Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 10

If we have now shown that the economy concerning the conversion of humanity, being good and salvific, is necessarily received by the Word for repentance and for the restraint of sins, it would be next to consider the gentle aspect of the Word; for this Word has been shown to be just and presents its own counsels, which are exhortative toward salvation, through which he wants us to know the good and the advantageous by the paternal will. Consider these things: the good belongs to the laudatory, the advantageous to the advisory; for the advisory has a relation to the protreptic and apotreptic, and the laudatory to the praiseworthy and blameworthy. For how does the mind, having the advisory, become protreptic, and how apotreptic? Likewise, the laudatory: how does it become blameworthy, and how praiseworthy? Concerning these things the just Pedagogue, who has considered our advantage, is most concerned. But since the blameworthy and apotreptic kind has already been shown to us before, now we must use the protreptic and praiseworthy, and as if on a balance let us weigh the just scales. The Pedagogue therefore, through Solomon, uses exhortation toward the advantageous, saying: 'I call upon you, O men, and I extend my voice to the sons of men: hear me, for I will speak noble things' and what follows (Proverbs 1:24). He advises the salvific things, because counsel is for choice and flight, as he does through David, saying: 'Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the pestilential; but his will is in the law of the Lord' (Psalm 1:1). The parts of counsel are three: one takes examples from past times, such as what the Hebrews suffered when they idolized the calf, and what they suffered when they fornicated, and the like; one is understood from present times, such as is perceived sensibly, as it is said to those who ask the Lord: 'Are you the Christ, or should we wait for another?'; 'Go and tell John: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead rise, and blessed is he who is not offended in me' (Matthew 11:28). This, then, was what David prophesied, saying: 'As we have heard, so we have seen.' The third part of counsel is established from future things, which it commands to guard against; as it is said: 'Those who have fallen into sins will be cast into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth' and the like; so that from these it becomes clear that the Lord goes through every healing to call humanity to salvation. With comfort he soothes sins, lessening the desire, and at the same time giving hope toward salvation. For he says through Ezekiel: 'If you turn back with your whole heart and say, Father, I will hear you as a holy people' (Ezekiel 18:4). And again he says: 'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' (Matthew 11:28) and the things following, which the Lord himself personifies. Most clearly he calls to goodness through Solomon, saying: 'Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the mortal who has found understanding' (Proverbs 3:13). For the good is found by the one who seeks it, and loves to be seen by the one who has found it. Yes, and through Jeremiah he expounds understanding, saying: 'We are blessed, Israel, because the things pleasing to God are known to us,' known through the Word, through whom we are blessed and prudent. For prudence is the knowledge through the same prophet, announced by saying: 'Hear, Israel, the commandments of life; give ear to know prudence' (Baruch 3:9). Through Moses he further promises a gift because of the philanthropy existing for those who hasten to salvation. For he says: 'I will bring you into the good land, which the Lord swore to your fathers' (Deuteronomy 6:10). And 'I will bring you into the holy mountain and gladden you' he says through Isaiah (Isaiah 56:7). There is also another kind of his pedagogy, the beatitude; and 'Blessed is that one' he says through David: 'who has not sinned, and he will be like a tree planted by the channels of waters, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall off' (these things also hinted at the resurrection) 'and whatever he does will prosper for him' (Psalm 1:3). He wants us to become such, that we may be blessed. Conversely, showing the opposite scale of the balance of righteousness, 'not so' he says: 'the ungodly, not so, but like the chaff which the wind blows away from the face of the earth' (Psalm 1:4). Showing the punishment of sinners, their fragility and instability, the Pedagogue has turned them away from the cause through rebuke, and stretching the punishment to what is worthy, he has shown the beneficence of the good deed, most skillfully for our use and possession of good things through this good deed. And indeed he also exhorts to knowledge through Jeremiah, saying: 'If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace forever' (Jeremiah 6:16); for he shows the reward of knowledge, calling the intelligent to love it, and giving pardon to the one who has been misled, saying: 'Return, return, as the grape-gatherer to his basket' (Jeremiah 6:9). Do you see the good of righteousness advising repentance? And again through Jeremiah he enlightens the truth to those who are misled: 'Thus says the Lord: Stand on the ways, and see, and ask for the eternal ways of the Lord, which is the good way, and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls' (Jeremiah 6:16). He leads to repentance for the sake of our salvation; therefore he says: 'If you repent, the Lord will purify your heart and the heart of your seed' (Jeremiah 4:14). It was possible for us to have taken philosophers as advocates for this quest, who say that only the perfect is praiseworthy, and the bad is blameworthy. But since some calumniate the blessed, as if it is not a thing that has it or gives it to another, not understanding his philanthropy, this Word has been left to us. For it was necessary to say that the rebuking and blameworthy kind of pedagogy is harmonious with humans, since they say all humans are bad; only God is wise, from whom wisdom comes, and only God is perfect, and therefore only God is praiseworthy. But I do not agree with this Word; I say, therefore, that praise or blame, or something similar to praise and blame, is most necessary as a remedy for all humans. Some, indeed, who are hard to persuade, are driven, like iron before fire and hammer and anvil, that is, by threat, rebuke, and rebuff; but those who attend to faith, as if self-taught and elective, grow with praise; for virtue, when praised, grows like a tree. And it seems to me that Pythagoras, the Samian, commands this, saying: 'Rebuke the cowardly, delight the good.' The rebuking and admonishing are called noutheosis, which is an implantation of the mind, as if the rebuking kind is a preserver of the mind. But countless commands have been found for the acquisition of good things and the flight from bad things; 'For the ungodly, there is no peace, says the Lord' (Isaiah 48:22). Therefore he commands the young to guard against this through Solomon: 'My son, do not let sinners deceive you, nor go in their ways, nor go, if they call you, saying: Come with us, let us share in the blood of the innocent, let us hide a just man in the earth unjustly, let us destroy him, as Hades does the living' (Proverbs 1:10-12). This is also prophesied concerning the Lord's passion; and through Ezekiel life gives the commandments: 'The soul that sins will die. But the man who will be just, who does justice, will not eat on the mountains, and has not set his eyes on the idols of the house of Israel, and will not defile his neighbor's wife, and will not approach a woman in her menstrual impurity, and will not oppress a man, and will return the pledge of the debtor, and will not commit robbery, will give his bread to the hungry, and will clothe the naked, will not give his money at interest, and will not take increase, and will turn his hand away from injustice, and will do true justice between a man and his neighbor, has walked in my statutes and kept my judgments to do them; this man is just, he will live, says the Lord' (Ezekiel 18:5-9). These things outline the polity of Christians and contain a worthy exhortation to a blessed life, a prize of good living, eternal life.