Keeping, then, to our aim, and selecting the Scriptures which
bear on the usefulness of training for life, we must now compendiously
describe what the man who is called a Christian ought to be during the
whole of his life. We must accordingly begin with ourselves, and how we
ought to regulate ourselves. We have therefore, preserving a due regard
to the symmetry of this work, to say how each of us ought to conduct himself
in respect to his body, or rather how to regulate the body itself. For
whenever any one, who has been brought away by the Word from external things,
and from attention to the body itself to the mind, acquires a clear view
of what happens according to nature in man, he will know that he is not
to be earnestly occupied about external things, but about what is proper
and peculiar to man-to purge the eye of the soul, and to sanctify also
his flesh. For he that is clean rid of those things which constitute him
still dust, what else has he more serviceable than himself for walking
in the way which leads to the comprehension of God.
Some men, in truth, live that they may eat, as the irrational creatures,
"whose life is their belly, and nothing else." But the Instructor enjoins
us to eat that we may live. For neither is food our business, nor is pleasure
our aim; but both are on account of our life here, which the Word is training
up to immortality. Wherefore also there is discrimination to be employed
in reference to food. And it is to be simple, truly plain, suiting precisely
simple and artless children-as ministering to life, not to luxury. And
the life to which it conduces consists of two things-health and strength;
to which plainness of fare is most suitable, being conducive both to digestion
and lightness of body, from which come growth, and health, and right strength,
not strength that is wrong or dangerous and wretched, as is that of athletes
produced by compulsory feeding.
We must therefore reject different varieties, which engender various
mischiefs, such as a depraved habit of body and disorders of the stomach,
the taste being vitiated by an unhappy art-that of cookery, and the useless
art of making pastry. For people dare to call by the name of food their
dabbling in luxuries, which glides into mischievous pleasures. Antiphanes,
the Delian physician, said that this variety of viands was the one cause
of disease; there being people who dislike the truth, and through various
absurd notions abjure moderation of diet, and put themselves to a world
of trouble to procure dainties from beyond seas.
For my part, I am sorry for this disease, while they are not ashamed
to sing the praises of their delicacies, giving themselves great trouble
to get lampreys in the Straits of Sicily, the eels of the Maeander, and
the kids found in Melos, and the mullets in Sciathus, and the mussels of
Pelorus, the oysters of Abydos, not omitting the sprats found in Lipara,
and the Mantinican turnip; and furthermore, the beetroot that grows among
the Ascraeans: they seek out the cockles of Methymna, the turbots of Attica,
and the thrushes of Daphnis, and the reddish-brown dried figs, on account
of which the ill-starred Persian marched into Greece with five hundred
thousand men. Besides these, they purchase birds from Phasis, the Egyptian
snipes, and the Median peafowl. Altering these by means of condiments,
the gluttons gape for the sauces. "Whatever earth and the depths of the
sea, and the unmeasured space of the air produce," they cater for their
gluttony. In their greed and solicitude, the gluttons seem absolutely to
sweep the world with a drag-net to gratify their luxurious tastes. These
gluttons, surrounded with the sound of hissing frying-pans, and wearing
their whole life away at the pestle and mortar, cling to matter like fire.
More than that, they emasculate plain food, namely bread, by straining
off the nourishing part of the grain, so that the necessary part of food
becomes matter of reproach to luxury. There is no limit to epicurism among
men. For it has driven them to sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, and sugar-plums;
inventing a multitude of desserts, hunting after all manner of dishes.
A man like this seems to me to be all jaw, and nothing else. "Desire not,"
says the Scripture, "rich men's dainties; " for they belong to a false
and base life. They partake of luxurious dishes, which a little after go
to the dunghill. But we who seek the heavenly bread must role the belly,
which is beneath heaven, and much more the things which are agreeable to
it, which "God shall destroy," says the apostle, justly execrating gluttonous
desires. For "meats are for the belly," for on them depends this truly
carnal and destructive life; whence some, speaking with unbridled tongue,
dare to apply the name agape, to pitiful suppers, redolent of savour and
sauces. Dishonouring the good and saving work of the Word, the consecrated
agape, with pots and pouring of sauce; and by drink and delicacies and
smoke desecrating that name, they are deceived in their idea, having expected
that the promise of God might be bought with suppers. Gatherings for the
sake of mirth, and such entertainments as are called by ourselves, we name
rightly suppers, dinners, and banquets, after the example of the Lord.
But such entertainments the Lord has not called agapae. He says accordingly
somewhere, "When thou art called to a wedding, recline not on the highest
couch; but when thou art called, fall into the lowest place; " and elsewhere,
"When thou makest a dinner or a supper; "and again, "But when thou makest
an entertainment, call the poor," for whose sake chiefly a supper ought
to be made. And further, "A certain man made a great supper, and called
many." But I perceive whence the specious appellation of suppers flowed:
"from the gullets and furious love for suppers"-according to the comic
poet. For, in truth, "to many, many things are on account of the supper."
For they have not yet learned that God has provided for His creature (man
I mean) food and drink, for sustenance, not for pleasure; since the body
derives no advantage from extravagance in viands. For, quite the contrary,
those who use the most frugal fare are the strongest and the healthiest,
and the noblest; as domestics are healthier and stronger than their masters,
and husbandmen than the proprietors; and not only more robust, but wiser,
as philosophers are wiser than rich men. For they have not buried the mind
beneath food, nor deceived it with pleasures. But love (agape) is in truth
celestial food, the banquet of reason. "It beareth all things, endureth
all things, hopeth all things. Love never faileth." "Blessed is he who
shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." But the hardest of all cases is
for charity, which faileth not, to be cast from heaven above to the ground
into the midst of sauces. And do you imagine that I am thinking of a supper
that is to be done away with? "For if," it is said, "I bestow all my goods,
and have not love, I am nothing." On this love alone depend the law and
the Word; and if "thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbour,"
this is the celestial festival in the heavens. But the earthly is called
a supper, as has been shown from Scripture. For the supper is made for
love, but the supper is not love (agape); only a proof of mutual and reciprocal
kindly feeling. "Let not, then, your good be evil spoken of; for the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink," says the apostle, in order that the meal
spoken of may not be conceived as ephemeral, "but righteousness, and peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost." He who eats of this meal, the best of all,
shall possess the kingdom of God, fixing his regards here on the holy assembly
of love, the heavenly Church. Love, then, is something pure and worthy
of God, and its work is communication. "And the care of discipline is love,"
as Wisdom says; "and love is the keeping of the law." And these joys have
an inspiration of love from the public nutriment, which accustoms to everlasting
dainties. Love (agape), then, is not a supper. But let the entertainment
depend on love. For it is said, "Let the children whom Thou hast loved,
O Lord, learn that it is not the products of fruits that nourish man; but
it is Thy word which preserves those who believe on Thee." "For the righteous
shall not live by bread." But let our diet be light and digestible, and
suitable for keeping awake, unmixed with diverse varieties. Nor is this
a point which is beyond the sphere of discipline. For love is a good nurse
for communication; having as its rich provision sufficiency, which, presiding
over diet measured in due quantity, and treating the body in a healthful
way, distributes something from its resources to those near us, But the
diet which exceeds sufficiency injures a man, deteriorates his spirit,
and renders his body prone to disease. Besides, those dainty tastes, which
trouble themselves about rich dishes drive to practices of ill-repute,
daintiness, gluttony, greed, voracity, insatiability. Appropriate designations
of such people as so indulge are flies, weasels, flatterers, gladiators,
and the monstrous tribes of parasites-the one class surrendering reason,
the other friendship, and the other life, for the gratification of the
belly; crawling on their bellies, beasts in human shape after the image
of their father, the voracious beast. People first called the abandoneda0sw/touj,
and so appear to me to indicate their end, understanding them as those
who are (a0sw/souj) unsaved, excluding the j. For those that are absorbed
in pots, and exquisitely prepared niceties of condiments, are they not
plainly abject, earth-born, leading an ephemeral kind of life, as if they
were not to live [hereafter]? Those the Holy Spirit, by Isaiah, denounces
as wretched, depriving them tacitly of the name of love (agape), since
their feasting was not in accordance with the word. "But they made mirth,
killing calves, and sacrificing sheep, saying, Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die." And that He reckons such luxury to be sin, is shown
by what He adds, "And your sin shall not be forgiven you till you die,"
-not conveying the idea that death, which deprives of sensation, is the
forgiveness of sin, but meaning that death of salvation which is the recompense
of sin. "Take no pleasure in abominable delicacies, says Wisdom. At this
point, too, we have to advert to what are called things sacrificed to idols,
in order to show how we are enjoined to abstain from them. Polluted and
abominable those things seem to me, to the blood of which, fly
"Souls from Erebus of inanimate corpses."
"For I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons," says the
apostle; since the food of those who are saved and those who perish is
separate. We must therefore abstain from these viands not for fear (because
there is no power in them); but on account of our conscience, which is
holy, and out of detestation of the demons to which they are dedicated,
are we to loathe them; and further, on account of the instability of those
who regard many things in a way that makes them prone to fall, "whose conscience,
being weak, is defiled: for meat commendeth us not to God." "For it is
not that which entereth in that defileth a man, but that which goeth out
of his mouth." The natural use of food is then indifferent. "For neither
if we eat are we the better," it is said, "nor if we eat not are we the
worse." But it is inconsistent with reason, for those that have been made
worthy to share divine and spiritual food, to partake of the tables of
demons. "Have we not power to eat and to drink," says the apostle, "and
to lead about wives"? But by keeping pleasures under command we prevent
lusts. See, then, that this power of yours never "become a stumbling-block
to the weak."
For it were not seemly that we, after the fashion of the rich man's
son in the Gospel, should, as prodigals, abuse the Father's gifts; but
we should use them, without undue attachment to them, as having command
over ourselves. For we are enjoined to reign and rule over meats, not to
be slaves to them. It is an admirable thing, therefore, to raise our eyes
aloft to what is true, to depend on that divine food above, and to satiate
ourselves with the exhaustless contemplation of that which truly exists,
and so taste of the only sure and pure delight. For such is the agape,
which, the food that comes from Christ shows that we ought to partake of.
But totally irrational, futile, and not human is it for those that are
of the earth, fattening themselves like cattle, to feed themselves up for
death; looking downwards on the earth, and bending ever over tables; leading
a life of gluttony; burying all the good of existence here in a life that
by and by will end; courting voracity alone, in respect to which cooks
are held in higher esteem than husbandmen. For we do not abolish social
intercourse, but look with suspicion on the snares of custom, and regard
them as a calamity. Wherefore daintiness is to be shunned, and we are to
partake of few and necessary things. "And if one of the unbelievers call
us to a feast, and we determine to go" (for it is a good thing not to mix
with the dissolute), the apostle bids us "eat what is set before us, asking
no questions for conscience sake." Similarly he has enjoined to purchase
"what is sold in the shambles," without curious questioning.
We are not, then, to abstain wholly from various kinds of food, but
only are not to be taken up about them. We are to partake of what is set
before us, as becomes a Christian, out of respect to him who has invited
us, by a harmless and moderate participation in the social meeting; regarding
the sumptuousness of what is put on the table as a matter of indifference,
despising the dainties, as after a little destined to perish. "Let him
who eateth, not despise him who eateth not; and let him who eateth not,
not judge him who eateth." And a little way on he explains the reason of
the command, when he says, "He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, and giveth
God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth
God thanks." So that the right food is thanksgiving. And he who gives thanks
does not occupy his time in pleasures. And if we would persuade any of
our fellow-guests to virtue, we are all the more on this account to abstain
from those dainty dishes; and so exhibit ourselves as a bright pattern
of virtue, such as we ourselves have in Christ. "For if any of such meats
make a brother to stumble, I shall not eat it as long as the world lasts,"
says he, "that I may not make my brother stumble." I gain the man by a
little self-restraint. "Have we not power to eat and to drink? " And "we
know"-he says the truth-"that an idol is nothing in the world; but we have
only one true God, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus. But," he
says, "through thy knowledge thy weak brother perishes, for whom Christ
died; and they that wound the conscience of the weak brethren sin against
Christ." Thus the apostle, in his solicitude for us, discriminates in the
case of entertainments, saying, that "if any one called a brother be found
a fornicator, or an adulterer, or an idolater, with such an one not to
eat; " neither in discourse or food are we to join, looking with suspicion
on the pollution thence proceeding, as on the tables of the demons. "It
is good, then, neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine," as both he and
the Pythagoreans acknowledge. For this is rather characteristic of a beast;
and the fumes arising from them being dense, darken the soul. If one partakes
of them, he does not sin. Only let him partake temperately, not dependent
on them, nor gaping after fine fare. For a voice will whisper to him, saying,
"Destroy not the work of God for the sake of food." For it is the mark
of a silly mind to be amazed and stupefied at what is presented at vulgar
banquets, after the rich fare which is in the Word; and much sillier to
make one's eyes the slaves of the delicacies, so that one's greed is, so
to speak, carried round by the servants. And how foolish for people to
raise themselves on the couches, all but pitching their faces into the
dishes, stretching out from the couch as from a nest, according to the
common saying, "that they may catch the wandering steam by breathing it
in!" And how senseless, to besmear their hands with the condiments, and
to be constantly reaching to the sauce, cramming themselves immoderately
and shamelessly, not like people tasting, but ravenously seizing! For you
may see such people, liker swine or dogs for gluttony than men, in such
a hurry to feed themselves full, that both jaws are stuffed out at once,
the veins about the face raised, and besides, the perspiration running
all over, as they are tightened with their insatiable greed, and panting
with their excess; the food pushed with unsocial eagerness into their stomach,
as if they were stowing away their victuals for provision for a journey,
not for digestion. Excess, which in all things is an evil, is very highly
reprehensible in the matter of food. Gluttony, called o0yofagi/a, is nothing
but excess in the use of relishes (o !yon); and laimargi/a is insanity
with respect to the gullet; and gastrimargi/a is excess with respect to
food-insanity in reference to the belly, as the name implies; for ma/rgoj
is a madman. The apostle, checking those that transgress in their conduct
at entertainments, says: "For every one taketh beforehand in eating his
own supper; and one is hungry, and another drunken. Have ye not houses
to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame those
who have not? " And among those who have, they, who eat shamelessly and
are insatiable, shame themselves. And both act badly; the one by paining
those who have not, the other by exposing their own greed in the presence
of those who have. Necessarily, therefore, against those who have cast
off shame and unsparingly abuse meals, the insatiable to whom nothing is
sufficient, the apostle, in continuation, again breaks forth in a voice
of displeasure: "So that, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, wait
for one another. And if any one is hungry, let him eat at home, that ye
come not together to condemnation."
From all slavish habits and excess we must abstain, and touch what is
set before us in a decorous way; keeping the hand and couch and chin free
of stains; preserving the grace of the countenance undisturbed, and committing
no indecorum in the act of swallowing; but stretching out the hand at intervals
in an orderly manner. We must guard against speaking anything while eating:
for the voice becomes disagreeable and inarticulate when it is confined
by full jaws; and the tongue, pressed by the food and impeded in its natural
energy; gives forth a compressed utterance. Nor is it suitable to eat and
to drink simultaneously. For it is the very extreme of intemperance to
confound the times whose uses are discordant. And "whether ye eat or drink,
do all to the glory of God," aiming after true frugality, which the Lord
also seems to me to have hinted at when He blessed the loaves and the cooked
fishes with which He feasted the disciples, introducing a beautiful example
of simple food. That fish then which, at the command of the Lord, Peter
caught, points to digestible and God-given and moderate food. And by those
who rise from the water to the bait of righteousness, He admonishes us
to take away luxury and avarice, as the coin from the fish; in order that
He might displace vainglory; and by giving the stater to the tax-gatherers,
and "rendering to Caesar the things which are Caesar's," might preserve
"to God the things which are God's." The staler is capable of other explanations
not unknown to us, but the present is not a suitable occasion for their
treatment. Let the mention we make for our present purpose suffice, as
it is not unsuitable to the flowers of the Word; and we have often done
this, drawing to the urgent point of the question the most beneficial fountain,
in order to water those who have been planted by the Word. "For if it is
lawful for me to partake of all things, yet all things are not expedient."
For those that do all that is lawful, quickly fall into doing what is unlawful.
And just as righteousness is not attained by avarice, nor temperance by
excess; so neither is the regimen of a Christian formed by indulgence;
for the table of truth is far from lascivious dainties. For though it was
chiefly for men's sake that all things were made, yet it is not good to
use all things, nor at all times. For the occasion, and the time, and the
mode, and the intention, materially turn the balance with reference to
what is useful, in the view of one who is rightly instructed; and this
is suitable, and has influence in putting a stop to a life of gluttony,
which wealth is prone to choose, not that wealth which sees clearly, but
that abundance which makes a man blind with reference to gluttony. No one
is poor as regards necessaries, and a man is never overlooked. For there
is one God who feeds the fowls and the fishes, and, in a word, the irrational
creatures; and not one thing whatever is wanting to them, though "they
take no thought for their food." And we are better than they, being their
lords, and more closely allied to God, as being wiser; and we were made,
not that we might eat and drink, but that we might devote ourselves to
the knowledge of God. "For the just man who eats is satisfied in his soul,
but the belly of the wicked shall want," filled with the appetites of insatiable
gluttony. Now lavish expense is adapted not for enjoyment alone, but also
for social communication. Wherefore we must guard against those articles
of food which persuade us to eat when we are not hungry, bewitching the
appetite. For is there not within a temperate simplicity a wholesome variety
of eatables? Bulbs, olives, certain herbs, milk, cheese, fruits, all kinds
of cooked food without sauces; and if flesh is wanted, let roast rather
than boiled be set down. Have you anything to eat here? said the Lord to
the disciples after the resurrection; and they, as taught by Him to practise
frugality, "gave Him a piece of broiled fish; "and having eaten before
them, says Luke, He spoke to them what He spoke. And in addition to these,
it is not to be overlooked that those who feed according to the Word are
not debarred from dainties in the shape of honey-combs. For of articles
of food, those are the most suitable which are fit for immediate use without
fire, since they are readiest; and second to these are those which are
simplest, as we said before. But those who bend around inflammatory tables,
nourishing their own diseases, are ruled by a most lickerish demon, whom
I shall not blush to call the Belly-demon, and the worst and most abandoned
of demons. He is therefore exactly like the one who is called the Ventriloquist-demon.
It is far better to be happy than to have a demon dwelling with us. And
happiness is found in the practice of virtue. Accordingly, the apostle
Matthew partook of seeds, and nuts, and vegetables, without flesh. And
John, who carded temperance to the extreme, "ate locusts and wild honey."
Peter abstained from swine; "but a trance fell on him," as is written in
the Acts of the Apostles, "and he saw heaven opened, and a vessel let down
on the earth by the four corners, and all the four-looted beasts and creeping
things of the earth and the fowls of heaven in it; and there came a voice
to him, Rise, and slay, and eat. And Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have
never eaten what is common or unclean. And the voice came again to him
the second time, What God hath cleansed, call not thou common." The use
of them is accordingly indifferent to us. "For not what entereth into the
mouth defileth the man," but the vain opinion respecting uncleanness. For
God, when He created man, said, "All things shall be to you for meat."
"And herbs, with love, are better than a calf with fraud." This well reminds
us of what was said above, that herbs are not love, but that our meals
are to be taken with love; and in these the medium state is good. In all
things, indeed, this is the case, and not least in the preparation made
for feasting, since the extremes are dangerous, and middle courses good.
And to be in no want of necessaries is the medium. For the desires which
are in accordance with nature are bounded by sufficiency. The Jews had
frugality enjoined on them by the law in the most systematic manner. For
the Instructor, by Moses, deprived them of the use of innumerable things,
adding reasons-the spiritual ones hidden; the carnal ones apparent, to
which indeed they have trusted; in the case of some animals, because they
did not part the hoof, and others because they did not ruminate their food,
and others because alone of aquatic animals they were devoid of scales
; so that altogether but a few were left appropriate for their food. And
of those that he permitted them to touch, he prohibited such as had died,
or were offered to idols, or had been strangled; for to touch these was
unlawful. For since it is impossible for those who use dainties to abstain
from partaking of them, he appointed the opposite mode of life, till he
should break down the propensity to indulgence arising from habit. Pleasure
has often produced in men harm and pain; and full feeding begets in the
soul uneasiness, and forgetfulness, and foolishness. And they say that
the bodies of children, when shooting up to their height, are made to grow
right by deficiency in nourishment. For then the spirit, which pervades
the body in order to its growth, is not checked by abundance of food obstructing
the freedom of its course. Whence that truth-seeking philosopher Plato,
fanning the spark of the Hebrew philosophy when condemning a life of luxury,
says: "On my coming hither, the life which is here called happy, full of
Italian and Syracusan tables, pleased me not by any means, [consisting
as it did] in being filled twice a day, and never sleeping by night alone,
and whatever other accessories attend the mode of life. For not one man
under heaven, if brought up from his youth in such practices, will ever
turn out a wise man, with however admirable a natural genius he may be
endowed." For Plato was not unacquainted with David, who "placed the sacred
ark in his city in the midst of the tabernacle ; "and bidding all his subjects
rejoice "before the Lord, divided to the whole host of Israel, man and
woman, to each a loaf of bread, and baked bread, and a cake from the frying-pan."
This was the sufficient sustenance of the Israelites. But that of the
Gentiles was over-abundant. No one who uses it will ever study to become
temperate, burying as he does his mind in his belly, very like the fish
called ass, which, Aristotle says, alone of all creatures has its heart
in its stomach. This fish Epicharmus the comic poet calls "monster-paunch."
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."
