that other Thracian sage,—a Grecian fable this too,―tamed
the wild beasts by the mere force of song, and transplanted the
beech-trees by his music. I can tell you of another story and
musician to match these; Eunomus, the Locrian, and the Pythian
grasshopper. The Grecian Festival was holding at Pytho, over
the dead serpent, and Eunomus was singing the song at the
reptile's grave; whether hymn or dirge I cannot tell. But the
contest was holding, and Eunomus was harping at the hour of
heat, when the grasshoppers were chirping along the mountains
under the leaves, basking in the warmth of the sun; singing,
however, not to the dead serpent, but to the all-wise GOD, their
free melody, better than the measures of Eunomus.-The Locrian
snaps a string—the grasshopper springs on the bridge, and chirps
on the instrument as on a spray. And the musician, suiting
himself to the note of the grasshopper, supplied thus the string
he had lost. The grasshopper was not led by the song of
Eunomus, as the fable would have it, consecrating at Pytho
Eunomus in brass, with his harp and his fellow-songster; but he
flew there of his own will, and sang of his own will. But to the
Greeks he seemed to have become an imitator of music.

B

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How is it then that ye believe vain fables, supposing that animals are enchanted by music; but the only beautiful face of truth, it seems, appears false to you, and falls under the eyes of unbelief? But Citharon, and Helicon, and the Odrysian mountains, and Thracian rites, the mysteries of error, are deified and celebrated in song. For my part, though they be but a fable, I am pained at the tragical exhibition of such horrors. But you make the celebration of evils your dramas, and the actors of your dramas, sights and pleasures. But for these dramas, and raving poets, utterly drunken as they are, let us tie them up with ivy, mad out of all reason in their Bacchic rites, and shut them up, with the satyrs and mad rout, and the rest of the band of demons, on the superannuated Helicon and Citharon. And let us bring down from above, from Heaven, Truth, with bright Wisdom, to the holy mount of GOD, and the holy quire of Prophets; and let her blaze forth her most piercing rays, and shed light around on those who wallow in darkness, and rid men of their error, reaching them her heavenly hand, understanding, for their salvation. And let them arise, and lift up their heads, and leave Helicon and Citharon, and dwell in Sion. "For out of Sion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem 1:"-the Heavenly Word, the noble combatant that is crowned in the theatre, of the universe. And my Eunomus sings not Terpander's measure, nor Capito's, nor Phrygian, Syrian, or Dorian, but the eternal measure of the new harmony, that bears the name of God, the "New Song," the Levitical.

"A charm for grief and rage, a charm for every ill 3."

A sweet and true medicine of persuasion is mingled in the song. To me then it seems that Thracian Orpheus, and the Theban, and the Methymnæan, were men not worthy of the name, cheats, who, under the pretence of music, corrupted the life of man, infuriating them to destruction by an artful illusion, making their orgies, of outrages, and their divine songs, of wretched deeds; and this first led men to idols. Yea, further, that with stone and wood, I mean with images and pictures, they built up

1 Is. ii. 3.

2 Ps. xcvi. 1. xcviii. 1.

3 Hom. Od. iv. 221.

the perversion of their habits, having by their songs and enchantments bound the truly glorious liberty of those who had p. 2 Sylb. dwelt under heaven, in the extremest slavery. Not such my musician! He is come at no distant period to overthrow the bitter slavery of tyrannizing demons; and, transferring us to the gentle and philanthropic yoke of true religion, invites again to heaven those who were cast down to earth.

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He alone ever tamed the wildest of animals, Men :-birds, the light among them; reptiles, the deceitful; and lions, the violent; swine, the voluptuous; wolves, the rapacious; but stones and stocks are the senseless; yea more senseless than stones is a man who is sunk in ignorance. Let the prophetic voice be our witness, in harmony with the truth, "for GoD is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham ';" who pitying the great ignorance and hardness of heart of those who were as stones to the truth, raised up a seed of piety, having sense of virtue, out of those stones, the Gentiles who believed in stones. Again, he has somewhere called some venomous, backward-striking hypocrites, lying in wait against virtue, "a generation of vipers 2;" but even of these serpents, if one should willingly repent, by following the Word he becomes a "Man of GOD"." Others he calls allegorically "wolves in sheep's clothing," meaning those who are ravenous though in the form of men. All these savage beasts, all such mere stones, hath the heavenly Word transformed into cultivated men. "For we were-we too once were foolish, disobedient, erring, enslaved to pleasures and sundry lusts, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another "," p. 5 Pott. as saith the Apostolic Scripture. "But when the goodness and mercy of GoD our Saviour appeared, not of works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His own mercy He saved us"." Behold what power had that new song! It hath made Men of stones, and Men of brutes. But they that erewhile were as dead, they that partook not of the true Life, having but heard the Song, revived.

This, moreover, both ordered the universe in due proportions, and tuned the intervals of the elements to the pitch of concord, 3 2 Tim. iii. 17,

'Matt. iii. 9. Luke iii. 3. 4 Matt. vii. 15.

2 Matt. iii. 7.
5 Tit. iii. 3.

Luke iii. 7.
6 v. 4.

7 v. 5.

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that the whole world might be his harmony: and let loose the sea, yet forbad it to trespass on the land, and again founded the earth itself that before was moveable, and fixed the sea to be its boundary; yea, and softened the impetuosity of fire by the air, as if tempering Dorian harmony with Lydian: and soothed the severe coldness of the air by the close enfolding with it of fire, mixing in due proportion these deepest tones of all things. Meanwhile the eternal Song, the support of the universe and the harmony of all things, reaching from the centre to the boundaries, and from the boundaries to the centre, has blended all we see, not after the Thracian music, which is like Tubal's, but after the paternal will of God, which David followed.

But He who is of David, and before him, the Word of God, passes by the lifeless instruments, the lyre and harp. And having, by the Holy Spirit, attuned this world and Man, that lesser world, his body and soul, maketh melody to GoD by that many-toned instrument, and singeth to it by this other instrument, Man. For thou art my harp, and pipe, and temple. Harp, because of harmony; pipe, because of the spirit; temple, because of the Word; that the one may sound, the second may inspire, the other may receive the Lord. And David too, the king and Psalmist, of whom we spoke just now, guided men towards the truth, and led them away from idols. So far was he from singing the praises of demons, who were put to flight by his true music, with which, when Saul was possessed, he but sang to him and recovered him.

A noble instrument of inspiration did the LORD frame Man, after His own image: yea, Himself, the super-mundane Wisdom, the Heavenly Word, is the All-harmonious Instrument of GOD, tuneful and holy. What meaneth then the Instrument, the LORD the Word of GOD, and the New Song ?-To unclose the eyes of the blind, to open the ears of the deaf, and to lead unto righteousness the lame or wandering. To show forth GoD to men without knowledge, to make an end of corruption, to conquer death, to reconcile the disobedient children to their Father. The Instrument of GOD is full of love to Man. The LORD pitieth, teacheth, exhorteth, warneth, saveth, guardeth, and promiseth us, over and above, the kingdom of Heaven, as the reward of learning;

taking but this return of us, that we be saved. For malice feedeth on the destruction of men; but the Truth, like the bee, hurting nothing, rejoiceth only in the salvation of men. Here then is the promise, here is His love toward Man, partake thou of His grace.

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And think not this Song of Salvation to be new in such manner as a vessel or a house, for it was "before the Morning Star'." And "the Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was God." But error is old, and therefore Truth seems new. If then the fabled goats prove the Phrygians ancient, or those poets who write them older than the moon, the Arcadians; or they who dream that that land first p. 3 Sylb. brought forth Gods and Men, the Egyptians; yet not one of them is before this world. But we are before the foundation of the world, who, in that we were to be, were begotten before in GOD Himself. We are the reasonable creatures of the Divine Reason [GOD the Word], through whom we claim antiquity, because "the Word was in the beginning." So in that the Word was of old, He was and is the Divine Original of all things, but in that he hath now taken a name, consecrated of old, worthy of His power, The CHRIST, this I call a new Song. CHRIST the Word, both was of old the cause of our being, for He was in GoD, and is now the cause of our well-being, and of all good to us, for He, the very Word, who alone is both GOD and Man, hath appeared unto men. Learning of him to live well, we are conducted to eternal life. that inspired Apostle of the LORD, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, waiting for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of the great GoD and our Saviour JESUS CHRIST 3." This is the new Song, the appearing, which hath now shone forth among us, of the Word that was in the beginning and before all things. The Saviour that was before hath lately appeared. He hath appeared who is in Him that is; for the Word, that was with GOD, hath appeared as a Teacher, even he by whom all things were created. The Word, who also in the beginning gave us life, in the act of

For, according to

1 Ps. cx. 3.

2 John i. 1.

Titus ii. 11-13.