Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily I/Chapter 1

The Clementine Homilies.

Books I. to V. have been translated by Rev. Thomas Smith, D.D.; Books VI.&#8211;XII. by Peter Peterson, M.A.; and Books XIII.&#8211;XX. by Dr. Donaldson.

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Homily I.

Chapter I.&#8212;Boyish Questionings.

I Clement, being a Roman citizen, even from my earliest youth was able to live chastely, my mind from my boyhood drawing away the lust that was in me to dejection and distress.&#160; For I had a habit of reasoning&#8212;how originating I know not&#8212;making frequent cogitations concerning death:&#160; When I die, shall I neither exist, nor shall any one ever have any remembrance of me, while boundless time bears all things of all men into forgetfulness? and shall I then be without being, or acquaintance with those who are; neither knowing nor being known, neither having been nor being?&#160; And has the world ever been made? and was there anything before it was made?&#160; For if it has been always, it shall also continue to be; but if it has been made, it shall also be dissolved.&#160; And after its dissolution, shall there ever be anything again, unless, perhaps, silence and forgetfulness?&#160; Or perhaps something shall be which is not possible now to conceive.