THE WRITINGS OF TERTULLIAN PART FOUR
On Fasting
Chap. II.
"whereas faith, free in Christ, (Cf. Gal_5:1) owes no abstinence from particular meats to the Jewish Law even, admitted as it has been by the apostle once for all to the whole range of the meat-market (Cf. 1Co_10:25) - (the apostle, I say), that detester of such as, in like manner as they prohibit marrying, so bid us abstain from meats created by God. (Cf. 1Ti_4:3) And accordingly (they think) us to have been even then prenoted as 'in the latest times departing from the faith, giving heed to spirits which seduce the world, having a conscience inburnt with doctrines of liars.' (Inburnt?) With what fires, prithee? The fires, I ween, which lead us to repeated contracting of nuptials and daily cooking of dinners! Thus, too, they affirm that we share with the Galatians the piercing rebuke (of the apostle), as 'observers of days, and of months, and of years.' Meantime they huff in our teeth the fact that Isaiah withal has authoritatively declared, 'Not such a fast hath the Lord elected,' that is, not abstinence from food, but the works of righteousness, which he there appends: (Isa_58:3-7) and that the Lord Himself in the Gospel has given a compendious answer to every kind of scrupulousness in regard to food; 'that not by such things as are introduced into the mouth is a man defiled, but by such as are produced out of the mouth;' (Mat_15:11; Mar_7:15) while Himself withal was wont to eat and drink till He made Himself noted thus; 'Behold, a gormandizer and a drinker:' (Mat_11:19; Luk_7:34) (finally), that so, too, does the apostle teach that 'food commendeth us not to God; since we neither abound if we eat, nor lack if we eat not.' (1Co_8:8
By the instrumentalities of these and similar passages, they subtlely tend at last to such a point, that every one who is somewhat prone to appetite finds it possible to regard as superfluous, and not so very necessary, the duties of abstinence from, or diminution or delay of, food, since God, forsooth, 'prefers the works of justice and of innocence.' And we know the quality of the hortatory addresses of carnal conveniences, how easy it is to say, 'I must believe with my whole heart; (Rom_10:10) I must love God, and my neighbour as myself' for 'on these two precepts the whole Law hangeth, and the prophets,' not on the emptiness of my lungs and intestines."
Chap. VI.
"'The people did eat and drink, and they arose to play.' (Cf. 1Co_10:7 with Exo_32:6.) Understand the modest language of Holy Scripture: 'play,' unless it had been immodest, it would not have reprehended. On the other hand, how many are there who are mindful of religion, when the seats of the memory are occupied, the limbs of wisdom impeded? No one will suitably, fitly, usefully, remember God at that time when it is customary for a man to forget his own self. All discipline food either slays or else wounds. I am a liar, if the Lord Himself, when upbraiding Israel with forgetfulness, does not impute the cause to fulness: '(My) beloved is waxen thick, and fat, and distent, and hath quite forsaken God, who made him, and hath gone away from the Lord his Saviour.' (Deu_32:15) In short, in the self-same Deuteronomy, when bidding precaution to be taken against the self-same cause, He says: 'Lest, when thou shalt have eaten, and drunken, and built excellent houses, thy sheep and oxen being multiplied, and (thy) silver and gold, thy heart be elated, and thou be forgetful of the Lord thy God.' (Deu_8:12-14)
Chap. XI.
"according to the materials which we find in either Testament, the advantages which the dutiful observances of abstinence from, or curtailment or deferment of, food confer, we may refute those who invalidate these things as empty observances; and again, while we similarly point out in what rank of religious duty they have always had place, may confute those who accuse them as novelties: for neither is that novel which has always been, nor that empty which is useful."
Chap XV.
"The apostle reprobates likewise such as bid to abstain from meats; but he does so from the foresight of the Holy Spirit, precondemning already the heretics who would enjoin perpetual abstinence to the extent of destroying and despising the works of the Creator; such as I may find in the person of a Marcion, a Tatian, or a Jupiter, the Pythagorean heretic of to-day; not in the person of the Paraclete. For how limited is the extent of our 'interdiction of meats!' Two weeks of xerophagies in the year (and not the whole of these, - the Sabbaths, to wit, and the Lord's days, being excepted) we offer to God; abstaining from things which we do not reject, but defer. But further: when writing to the Romans, the apostle now gives you a home-thrust, detractors as you are of this observance: 'Do not for the sake of food,' he says, 'undo (Rom_14:20) the work of God.' What work? That about which he says, (Rom_14:21) 'It is good not to eat flesh, and not to drink wine:' 'for he who in these points doeth service, is pleasing and propitiable to our God.' 'One believeth that all things may be eaten; but another, being weak, feedeth on vegetables. Let not him who eateth lightly esteem him who eateth not. Who art thou, who judgest another's servant?' 'Both he who eateth, and he who eateth not, giveth God thanks.' But, since he forbids human choice to be made matter of controversy, how much more Divine! Thus he knew how to chide certain restricters and interdicters of food, such as abstained from it of contempt, not of duty; but to approve such as did so to the honour, not the insult, of the Creator. And if he has delivered you the keys of the meat-market, permitting the eating of all things with a view to establishing the exception of things offered to idols; still he has not included the kingdom of God in the meat-market: 'For,' he says, 'the kingdom of God is neither meat nor drink;' (Rom_14:17) and, 'Food commendeth us not to God' - not that you may think this said about dry diet, but rather about rich and carefully prepared, if, when he subjoins, 'Neither, if we shall have eaten, shall we abound; nor, if we shall not have eaten, shall we be deficient,' the ring of his words suits, (as it does), you rather (than us), who think that you do abound if you eat, and are deficient if you eat not; and for this reason disparage these observances.
How unworthy, also, is the way in which you interpret to the favour of your own lust the fact that the Lord ate and drank promiscuously! But I think that He must have likewise fasted inasmuch as He has pronounced, not the full; but 'the hungry and thirsty, blessed:' (Cf. Luk_6:21 with 25, and Mat_5:6.) (He) who was wont to profess food to be, not that which His disciples had supposed, but 'the thorough doing of the Father's work;' (Joh_4:31-34) teaching 'to labour for the meat which is permanent unto life eternal;' (Joh_6:27) in our ordinary prayer likewise commanding us to request 'bread,' (Mat_6:11; Luk_11:3) not the wealth of Attalus therewithal. Thus, too, Isaiah has not denied that God 'hath chosen a fast;' but has particularized in detail the kind of fast which He has not chosen: 'for in the days,' he says, 'of your fasts your own wills are found (indulged), and all who are subject to you ye stealthily sting; or else ye fast with a view to abuse and strifes, and ye smite with the fists. Not such a fast have I elected;' but such an one as He has subjoined, and by subjoining has not abolished, but confirmed.
