Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Basilides, in the twenty-third book of his Exegetics, speaking of those punished in martyrdom, says the following in these very words: "For I say, all who fall under the sufferings called afflictions, are being led to this good because they have sinned in other, hidden lapses, being in reality charged with other things through the goodness of him who leads them along, so that they should not suffer as condemned men for admitted wrongs, nor be reviled as the adulterer or the murderer is, but because they are, so to speak, Christians — which very thing shall console them, so that they do not even seem to suffer. And even if someone should come to suffer who has not sinned at all, this is rare, but even such a one will suffer nothing through the plotting of a power, but will suffer as the infant suffers, which seems not to have sinned."
Then, going on a little further, he adds: "As then the infant, though it has not sinned beforehand, nor indeed committed any actual sin, yet has within itself the capacity for sinning, so that when it is subjected to suffering it is in fact benefited, gaining much that is hard to attain — so likewise even the perfect man, should he happen to have done no wrong in deed, yet if he suffers, suffers this in a manner like the infant's; for having within himself the capacity for sin, though he has not taken the occasion to actually sin, he was not on that account sinless. For just as one who desires to commit adultery is already an adulterer, even should the act of adultery itself elude him, and one who desires murder is already a murderer, even if he proves unable to kill — so too, if I behold the person I call sinless undergoing suffering, though he has committed no wrong deed, I shall pronounce him guilty because of that desire to sin. For I would rather say anything at all than name providence evil."
Then, going on further, he speaks openly, as of a mere man, even concerning the Lord: "If, however, setting aside all these arguments, you come round to press me hard by bringing up certain persons, saying, for instance, 'So-and-so, then, sinned, for so-and-so suffered' — if you will allow me, I will say, he did not sin, but he was like the infant that suffers; but if you press the argument still more forcibly, I will say that whatever man you name is a man, and that God alone is righteous. For no one is clean, as someone has said, from defilement." But according to Basilides' hypothesis it is the soul that, having sinned beforehand in another life, endures its punishment here — the elect soul, honored through martyrdom, and the other soul purified by its own fitting chastisement. And how can this be true, when it lies within our own power whether we confess and are punished, or not? For the providence according to Basilides is undone in the case of the one who is going to deny.
I ask him, then, concerning the confessor who has been seized: whether, according to providence, he will bear witness and be punished, or not. For if he denies, he will not be punished. But if, from the outcome, he will also say that this man ought not to have been punished, he will unwittingly bear witness besides to the destruction, by providence, of those who are going to deny. And how, further, is the most glorious reward still laid up in heaven for the one who bore witness, on account of his bearing witness? But if providence did not allow the one prone to sin to come to sinning, it becomes unjust on both counts: both by not rescuing the one dragged to punishment for the sake of righteousness, and by rescuing the one who wished to do wrong — the one having done what he wished, while providence prevented the deed and did not deal justly with the one prone to sin.
And how is he not godless, who deifies the devil, yet dares to call the Lord a man prone to sin? For the devil tempts, knowing indeed what we are, but not knowing whether we will endure; but wishing to shake us off from the faith and to bring us under his own power, he tempts — which is indeed the only thing permitted to him, both because we must be saved by our own efforts, having taken our starting-points from the commandment, and because of the shaming of the one who tempts and fails, and because of the strengthening of those in the church, and because of the conscience of those who marvel at the endurance. But if martyrdom is a recompense exacted through punishment, then faith too, and the teaching, on account of which martyrdom comes about, are accomplices of punishment — and what greater absurdity than this could there be? But as for those doctrines — whether the soul passes into other bodies, and concerning the devil — these will be discussed in their proper season; for now let us add this to what has been said: where, then, is faith, if martyrdom comes about as recompense for former sins? Where is the love toward God pursued and endured for the sake of truth? Where is praise for the one who confesses, or blame for the one who denies? To what use any longer is right conduct, the mortifying of the desires, and the hating of none of the things created?
But if, as Basilides himself states, we take one sense of what he terms God's will to mean the cherishing of every existing thing, since all things hold a kinship to the whole, a second sense to mean craving nothing, and a third to mean bearing hatred toward not a single thing — then even punishments would fall under God's will, a notion impious even to entertain. For the Lord did not undergo suffering because the Father willed it, nor are the persecuted hounded through any will of God's — since one of two things must be true: either being hunted down counts as good because God wills it, or those who hunt and torment others bear no guilt. Yet in reality nothing occurs outside the will of the Lord over all. What remains, then, is to state briefly that these things happen because God refrains from stopping them; for only this preserves God's providence together with his goodness.
We must not, then, suppose that he actively brings about the afflictions — far be it from us to think this — but it is right to be convinced that he refrains from hindering the ones who carry them out, and that he turns the audacities of adversaries to good use ("I will tear down," he says, "the wall, and it shall become a place to be trampled"), such providence being a disciplinary art, applied in the case of others because of each one's own sins, but in the case of the Lord and the apostles because of ours. Straightway the divine apostle says: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of desire, like the gentiles who do not know the Lord; that no one transgress and overreach his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger concerning all these things, just as we told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification. Therefore whoever rejects this, rejects not man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you." It was, then, on account of this our sanctification that the Lord was not prevented from suffering.
If, then, in defense one of them should say that the martyr is punished on account of sins committed before this present embodiment, but will in turn receive the fruit of his right conduct in this present life — for so, they say, the administration has been ordained — we will inquire of him whether the recompense comes about by providence. For if it does not belong to the divine administration, then the arrangement of purifications is gone, and their hypothesis has collapsed; but if the purifications come by providence, then the punishments too come by providence. And providence, even if it begins to be set in motion, as they say, from the Archon, was nevertheless sown into the substances together with the very coming-into-being of the substances, by the God of all. This being so, they are compelled to admit either that the punishment is not unjust (and then those who condemn and persecute the martyrs act justly), or that the persecutions too are wrought by the will of God. No longer, then, do toil and fear, as they themselves say, befall these matters as rust befalls iron, but they come upon the soul from its own choosing.
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