Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 10

Since we have shown that the arrangement for converting humanity — an arrangement that is good and salvific — is necessarily received from the Word for repentance and for preventing sins, the next thing to consider is the Word's gentleness. The Word has been shown to be just, and he sets forth his own counsels, which are persuasive toward salvation; through these he wants us to know what is good and profitable by the Father's will (Proverbs 8:4-6). Consider these matters: the good belongs to the encomiastic mode, the profitable to the advisory mode. The advisory mode relates both to urging on and to turning away, while the encomiastic mode becomes both praising and blaming. How does the advisory mind become urging, and how does it become turning away? Likewise, how does the encomiastic become blaming, and how does it become praising? The righteous Paedagogus, who has aimed at our profit, is concerned with these very things. But the blaming and turning-away kind has already been shown to us earlier; now we must employ the urging and praising kind, and, as on a balance, weigh the equal weights of the just scales.

The Paedagogus therefore uses the urging toward what is profitable through Solomon, saying: "I call to you, O men, and I lift my voice to the children of men. Hear me, for I will speak noble things" (Proverbs 8:4-6) and what follows. He advises the things that save, because advice serves for choosing and fleeing, just as he does through David: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord" (Psalm 1:1-3). Advice has three parts: one takes its examples from past times — for instance, what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped the golden calf, and what they suffered when they committed fornication, and similar things; a second is understood from present times — that is, what is perceived by the senses, as was said to those asking the Lord, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" — "Go and tell John: the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me" (Matthew 11:4-6). This, then, is what David prophesied: "As we have heard, so have we seen." The third part of advice is constituted from future things, which commands us to guard against what will happen; as it is also said: "Those who fall into sins will be thrown into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12) and similar passages. It is clear from these that the Lord, through every therapy, calls humanity to salvation. With consolation he comforts sins, lessening desire and at the same time giving hope for salvation.