Lactantius — Divine Institutes 6.22
But concerning the pleasures of taste and smell, which two senses belong to the body alone, there is nothing for us to argue, unless someone demands that we say it is base for the wise and good if he serves belly and gullet, if he walks smeared with unguents or crowned with flowers: which whoever does is foolish and worthless and one whom not even the scent of virtue has touched. Perhaps someone will say: why then were those things made, unless that we enjoy them?
And so God made all things to equip the contest of two things: as one reaches true good through false evils, so true evil through false goods.
Those delights must therefore be guarded against as snares and nets, lest caught by the softness of sweets we be reduced under death's dominion together with the body itself, to which we have enslaved ourselves.
Latin
Ad uoluptates autem saporis et odoris, qui duo sensus ad solum corpus pertinent, nihil est quod a nobis disputetur, nisi forte quis exigit ut dicamus turpe esse sapienti ac bono, si uentri et gulae seruiat, si unguentis oblitus aut floribus coronatus incedat: quae qui facit, utique insipiens et ineptus et nihili est et quem ne odor quidem uirtutis attigerit. fortasse quispiam dixerit \'cur ergo illa facta sunt, nisi ut iis fruamur?\' at enim saepe iam dictum est uirtutem nullam futuram fuisse, nisi haberet quae opprimeret.
itaque fecit omnia deus ad instruendum certamen rerum duarum. ergo mlecebrae istae uoluptatum arma sunt illius cuius unum opus est expugnare uirtutem iustitiamque ab hominibus excludere. his blandimentis et suauitatibus titillat animas: scit enim quia mortis est fabricatrix uoluptas. nam sicut deus hominem ad uitam non nisi per uirtutem ac laborem uocat, ita ille ad mortem per delicias ac uoluptates, et sicut ad uerum bonum per fallacia mala, sic ad uerum malum per fallacia bona peruenitur.
cauenda sunt igitur oblectamenta ista tamquam laquei et plagae, ne suauitudinum mollitie capti sub dicionem mortis cum ipso corpore redigamur, cui nos manciparimus.