27.  And concerning food let these be your ordinances, since in regard to meats also many stumble.  For some deal indifferently with things offered to idols The Nicolaitans (Apocal. ii. 14, 20); and the Valentinians, of whom Irenæus (II. xiv. 5), says that they derived their opinion as to the indifference of meats from the Cynics.  See also Irenæus I. vi. 3; and xxvi. 3., while others discipline themselves, but condemn those that eat:  and in different ways men’s souls are defiled in the matter of meats, from ignorance of the useful reasons for eating and not eating.  For we fast by abstaining from wine and flesh, not because we abhor them as abominations, but because we look for our reward; that having scorned things sensible, we may enjoy a spiritual and intellectual feast; and that having now sown in tears we may reap in joy Ps. cxxvi. 5. in the world to come.  Despise not therefore them that eat, and because of the weakness of their bodies partake of food:  nor yet blame these who use a little wine for their stomach’s sake and their often infirmities 1 Tim. v. 23.:  and neither condemn the men as sinners, nor abhor the flesh as strange food; for the Apostle knows some of this sort, when he says:  forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe 1 Tim. iv. 3..  In abstaining then from these things, abstain not as from things abominable The various sects of Gnostics, and the Manichees, considered certain meats and drinks, as flesh and wine, to be polluting.  Vid. Iren. Hær. i. 28.  Clem. Pæd. ii. 2. p. 186.  Epiph. Hær. xlvi. 2, xlvii. 1, &c., &c.  August. Hær. 46, vid. Canon. Apost. 43.  “If any Bishop, &c., abstain from marriage, flesh, and wine, not for discipline (δι᾽ ἄσκησιν) but as abhorring them, forgetting that they are all very good, &c., and speaking blasphemy against the creation, let him amend or be deposed,” &c.  R.W.C., else thou hast no reward:  but as being good things disregard them for the sake of the better spiritual things set before thee.