Clement of Alexandria: INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS) - Part II, Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 27

Remember the four and twenty thousand that were rejected for fornication. [1514] But the experiences of those who have committed fornication, as I have already said, are types which correct our lusts. Moreover, the Paedagogue warns us most distinctly: "Go not after thy lusts, and abstain from thine appetites; [1515] for wine and women will remove the wise; and he that cleaves to harlots will become more daring. Corruption and the worm shall inherit him, and he shall be held up as public example to greater shame." [1516] And again--for he wearies not of doing good--"He who averts his eyes from pleasure crowns his life."

Non est ergo justum vinci a rebus venereis, nec libidinibus stolide inhiare, nec a ratione alienis appetitionibus moveri, nec desiderare pollui. Ei autem soli, qui uxorem duxit, ut qui tunc sit agricola, serere permissum est; quando tempus sementem admittit. Adversus aliam autem intemperantiam, optimum quidem est medicamentum, ratio. [1517] Fert etiam auxilium penuria satietatis, per quam accensae libidines prosiliunt ad voluptates.

[1514] [1 Cor. x. 8; Num. xxv. 1-9. Clement says twenty-four thousand, with the Old Testament, but St. Paul says twenty-three thousand; on which, ad locum, see Speaker's Commentary.]

[1515] Ecclus. xviii. 30.

[1516] Ecclus. xix. 2, 3, 5.

[1517] [Right reason is the best remedy against all excesses, argues our author, but always subject to the express law of the Gospel.]

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