The Precepts of Temperance

The Ten Commandments are precepts of temperance inasmuch as they make for moderation and right order in human conduct.In special, the sixth and ninth commandments are precepts of temperance, for they forbid inordinateness of sex in deed and desire, and this is something directly pertinent to temperance.

The precepts of the virtues allied to temperance as its parts are also found in the Decalogue. For, though the parts of temperance refer directly to a man’s selfrather than to God and neighbor, as the Ten Commandments do, yet their effects reach out to others, and this fact brings them under the preceptive force of the commandments. Thus anger,for instance, may lead to murder; pride may lead to the dishonoringof parents, and to sins directly against God. Thus the effects of sins opposed to the parts of temperance may come under the commandments directly.