Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
How, then, has he any more need of fortitude, who is not in the midst
of dangers, being not present, but already wholly with the object of
love? And what necessity for self-restraint to him who has not need
of it? For to have such desires, as require self-restraint in order
to their control, is characteristic of one who is not yet pure, but
subject to passion. Now, fortitude is assumed by reason of fear and
cowardice. For it were no longer seemly that the friend of God, whom
“God has fore-ordained before the foundation of the world” [Ephesians
1:4-5] to be enrolled in the highest “adoption,” should fall into
pleasures or fears, and be occupied in the repression of the
passions. For I venture to assert, that as he is predestinated
through what he shall do, and what he shall obtain, so also has he
predestinated himself by reason of what he knew and whom he loved;
not having the future indistinct, as the multitude live, conjecturing
it, but having grasped by gnostic faith what is hidden from others.
And through love, the future is for him already present. For he has
believed, through prophecy and the advent, on God who lies not. And
what he believes he possesses, and keeps hold of the promise. And He
who has promised is truth. And through the trustworthiness of Him who
has promised, he has firmly laid hold of the end of the promise by
knowledge. And he, who knows the sure comprehension of the future
which there is in the circumstances, in which he is placed, by love
goes to meet the future. So he, that is persuaded that he will obtain
the things that are really good, will not pray to obtain what is
here, but that he may always cling to the faith which hits the mark
and succeeds. And besides, he will pray that as many as possible may
become like him, to the glory of God, which is perfected through
knowledge. For he who is made like the Saviour is also devoted to
saving; performing unerringly the commandments as far as the human
nature may admit of the image. And this is to worship God by deeds
and knowledge of the true righteousness. The Lord will not wait for
the voice of this man in prayer. “Ask,” He says, “and I will do it;
think, and I will give.”
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.
[ch. 8]
...And in general terms, we shall not err in alleging that all things
necessary and profitable for life came to us from God, and that
philosophy more especially was given to the Greeks, as a covenant
peculiar to them— being, as it is, a stepping-stone to the philosophy
which is according to Christ— although those who applied themselves
to the philosophy of the Greeks shut their ears voluntarily to the
truth, despising the voice of Barbarians, or also dreading the danger
suspended over the believer, by the laws of the state.
And as in the Barbarian philosophy, so also in the Hellenic, “tares
were sown” by the proper husbandman of the tares; whence also
heresies grew up among us along with the productive wheat; and those
who in the Hellenic philosophy preach the impiety and voluptuousness
of Epicurus, and whatever other tenets are disseminated contrary to
right reason, exist among the Greeks as spurious fruits of the
divinely bestowed husbandry. This voluptuous and selfish philosophy
the apostle calls “the wisdom of this world;” in consequence of its
teaching the things of this world and about it alone, and its
consequent subjection, as far as respects ascendancy, to those who
rule here...
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.
[ch. 7]
As we have long ago pointed out, what we propose as our subject is not the discipline which obtains in each sect, but that which is really philosophy, strictly systematic Wisdom, which furnishes acquaintance with the things which pertain to life. And we define Wisdom to be certain knowledge, being a sure and irrefragable apprehension of things divine and human, comprehending the present, past, and future, which the Lord has taught us, both by His advent and by the prophets. And it is irrefragable by reason, inasmuch as it has been communicated. And so it is wholly true according to [God's] intention, as being known through means of the Son. And in one aspect it is eternal, and in another it becomes useful in time. Partly it is one and the same, partly many and indifferent— partly without any movement of passion, partly with passionate desire— partly perfect, partly incomplete.
This wisdom, then— rectitude of soul and of reason, and purity of life— is the object of the desire of philosophy, which is kindly and lovingly disposed towards wisdom, and does everything to attain it...
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.
Oh, and who is he (supposed to be)? Why, that is Dracula, Jr.
Whether Bram Stoker knew of real life criminal spirit people or not (though, for myself, I can't but help take for granted that he did), this passage from Dracula gives a very good illustration of the sort of technique someone like the ghoulish magician would use to deceive and, at the same time, torment someone one; insofar as the victim is played with and cannot reasonably conclude what necessarily is the cause of what is perplexing and or mystifying him.
"CHAPTER IV
"JONATHAN HARKER’S JOURNAL—continued
"'I AWOKE in my own bed. If it be that I had not dreamt, the Count must have carried me here. I tried to satisfy myself on the subject, but could not arrive at any unquestionable result. To be sure, there were certain small evidences, such as that my clothes were folded and laid by in a manner which was not my habit. My watch was still unwound, and I am rigorously accustomed to wind it the last thing before going to bed, and many such details. But these things are no proof, for they may have been evidences that my mind was not as usual, and, from some cause or another, I had certainly been much upset. I must watch for proof. Of one thing I am glad: if it was that the Count carried me here and undressed me, he must have been hurried in his task, for my pockets are intact. I am sure this diary would have been a mystery to him which he would not have brooked. He would have taken or destroyed it. As I look round this room, although it has been to me so full of fear, it is now a sort of sanctuary, for nothing can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were—who are—waiting to suck my blood...'"
Though I myself don't write much at this website as I used to, and for reasons I have stated before, I nevertheless would otherwise urge and recommend those interested and concerned about the subject -- and better situated than myself -- to attempt to get a better idea of the psychology and reasoning of criminal spirit people, specifically those who are in effect professional criminals. One thing that I have come to marvel at is their often supreme arrogance and confidence, and the idea that they themselves somehow are or else work for someone of highest authority. And yet what is this supposed authority based on?
If you are a thinking person and have dealt with these kind of people long enough, you come to learn that they do not attempt to deal fairly or candidly, there is no attempt at honest, above board negotiation when endeavoring to get at what they want or otherwise attempt to resolve a disagreement. What they essentially do is say you will do this as I want, and if not then I will do such and such. This they might attempt to mollify by throwing you a bone or do or seem to do you a favor, but otherwise that is how they operate. Based on this I am inclined to conclude that one of the possible reasons for their sense of grandiose self-importance has its origins in and on a situation that arose in something like this fashion.
"Ages" ago their beloved leader, call or name him what you will, reasoned thusly, saying "Now God, I am going to murder and torture such and such persons. If you do not prevent me, then I will have to assume it is all right for me to do this." God did not prevent him. Therefore, it must follow, he reasons, that he is divinely authorized and licensed to act as he does. Again, an interpretation of this kind seems likely based on and consistent with my own observations of and dealings with these people.
[ch. 3]
...And some say that plagues, and hail-storms, and tempests,
and the like, are wont to take place, not alone in
consequence of material disturbance, but also through anger
of demons and bad angels. For instance, they say that the
Magi at Cleone, watching the phenomena of the skies, when
the clouds are about to discharge hail, avert the
threatening of wrath by incantations and sacrifices. And if
at any time there is the want of an animal, they are
satisfied with bleeding their own finger for a sacrifice.
The prophetess Diotima, by the Athenians offering sacrifice
previous to the pestilence, effected a delay of the plague
for ten years. The sacrifices, too, of Epimenides of Crete,
put off the Persian war for an equal period. And it is
considered to be all the same whether we call these spirits
gods or angels. And those skilled in the matter of
consecrating statues, in many of the temples have erected
tombs of the dead, calling the souls of these Daemons, and
teaching them to be worshipped by men; as having, in
consequence of the purity of their life, by the divine
foreknowledge, received the power of wandering about the
space around the earth in order to minister to men. For they
knew that some souls were by nature kept in the body. But of
these, as the work proceeds, in the treatise on the angels,
we shall discourse...
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.
[ch. 2]
...From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the
soul; and he from the Egyptians. And many of the Platonists
composed books, in which they show that the Stoics, as we
said in the beginning, and Aristotle, took the most and
principal of their dogmas from Plato. Epicurus also pilfered
his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be
so. For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over
the subject in detail, to expose the selfish plagiarism of
the Greeks, and how they claim the discovery of the best of
their doctrines, which they have received from us...
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.
[ch. 14]
...Now the Stoics say that God, like the soul, is
essentially body and spirit. You will find all this
explicitly in their writings. Do not consider at present
their allegories as the gnostic truth presents them; whether
they show one thing and mean another, like the dexterous
athletes. Well, they say that God pervades all being; while
we call Him solely Maker, and Maker by the Word. They were
misled by what is said in the book of Wisdom: “He pervades
and passes through all by reason of His purity;” [Wisdom 7:24]
since they did not understand that this was said of Wisdom,
which was the first of the creation of God.
So be it, they say. But the philosophers, the Stoics, and Plato, and Pythagoras, nay more, Aristotle the Peripatetic, suppose the existence of matter among the first principles; and not one first principle. Let them then know that what is called matter by them, is said by them to be without quality, and without form, and more daringly said by Plato to be non-existence. And does he not say very mystically, knowing that the true and real first cause is one, in these very words: “Now, then, let our opinion be so. As to the first principle or principles of the universe, or what opinion we ought to entertain about all these points, we are not now to speak, for no other cause than on account of its being difficult to explain our sentiments in accordance with the present form of discourse.” But undoubtedly that prophetic expression, “Now the earth was invisible and formless,” supplied them with the ground of material essence...
...And how? Is it not similar to Scripture when it says, “Let us remove the righteous man from us, because he is troublesome to us?” [Wisdom 2:12] when Plato, all but predicting the economy of salvation, says in the second book of the Republic as follows: “Thus he who is constituted just shall be scourged, shall be stretched on the rack, shall be bound, have his eyes put out; and at last, having suffered all evils, shall be crucified.”
And the Socratic Antisthenes, paraphrasing that prophetic utterance, “To whom have you likened me? Says the Lord,” says that “God is like no one; wherefore no one can come to the knowledge of Him from an image.”...
...We are not, then, to think of God according to the
opinion of the multitude...
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 5.