** A. Clement the “Christian Gnostic.” **Wesley learned from Clement that there are three kinds of persons: the unconverted, the converted but immature, and the mature or perfect Christian. Each required spiritual instruction appropriate to their state. Clement’s three principal works (
Protreptikos, Paidagogos, and
Stromateis) addressed these three classes of persons.
[9] In
Stromateis, which Wesley cites and adapts, Clement repeats a Hermetic
[10] (Clement would say gnostic) vision of theosis in which the soul ascends to God by means of contemplative knowledge and wisdom.
[11]
In John and Charles Wesley’s
Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), a remarkable poem is included entitled “On Clemens Alexandrinus’s Description of a Perfect Christian.” It describes the vision of holiness as seen from a distance, and how the “mystic powers of love” can perfect the soul’s intent to cross over into the “simple life Divine” (
The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, 35). Likewise, in response to queries about the meaning of the term “Methodist,” Wesley in 1742 published a tract entitled “On the Character of a Methodist” based on Clement’s description of the “true gnostic” in Book Seven of his
Stromateis. Wesley’s “entirely sanctified Methodist” and Clement’s “perfect Christian gnostic” share common elements, according to Campbell: “Both stress prayer without ceasing, love of neighbor, obedience to God’s commandments, freedom from worldly desires and hope of immortality as characteristics of the
ideal Christian”… (42).
