406 Strong desire even ofmeanfood gluttonous.
Job 39, fleshly food, which it counted more delicate. And the first
—-— fault of the sons of Eli arose from this, that the servant, at
1 Sara, their desire, would not receive cooked meat for the priest,
' '
after the ancient custom, but sought for raw flesh, for him
to serve up with greater daintiness. And when it is said to
Ez. 16, Jerusalem, This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, prid£,
fulness of bread, and abundance, it is plainly shewn that
she forfeited her salvation, because, with the sin of pride,
she exceeded the measure of moderate refreshment. And
Gen.25,Egau lost the glory of the birth-right, because he desired
mean food, namely, lentils, with great eagerness of longing ;
and when he preferred this, even to selling his birth-right,
he shewed with what eagerness he was panting after it.
For it is not the food, but the desire that is in fault.
Whence also we frequently take some delicate fare without
blame, and take a taste of meaner food, not without guilt of
conscience. For this Esau, whom we have spoken of, lost
in truth his birth-right, through lentils, and Elias preserved
the virtue of his body by eating flesh in the desert. Whence
also the ancient enemy, because he knows that it is not
food, but the desire of food, that is the cause of damna-
tion, both subjected the first man to himself, not with flesh,
but an apple ; and tempted the second Man not with flesh,
but with bread. Hence it is that the fault ofAdam is com-
monly committed, even when mean and worthless food is
taken. For it is not Adam alone who has received the
prohibiting command to abstain from the forbidden fruit.
For when God points out certain aliments as injurious to
our health. He, by a kind of sentence, forbids us to use them.
And while we desire and taste noxious food, what else do
we do in truth but eat of what is forbidden ?
61. Those things must therefore be taken, which the
necessity of nature requires, and not those which gluttony
suggests. But it is a great effort of discretion to give this
exactor something, and yet to refuse him something: both
to restrain gluttony by not giving, and by giving to support
nature. And this discretion is perhaps suggested, when it is
said ; He heareth not the cry of the exactor. For the word
of this exactor is the necessary demand of nature. But his
cry is the appetite of gluttony going beyond the measure of