Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Since it is next in order, after the foregoing, to make our defense against the charges brought against us by Greeks and Jews alike — and in some of these difficulties the heresies that concern true teaching join in as well, in the same way as those already mentioned — it would be well, first clearing away what stands in the path, to proceed, ready for the resolution of these difficulties, to the Stromateus that follows.
First, then, they bring this very charge against us, saying that one ought not to believe because of the disagreement among the heresies; for with whom, they ask, is the truth to be found, when different people teach different doctrines? To these we reply that among you Jews as well, and among the most esteemed of the Greek philosophers, very many heresies have arisen. And surely it is not your claim that philosophizing, or Judaizing, ought to be avoided because of the disagreement among your own sects with one another. Furthermore, that the heresies would be sown alongside the truth, just as "the tares" alongside the wheat, was spoken prophetically by the Lord, and it is impossible that what was foretold should not come to pass; and the reason for this is that upon everything good, blame follows close behind.
Is it, then, the case that if someone should break the covenant and depart from the agreement made with us, we too should abstain from the truth on account of the one who falsified the agreement? No — rather, the honorable man must be truthful and must annul nothing of what he has promised, even if certain others break covenants. So too it is fitting that we, in no way, transgress the rule of the church; and above all, we keep the confession concerning the greatest matters, while they transgress it. One must therefore trust those who hold firmly to the truth. And already, using this defense in a broader sense, one may say to them that physicians too, though holding opposing views according to their respective schools, nevertheless heal equally well in practice. Does someone who is sick in body and in need of treatment therefore refuse to admit a physician on account of the divisions within medicine? Then neither should the one who is sick in soul and full of idols, for the sake of being healed and turning to God, ever plead the heresies as an excuse. Yes indeed, "heresies exist for the sake of the approved," it says. By "the approved" it means either those who come to faith, approaching the Lord's teaching with greater discernment — just as approved money-changers distinguish the Lord's unadulterated coin from the counterfeit — or those who have already become approved in the faith itself, both in life and in knowledge.
For this very reason, then, we need still greater care and forethought in examining how one ought to live with precision, and what true piety really is. For it is clear that because truth is difficult and hard to attain, the various inquiries have arisen; from which come the self-loving and glory-loving heresies, on the part of those who have not truly learned nor truly received, yet have taken up a conceit of knowledge. With greater diligence, then, must the truth that truly is be searched out, which alone occupies itself with the God who truly is. And upon toil follows sweet discovery and memory. One must therefore strip for the labor of discovery on account of the heresies, but not abandon it altogether. For when fruit lies before us, the one true and ripe, the other made of wax as closely resembling it as possible, one must not, because of the resemblance between the two, refrain from both alike, but must distinguish, by both comprehensive contemplation and by the most authoritative reasoning, the true from the merely apparent. And just as, when there is one royal road, but many others besides — some leading to a precipice, others to a rushing river or to a sea of deep water close inshore — no one would hesitate to travel because of this divergence of roads, but would use the safe and royal highway; so too, though different people say different things about the truth, one must not abandon the search, but hunt all the more diligently for the most exact knowledge concerning it. Since even among cultivated vegetables in gardens weeds spring up alongside them; do farmers, then, on that account abstain from the care of gardening? Having, then, many natural resources for examining what is said and for discovering the sequence of truth, we are obligated to use them. Wherefore we are justly condemned, we who, though we ought to be persuaded, do not assent, and do not distinguish what is contradictory, unseemly, contrary to nature, and false, from what is true, consistent, fitting, and according to nature — resources which must be used for the recognition of the truth that truly is.
Vain, then, is this excuse for the Greeks: for to those who are willing, it will be possible also to find the truth, while for those who put forward irrational pretexts, judgment is without defense. For do they deny, or do they grant, that proof of any kind can exist? I think all would grant it, except those who reject the senses altogether. And since proof does exist, it is necessary to descend into the inquiries and to learn thoroughly, by demonstration, through the very Scriptures themselves, both how the heresies went astray, and how it is in the truth alone, and in the ancient church alone, that the most exact knowledge and the truly best sect are found. Of those who turn aside from the truth, some deceive only themselves, others attempt also to deceive their neighbors. The former, called those of "seeming wisdom," who suppose they have found the truth, having no true demonstration whatever, deceive themselves, supposing they have found rest; and no small multitude of these, turning aside from inquiry because of the refutations it brings, also flee from instruction because of the condemnation it entails. The latter, who deceive those who approach them, are exceedingly cunning; and though they themselves are well aware that they know nothing, they nonetheless darken the truth with plausible arguments. But the nature of plausible arguments, I think, is one thing, and that of true arguments another. And we know that the very name "heresies" is necessarily used as the opposite term to the truth; and it is from that truth that the sophists, having torn away certain fragments for the ruin of mankind, and having buried them within the human arts they themselves have devised, boast of presiding over a school rather than over a church.
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