Chapter II.—Arguments of the Psychics, Drawn from the Law, the Gospel, the Acts, the Epistles, and Heathenish Practices.

For, so far as pertains to fasts, they oppose to us the definite days appointed by God:  as when, in Leviticus, the Lord enjoins upon Moses the tenth day of the seventh month (as) a day of atonement, saying, “Holy shall be to you the day, and ye shall vex your souls; and every soul which shall not have been vexed in that day shall be exterminated from his people.”3    Lev. xvi. 29; xxiii. 26–29.  At all events, in the Gospel they think that those days were definitely appointed for fasts in which “the Bridegroom was taken away;”4    Matt. ix. 14, 15; Mark ii. 18–20; Luke v. 33–35. and that these are now the only legitimate days for Christian fasts, the legal and prophetical antiquities having been abolished:  for wherever it suits their wishes, they recognise what is the meaning of “the Law and the prophets until John.”5    Luke xvi. 16; Matt. xi. 13.  Accordingly, (they think) that, with regard to the future, fasting was to be indifferently observed, by the New Discipline, of choice, not of command, according to the times and needs of each individual:  that this, withal, had been the observance of the apostles, imposing (as they did) no other yoke of definite fasts to be observed by all generally, nor similarly of Stations either, which (they think) have withal days of their own (the fourth and sixth days of the week), but yet take a wide range according to individual judgment, neither subject to the law of a given precept, nor (to be protracted) beyond the last hour of the day, since even prayers the ninth hour generally concludes, after Peter’s example, which is recorded in the Acts.  Xerophagies, however, (they consider) the novel name of a studied duty, and very much akin to heathenish superstition, like the abstemious rigours which purify an Apis, an Isis, and a Magna Mater, by a restriction laid upon certain kinds of food; whereas faith, free in Christ,6    Comp. Gal. v. 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-market7    Comp. 1 Cor. x. 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.8    Comp. 1 Tim. iv. 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.”9    So Oehler punctuates.  The reference is to 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2.  (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.”10    See Gal. iv. 10; the words καὶ καιρούς Tertullian omits.  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:11    See Isa. lviii. 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;”12    See Matt. xv. 11; Mark vii. 15. while Himself withal was wont to eat and drink till He made Himself noted thus; “Behold, a gormandizer and a drinker:”13    Matt. xi. 19; Luke vii. 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.”14    1 Cor. viii. 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;15    Rom. x. 10. I must love God, and my neighbour as myself:16    Comp. Matt. xxii. 37–40, and the parallel passages.  for ‘on these two precepts the whole Law hangeth, and the prophets,’ not on the emptiness of my lungs and intestines.”

CAPUT II.

Nam quod ad jejunia pertineat, certos dies a Deo constitutos opponunt, ut cum in Levitico praecipit Dominus Moysi decimam mensis septimi diem placationis: Sancta, inquiens, erit vobis dies, et vexabilis animas vestras; 0955B et omnis anima quae vexata non fuerit illa die, exterminabitur de populo suo (Levit. XVI, 29). Certe in 0956A Evangelio illos dies jejuniis determinatos putant, in quibus ablatus est sponsus, et hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum christianorum, abolitis legalibus et propheticis vetustatibus. Ubi volunt enim, agnoscunt quid sapiat lex et prophetae usque ad Joannem (Luc. XVI, 16). Itaque de caetero indifferenter jejunandum ex arbitrio, non ex imperio novae disciplinae, pro temporibus et caussis uniuscujusque; sic et Apostolos observasse, nullum aliud imponentes jugum certorum et in commune omnibus obeundorum jejuniorum (Act. XV, 10); proinde nec stationum, quae et ipsae suos quidem dies habebant quartae feriae et sextae , passive tamen currant , neque sub lege praecepti, neque ultra supremam diei, quando et orationes fere hora nona concludat de Petri exemplo, quod Actis refertur (Act. III, 8); Xerophagias vero 0956B novum affectati officii nomen, et proximum ethnicae superstitioni; quales castimoniae Apim, Isidem, et magnam Matrem certorum eduliorum exceptione purificant; 0957A cum fides libera in Christo ne Judaicae quidem legi abstinentiam quorumdam ciborum debeat, semel in totum macellum ab Apostolo admissa, detestatore eorum qui sicut nubere prohibeant, ita jubeant cibis abstinere a Deo conditis; et ideo nos esse jam tunc praenotatos in novissimis temporibus abscedentes a fide, intendentes spiritibus mundi seductoribus, doctrinis mendaciloquorum, inustam habentes conscientiam (I Tim. IV, 1). Quibus oro te ignibus? credo quibus nuptias saepe deducimus, et coenas quotidie coquimus. Sic et cum Galatis (Gal. IV, 10) nos quoque percuti aiunt, observatores dierum, et mensium, et annorum. Jaculantur interea et Esaiam pronuntiasse: Non tale jejunium Dominus elegit (Is. LVIII, 4 et 5); id est, non abstinentiam cibi, sed opera justitiae quae subtexit; et ipsum Dominum in Evangelio ad omnem 0957B circa victum scrupulositatem compendio respondisse, non his communicari hominem, quae in os inferantur, sed quae ex ore proferantur (Marc. VII, 15), cum et ipse manducaret et biberet usque in notationem: Ecce homo vorator et potator (Matth. XI, 19), sic et Apostolum docere, quod esca nos Deo non commendet, neque abundantes si edamus, neque deficientes si non edamus (I Cor. VIII, 8). His et hujusmodi sensibus eo jam subtiliter tendunt, ut unusquisque pronior ventri possit supervacua, nec adeo necessaria, existimare sublati vel diminuti vel demorati cibi officia , praeponente scilicet Deo justitiae et innocentiae opera. Et scimus quales sint carnalium commodorum suasoriae; quum facile dicatur: Opus est de totis praecordiis credam, diligam Deum et proximum 0957C mihi ; in his enim duobus praeceptis tota Lex pendet et prophetae, non in pulmonum et intestinorum meorum inanitate.