________________
69
it is our aim to discover what doing and in what manner of living we shall reap the knowledge of the sovereign God, and how, honouring the divinity, we may become authors of our own salvation... now it is well-pleasing to Him that we should be saved, and salvation is effected through both well-doing and knowledge, of both of which the Lord is the teacher."-(Clement) A.N. C.L. vol. xii. p. 376.
"It is not simply doing well but doing actions with a certain aim, and acting according to reason, that the scripture exhibits as requisite." (Clement) A.N.C.L. vol. xi. p. 369.
all actions of the Gnostic may be called right action... that of the simple believer intermediate action; but that of every heathen ... are sinful."-Ibid. p. 369.
GL but we must be above both good and bad, trampling the latter under foot, and passing on the former to those who need them."-Ibid. p. 645.
•
FAITH, KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT
...
61
Such are they who are restrained by law and fear. For on finding a favourable opportunity they defraud the law, by giving what is good the slip. But self-control . . . perfected through knowledge... makes the man Lord and Master of himself."-(Clement) A.N.C.L. vol. xii. p. 455.
The significance of the expression giving what is good the slip' in the above quotation is this: there are three kinds of actions, namely, evil, virtuous and deifying. When a man enters the Spiritual Path he replaces vice by virtue (the doing of good to others) during the preliminary stage, that is, the Householder's Path, thus eliminating wickedness from his heart. deifying actions begin when Sainthood is reached. man then does neither good nor harm to anybody, but applies himself solely to the elimination of matter from his soul. Thus the giving the slip to good' does not mean a falling back into wickedness, but only a complete withdrawal of the mind from the outside world. In Jainism these three kinds of action are known as
The
The