Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
Such are the men who believe in their belly, "whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. "To them the apostle predicted no good when he said, "whose end is destruction."
Whose God, he says, is their belly. Let us see how Paul served God: let us see how gluttons serve their belly. Do not they undergo ten thousand such deaths? Do not they fear to disobey whatever it orders? Do not they minister impossibilities to it? Are not they worse than slaves? But our citizenship, says he, is in Heaven. Let us not then seek for ease here; there do we shine, where also our citizenship is. From whence also, says he, we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory. By little and little he has carried us up. He says, From Heaven and Our Saviour, showing, from the place and from the Person, the dignity of the subject. Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, says he. The body now suffers many things: it is bound with chains, it is scourged, it suffers innumerable evils; but the body of Christ suffered the same. This, then, he hinted at when he said, That it may ...
Let us build houses: where? On earth. Let us procure fields: on earth again. Let us get power: on earth again. Let us get glory: on earth again. Let us be rich: always on earth. These are the ones “whose god is their belly. .
Those who “glory in their shame” some think is a reference to circumcision. I disagree. To “glory in their shame” means to take pride in what they ought to conceal. For it is bad enough to do shameful things. But if the doer is ashamed, it is only half so terrible. When, however, someone preens himself on his own shame, that is the extreme of shamelessness. .
Your belly is given to you so that you may nourish it, not so that it may burst. Your body is given you that you may rule it, not so that you may have it as a mistress. It is given that it may serve you for the nourishment of the other members, not so that you may serve it. Do not exceed these bounds. The sea in flood does not so much harm to the boundaries as our belly does to our bodies and our souls. The flood overwhelms only part of the land. The god of the belly overwhelms the whole body. Set selfconstraint as a bound to it as God sets the sand to the sea. .
Which makes the slaves of the belly.
Deservedly, therefore, while they do not cover their head, in order that they may be solicited for the sake of glory, they are forced to cover their bellies by the ruin resulting from infirmity. For it is emulation, not religion, which impels them. Sometimes it is that god- their belly.
Not one of such women knows how to speak of the good of single-husband hood; for their "god "as the apostle says, "is their belly; "
