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Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.
Clement of Alexandria in Print
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128 Pages
Page 56
Invective [1221] is a reproachful upbraiding, or chiding censure. This mode of treatment the Instructor employs in Isaiah, when He says, "Woe to you, children revolters. Thus saith the Lord, Ye have taken counsel, but not by Me; and made compacts, but not by My Spirit." [1222] He uses the very bitter mordant of fear in each case repressing [1223] the people, and at the same time turning them to salvation; as also wool that is undergoing the process of dyeing is wont to be previously treated with mordants, in order to prepare it for taking on a fast colour.
Reproof is the bringing forward of sin, laying it before one. This form of instruction He employs as in the highest degree necessary, by reason of the feebleness of the faith of many. For He says by Esaias, "Ye have forsaken the Lord, and have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger." [1224] And He says also by Jeremiah: "Heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly. For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewn out to themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water." [1225] And again, by the same: "Jerusalem hath sinned a sin; therefore it became commotion. All that glorified her dishonoured her, when they saw her baseness." [1226] And He uses the bitter and biting [1227] language of reproof in His consolations by Solomon, tacitly alluding to the love for children that characterizes His instruction: "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord; nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;" [1228] "For a man who is a sinner escapes reproof." [1229] Consequently, therefore, the Scripture says, "Let the righteous reprove and correct me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head." [1230]
[1221] Or, rebuke.
[1222] Isa. xxx. 1.
[1223] Lowth conjectures epistomon or epistomizon, instead of anastomon.
[1224] Isa. i. 4.
[1225] Jer. ii. 12, 13.
[1226] Lam. i. 8.
[1227] H. reads dektikon, for which the text has epideiktikon.
[1228] Prov. iii. 11, 12.
[1229] Ecclus. xxxii. 21.
[1230] Ps. cxli. 5.
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