Friendship of God; How Secured.
216.
To this Peter answered:
I am exceedingly delighted, O Clement, that I commit my words to so safe a heart;
for to be mindful of the things that are spoken is an indication of having in readiness the faith of works.
217.
But he from whom the wicked demon steals away the words of salvation,
and snatches them away from his memory, cannot be saved, even though he wish it;
for he loses the way by which life is reached.
218.
Wherefore let us the rather repeat what has been spoken, and confirm it in your heart,
that is, in what manner or by whom the world was made, that we may proceed to the friendship of the Creator.
219.
But His friendship is secured by living well, and by obeying His will;
which will is the law of all that live.
220.
We shall therefore unfold these things briefly to you,
in order that they may be the more surely remembered.
Account of the Creation.
221.
In the beginning, when God had made the heaven and the earth, Genesis 1:1
as one house, the shadow which was cast by the mundane bodies involved in darkness those things which were enclosed in it.
222.
But when the will of God had introduced light,
that darkness which had been caused by the shadows of bodies was straightway dispelled:
then at length light is appointed for the day, darkness for the night.
223.
And now the water which was within the world, in the middle space of that first heaven and earth,
congealed as if with frost, and solid as crystal, is distended,
224.
and the middle spaces of the heaven and earth are separated as by a firmament of this sort;
and that firmament the Creator called heaven, so called by the name of that previously made:
225.
and so He divided into two portions that fabric of the universe, although it was but one house.
226.
The reason of the division was this,
that the upper portion might afford a dwelling-place to angels, and the lower to men.
227.
After this, the place of the sea and the chaos which had been made received that portion of the water which remained below, by order of the eternal Will;
228.
and these flowing down to the sunk and hollow places, the dry land appeared;
and the gatherings of the waters were made seas.
229.
And after this the earth, which had appeared, produced various species of herbs and shrubs.
230.
It gave forth fountains also, and rivers, not only in the plains, but on the mountains.
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231.
And so all things were prepared, that men who were to dwell in it might have it in their power to use all these things according to their will, that is, either for good or evil.
Account of the Creation Continued.
232.
After this He adorns that visible heaven with stars.
233.
He places in it also the sun and the moon,
that the day might enjoy the light of the one, the night that of the other;
and that at the same time they might be for an indication of things past, present, and future.
234.
For they were made for signs of seasons and of days,
which, although they are seen indeed by all, are understood only by the learned and intelligent.
235.
And when, after this, He had ordered living creatures to be produced from the earth and the waters, He made Paradise, which also He named a place of delights.
236.
But after all these things He made man,
on whose account He had prepared all things, whose internal species is older,
and for whose sake all things that are were made,
given up to his service, and assigned to the uses of his habitation.
The Giants: the Flood.
237.
All things therefore being completed which are in heaven, and in earth, and in the waters,
and the human race also having multiplied,
238.
in the 8th generation, righteous men, who had lived the life of angels, being allured by the beauty of women, fell into promiscuous and illicit connections with these;
239.
and thenceforth acting in all things without discretion, and disorderly,
they changed the state of human affairs and the divinely prescribed order of life,
so that either by persuasion or force they compelled all men to sin against God their Creator.
240.
In the 9th generation are born the giants, so called from of old,
not dragon-footed, as the fables of the Greeks relate,
yet men of immense bodies, whose bones, of enormous size,
are still shown in some places for confirmation.
241.
But against these the righteous providence of God brought a flood upon the world,
that the earth might be purified from their pollution,
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and every place might be turned into a sea by the destruction of the wicked.
242.
Yet there was then found one righteous man, by name Noah, who, being delivered in an ark with his three sons and their wives, became the colonizer of the world after the subsiding of the waters, with those animals and seeds which he had shut up with him.
Noah's Sons.
243.
In the 12th generation, when God had blessed men, and they had begun to multiply, Genesis 9:1
they received a commandment that they should not taste blood,
for on account of this also the deluge had been sent.
244.
In the 13th generation, when the second of Noah's three sons had done an injury to his father,
and had been cursed by him, he brought the condition of slavery upon his posterity.
245.
His elder brother meantime obtained the lot of a dwelling-place in the middle region of the world, in which is the country of Judæa; the younger obtained the eastern quarter, and he the western.
246.
In the 14th generation one of the cursed progeny first erected an altar to demons, for the purpose of magical arts, and offered there bloody sacrifices.
247.
In the 15th generation, for the first time, men set up an idol and worshipped it.
248.
Until that time the Hebrew language, which had been given by God to men, bore sole sway.
249.
In the 16th generation the sons of men migrated from the east,
and, coming to the lands that had been assigned to their fathers,
each one marked the place of his own allotment by his own name.
250.
In the 17th generation Nimrod the 1st reigned in Babylonia,
and built a city, and thence migrated to the Persians, and taught them to worship fire.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER NINE
Divisions 251-275
RECOGNITIONS 1
World After the Flood.
251.
In the 18th generation walled cities were built,
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armies were organized and armed,
judges and laws were sanctioned,
temples were built,
and the princes of nations were adored as gods.
252.
In the 19th generation the descendants of him who had been cursed after the flood,
going beyond their proper bounds which they had obtained by lot in the western regions,
drove into the eastern lands those who had obtained the middle portion of the world,
and pursued them as far as Persia,
while themselves violently took possession of the country from which they expelled them.
253.
In the 20th generation a son for the first time died before his father, Genesis 11:28
on account of an incestuous crime.
Abraham.
254.
In the 21st generation there was a certain wise man, of the race of those who were expelled,
of the family of Noah's eldest son, by name Abraham, from whom our Hebrew nation is derived.
255.
When the whole world was again overspread with errors, and when for the hideousness of its crimes destruction was ready for it, this time not by water, but fire,
256.
and when already the scourge was hanging over the whole earth, beginning with Sodom,
this man, by reason of his friendship with God, who was well pleased with him,
obtained from God that the whole world should not equally perish.
257.
From the first this same man, being an astrologer, was able,
from the account and order of the stars, to recognise the Creator, while all others were in error,
and understood that all things are regulated by His providence.
258.
Whence also an angel, standing by him in a vision,
instructed him more fully concerning those things which he was beginning to perceive.
259.
He showed him also what belonged to his race and posterity,
and promised him that those districts should be restored rather than given to them.
Abraham: His Posterity.
260.
Therefore Abraham, when he was desirous to learn the causes of things,
and was intently pondering upon what had been told him,
the true Prophet appeared to him, who alone knows the hearts and purpose of men, [Melchizedek]
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and disclosed to Abraham all things which he desired to know.
261.
He taught him the knowledge of the Divinity;
intimated the origin of the world, and likewise its end;
showed him the immortality of the soul, and the manner of life which was pleasing to God;
262.
declared also the resurrection of the dead, the future judgment,
the reward of the good, the punishment of the evil,
— all to be regulated by righteous judgment:
263.
and having given him all this information plainly and sufficiently,
He departed again to the invisible abodes.
264.
But while Abraham was still in ignorance, as we said to you before,
two sons were born to him, of whom the one was called Ismael, and the other Heliesdros.
265.
From the one are descended the barbarous nations, [Norse?]
from the other the people of the Persians,
some of whom have adopted the manner of living and the institutions of their neighbours, the Brachmans. [Brahmins?]
266.
Others settled in Arabia, of whose posterity some also have spread into Egypt.
267.
From them some of the Indians and of the Egyptians have learned to be circumcised,
and to be of purer observance than others, although in process of time most of them
have turned to impiety what was the proof and sign of purity.
The Israelites in Egypt.
268.
Nevertheless, as he had got these two sons during the time while he still lived in ignorance of things, having received the knowledge of God, he asked of the Righteous One that he might merit to have offspring by Sarah, who was his lawful wife, though she was barren.
269.
She obtained a son. whom he named Isaac, from whom came Jacob, and from him the twelve patriarchs, and from these twelve 72.
270.
These, when famine befell came into Egypt with all their family; and in the course of four hundred years, being multiplied by the blessing and promise of God, they were afflicted by the Egyptians.
271.
And when they were afflicted the true Prophet appeared to Moses, Exodus 3
and struck the Egyptians with ten plagues, when they refused to let the Hebrew people depart from them, and return to their native land; and he brought the people of God out of Egypt.
272.
But those of the Egyptians who survived the plagues, being infected with the animosity of their king, pursued after the Hebrews.
273.
And when they had overtaken them at the sea-shore, and thought to destroy and exterminate them all, Moses, pouring out prayer to God, divided the sea into two parts,
so that the water was held on the right hand and on the left as if it had been frozen,
and the people of God passed as over a dry road;
but the Egyptians who were pursuing them, rashly entering, were drowned.
275.
For when the last of the Hebrews came out, the last of the Egyptians went down into the sea;
and straightway the waters of the sea, which by his command were held bound as with frost,
were loosed by his command who had bound them,
and recovering their natural freedom, inflicted punishment on the wicked nation.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER TEN
Divisions 276-300
RECOGNITIONS 1
The Exodus.
276.
After this, Moses, by the command of God, whose providence is over all,
led out the people of the Hebrews into the wilderness;
and, leaving the shortest road which leads from Egypt to Judæa,
he led the people through long windings of the wilderness,
277.
that, by the discipline of 40 years,
the novelty of a changed manner of life might root out the evils which had clung to them
by a long-continued familiarity with the customs of the Egyptians.
278.
Meantime they came to Mount Sinai,
and thence the law was given to them with voices and sights from heaven, written in ten precepts,
279.
of which the first and greatest was that they should worship God Himself alone,
and not make to themselves any appearance or form to worship.
280.
But when Moses had gone up to the mount, and was staying there 40 days,
the people, although they had seen Egypt struck with the ten plagues,
and the sea parted and passed over by them on foot,
281.
manna also given to them from heaven for bread, and drink supplied to them out of the rock that followed them, which kind of food was turned into whatever taste any one desired;
1st Corinthians 10:4
282.
and although, being placed under the torrid region of heaven,
they were shaded by a cloud in the day-time, that they might not be scorched by the heat,
and by night were enlightened by a pillar of fire,
lest the horror of darkness should be added to the wasteness of the wilderness;
283.
—those very people, I say, when Moses stayed in the mount,
made and worshipped a golden calf''s head, after the fashion of Apis,
whom they had seen worshipped in Egypt;
and after so many and so great marvels which they had seen,
were unable to cleanse and wash out from themselves the defilements of old habit.
284.
On this account, leaving the short road which leads from Egypt to Judæa,
Moses conducted them by an immense circuit of the desert, if haply he might be able,
as we mentioned before, to shake off the evils of old habit by the change of a new education.
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