Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily VIII/Chapter 4

by Anonymous

Chapter IV.—Many Called.

Then Peter, wondering at the eagerness of the multitudes, answered,^[1] “You see, brethren, how the words of our Lord are manifestly fulfilled.  For I remember His saying, ‘Many shall come from the east and from the west, the north and the south, and shall recline on the bosoms of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.’^[2]  ‘But many,’ said He also, ‘are called, but few chosen.’^[3]  The coming, therefore, of these called ones is fulfilled.  But inasmuch as it is not of themselves, but of God who has called them and caused them to come, on this account alone they have no reward, since it is not of themselves but of Him who has wrought in them.  But if, after being called, they do things that are excellent, for this is of themselves, then for this they shall have a reward.

Footnotes

1. [With chaps. 4–11 compare the closely resembling passage, Recognitions, iv. 4–11.—R.]
2. Matt. viii. 11; Luke xiii. 29.
3. Matt. xx. 16.