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ANF Pseudo-Clementine The Clementine Homilies
“And His sending to the scribes and teachers of the existing Scriptures, as to those who knew the true things of the law that then was, is well known. And also that He said, ‘I am not come to destroy the law,’[996] and yet that He appeared to be destroying it, is the part of one intimating that the things which He destroyed did not belong to the law. And His saying, ‘The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law,’[997] intimated that the things which pass away before the heaven and the earth do not belong to the law in reality.
“Since, then, while the heaven and the earth still stand, sacrifices have passed away, and kingdoms, and prophecies among those who are born of woman, and such like, as not being ordinances of God; hence therefore He says, ‘Every plant which the heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.’[998] Wherefore He, being the true Prophet, said, ‘I am the gate of life;[999] he who entereth through me entereth into life,’ there being no other teaching able to save. Wherefore also He cried, and said, ‘Come unto me, all who labour,’[1000] that is, who are seeking the truth, and not finding it; and again, ‘My sheep hear my voice;’[1001] and elsewhere, ‘Seek and find,’[1002] since the truth does not lie on the surface.
“But also a witnessing voice was heard from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him.’[1003] And in addition to this, willing to convict more fully of error the prophets from whom they asserted that they had learned, He proclaimed that they died desiring the truth, but not having learned it, saying, ‘Many prophets and kings desired to see what ye see, and to hear what you hear; and verily I say to you, they neither saw nor heard.’[1004] Still further He said, ‘I am he concerning whom Moses prophesied, saying, A Prophet shall the Lord our God raise unto you of your brethren, like unto me: Him hear in all things; and whosoever will not hear that Prophet shall die.’[1005]
“Whence it is impossible without His teaching to attain to saving truth, though one seek it for ever where the thing that is sought is not. But it was, and is, in the word of our Jesus. Accordingly, He, knowing the true things of the law, said to the Sadducees, asking on what account Moses permitted to marry seven,[1006] ‘Moses gave you commandments according to your hard-heartedness; for from the beginning it was not so: for He who created man at first, made him male and female.’[1007]
“But to those who think, as the Scriptures teach, that God swears, He said, ‘Let your yea be yea, and nay, nay; for what is more than these is of the evil one.’[1008] And to those who say that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are dead, He said, ‘God is not of the dead, but of the living.’[1009] And to those who suppose that God tempts, as the Scriptures say, He said, ‘The tempter is the wicked one,’[1010] who also tempted Himself. To those who suppose that God does not foreknow, He said, ‘For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all these things before ye ask Him.’[1011] And to those who believe, as the Scriptures say, that He does not see all things, He said, ‘Pray in secret, and your Father, who seeth secret things, will reward you.’[1012]
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