Chapter V.—Use of Errors.

Then I Clement, hearing this, said:  “How say you, my lord, that even the falsehoods of the Scriptures are set forth happily for the proof of men?”  And he answered:  “The falsehoods of the Scriptures have been permitted to be written for a certain righteous reason, at the demand of evil.  And when I say happily, I mean this:  In the account of God, the wicked one, not loving God less than the good one, is exceeded by the good in this one thing only, that he, not pardoning those who are impious on account of ignorance, through love towards that which is profound, desires the destruction of the impious; but the good one desires to present them with a remedy.  For the good one desires all to be healed by repentance, but saves those only who know God.  But those who know Him not He does not heal:  not that He does not wish to do so, but because it is not lawful to afford to those who, through want of judgment, are like to irrational animals, the good things which have been prepared for the children of the kingdom.