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.