Chapter LVII.—Let the authors of sedition submit themselves.

Ye therefore, who laid the foundation of this sedition, submit yourselves to the presbyters, and receive correction so as to repent, bending the knees of your hearts. Learn to be subject, laying aside the proud and arrogant self-confidence of your tongue. For it is better for you that ye should occupy²⁵⁵²⁵⁵    Literally, “to be found small and esteemed.” a humble but honourable place in the flock of Christ, than that, being highly exalted, ye should be cast out from the hope of His people.²⁵⁶²⁵⁶    Literally, “His hope.” [It has been conjectured that ἔλπιδος should be ἔπαύλιδος, and the reading, “out of the fold of his people.” See Chevallier.] For thus speaketh all-virtuous Wisdom:²⁵⁷²⁵⁷    Prov. i. 23–31. [Often cited by this name in primitive writers.] “Behold, I will bring forth to you the words of My Spirit, and I will teach you My speech. Since I called, and ye did not hear; I held forth My words, and ye regarded not, but set at naught My counsels, and yielded not at My reproofs; therefore I too will laugh at your destruction; yea, I will rejoice when ruin cometh upon you, and when sudden confusion overtakes you, when overturning presents itself like a tempest, or when tribulation and oppression fall upon you. For it shall come to pass, that when ye call upon Me, I will not hear you; the wicked shall seek Me, and they shall not find Me. For they hated wisdom, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; nor would they listen to My counsels, but despised My reproofs. Wherefore they shall eat the fruits of their own way, and they shall be filled with their own ungodliness.” …²⁵⁸²⁵⁸    Junius (Pat. Young), who examined the ms. before it was bound into its present form, stated that a whole leaf was here lost. The next letters that occur are ιπον, which have been supposed to indicate εἶπον or ἔλιπον. Doubtless some passages quoted by the ancients from the Epistle of Clement, and not now found in it, occurred in the portion which has thus been lost.