As, then, for those of us who are diseased in body a physician is required, so also those who are diseased in soul require a pedagogue to cure our maladies. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.209

The physician is not evil to the sick man because he tells him of his fever, for the physician is not the cause of the fever, but only points out the fever; so neither is He, that reproves, ill-disposed towards him who is diseased in soul. For He does not put the transgressions on him, but only shows the sins which are there; in order to turn him away from similar practices... So that from these things it is clear that the Lord, going the round of all the methods of curative treatment, calls humanity to salvation. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.231-232

"Use a little wine," says the apostle to Timothy, who drank water, "for your stomach's sake;" most properly applying its aid as a strengthening tonic suitable to a sickly body… and specifying "a little," lest the remedy should, on account of its quantity, unobserved, create the necessity of other treatment. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.242

I therefore admire those who have adopted an austere life, and who are fond of water, the medicine of temperance, and flee as far as possible from wine, shunning it as they would the danger of fire. It is proper, therefore, that boys and girls should keep as much as possible away from this medicine. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.243

Ointment is to be employed as a medicine and help in order to bring up the strength when enfeebled, and against colds and flu. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.255

And as the physician ministers health to those who co-operate with him in order to health, so also God ministers eternal salvation to those who co-operate for the attainment of knowledge and good conduct; and since what the commandments command are in our own power, along with the performance of them, the promise is accomplished. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.536

What would be said, if, when you thought the doctor necessary, you were to find fault with his instruments, because they cut, or cauterize, or amputate, or tighten; whereas there could be no doctor of any value without his professional tools? Censure, if you please, the practitioner who cuts badly, amputates clumsily, is rash in his surgery; and even blame his implements as rough tools of his are. Your conduct is equally unreasonable, when you allow indeed that God is a judge, but at the same time destroy those operations and dispositions by which He discharges His judicial functions. We are taught God by the prophets, and by Christ, not by the philosophers nor by Epicurus. Tertullian (A.D. 198) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.3 pg. 309

For if, on account of those bad effects which we bring upon ourselves by eating and drinking, we deem it necessary for the health of the body to make use of some unpleasant and painful drug, sometimes even, if the nature of the disease demand, requiring the severe process of the amputating knife; and if the virulence of the disease shall transcend even these remedies, the evil has at last to be burned out by fire; how much more is it to be understood that God our Physician, desiring to remove the defects of our souls, which they had contracted from their different sins and crimes, should employ penal measures of this sort, and should apply even, in addition, the punishment of fire to those who have lost their soundness of mind! Origen (A.D. 248) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.4 pg. 295

I indeed, from no wish to flatter Christianity, but from a desire thoroughly to examine the facts, would say that even those who are engaged in the healing of numbers of sick persons, do not attain their object - the cure of the body - without divine help. Origen (A.D. 248) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.4 pg.407

But in seeking recovery from disease, a man must either follow the ordinary and simple method, and have recourse to medical art; or if he would go beyond the common methods adopted by men, he must rise to the higher and better way of seeking the blessing of Him who is God over all, through piety and prayers. Origen (A.D. 248) f. vol.4 pg. 662

“As many as I love,” said the Lord, “I rebuke and chasten.” And thus also it behooves the Lord’s priest not to mislead by deceiving concessions, but to provide with salutary remedies. He is an unskillful physician who handles the swelling edges of wounds with a tender hand, and, by retaining the poison shut up in the deep recesses of the body, increases it. The wound, must be opened, and cut, and healed by the stronger remedy of cutting out the corrupting parts. The sick man may cry out, may vociferate, and may complain, in impatience of the pain; but he will afterwards give thanks when he has felt that he is cured. Cyprian (A.D. 250) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.5 pg.441

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