Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 16

Those who are ready to labor for the highest good will not cease seeking the truth until they receive its proof from the Scriptures. Indeed, there are certain criteria common to all people, like the senses. But for those who have chosen and practiced the true things, there are technical terms for truth and falsehood that operate through mind and reasoning. The greatest task is to set aside mere opinion. One must stand between exact knowledge and reckless pretension to wisdom, recognizing that the one who hopes for eternal rest also knows that the entrance to it is laborious and "afflicted." But the one who has once been evangelized and declares, "I have seen the salvation," must not, in whatever hour he recognizes it, turn back to the things behind like Lot's wife, nor return to the former life that attends to the senses, nor waver toward heresies; for these contend in a similar way, not knowing the true God. "For the one loving father or mother more than me" (Matt 10:37) — the true Father and teacher of truth, the one regenerating, rebuilding, and nurturing the chosen soul — "is not worthy of me." He says such a person is worthy of being a son of God and a disciple of God together, both a friend and a relative. "For no one looking back and putting his hand to the plow is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). Yet, as it seems, to many even now Mary appears to be a woman who has given birth because of the child's birth, though she is not a woman who has given birth in the ordinary sense (for some say that after she gave birth, she was found to be a virgin still). Such are the lordly Scriptures to us: they give birth to the truth and remain virgins after the veiling of the mysteries of truth. "She has given birth and has not given birth," says the Scripture, as if from itself, not having conceived from a union. Therefore the Scriptures have been impregnated with the truth for the knowledgeable, but the heresies, not having learned as if not impregnated, are sent away. All people possess the same capacity for judgment: some follow the choosing Word and form their beliefs accordingly, while others, having surrendered themselves to pleasures, force Scripture to conform to their desires. It is necessary, I think, for the lover of truth to possess psychic strength; for those who attempt the greatest matters are bound to fail greatly unless they hold the standard of truth, having received it from truth itself. Such people, having fallen from the straight path, naturally fail in most particular matters because they lack a criterion of true and false things that has been rigorously trained to choose exactly what is needed. For if they possessed it, they would obey the divine Scriptures.