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Clement of Rome

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Chapter 29

Let us also draw near to God in purity of heart.

Let us then draw near to Him with holiness of spirit, lifting up pure and undefiled hands unto Him, loving our gracious and merciful Father, who has made us partakers in the blessings of His elect.1 For thus it is written, “When the Most High divided the nations, when He scattered2 the sons of Adam, He fixed the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, and Israel the lot of His inheritance.”3 And in another place [the Scripture] saith, “Behold, the Lord taketh unto Himself a nation out of the midst of the nations, as a man takes the first-fruits of his threshing-floor; and from that nation shall come forth the Most Holy.”4

Notes

  1. Literally, “has made us to Himself a part of election.”↩
  2. Literally, “sowed abroad.”↩
  3. Deut. xxxii. 8, 9.↩
  4. Formed apparently from Num. xviii. 27 and 2 Chron. xxxi. 14. Literally, the closing words are, “the holy of holies.”↩

Translation by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and Frederick Crombie: The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. 1: The Apostolic Fathers (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1870).
Text from Project Gutenberg eBook #77576, proofread by Distributed Proofreaders from Internet Archive scans. Public domain.