Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily VIII/Chapter 20

by Anonymous

Chapter XX.—Willing Captives.

“Having charged them to this effect, the angel departed.  But you are still ignorant of this law, that every one who worships demons, or sacrifices to them, or partakes with them of their table, shall become subject to them and receive all punishment from them, as being under wicked lords.  And you who, on account of ignorance of this law, have been corrupted beside their altars,^[1] and have been satiated with food offered to them, have come under their power, and do not know how you have been in every way injured in respect of your bodies.  But you ought to know that the demons have no power over any one, unless first he be their table-companion; since not even their chief can do anything contrary to the law imposed upon them by God, wherefore he has no power over any one who does not worship him; but neither can any one receive from them any of the things that he wishes, nor in anything be hurt by them, as you may learn from the following statement.

Footnotes

1. τοῖς αὐτῶν βωμοῖς προσφθαρέντες καὶ αὐτῶν ἐκπληρωθέντες.