In regard to St. Paul’s well-known sentences (Rom. xiv., 1, &c.), Tertullian maintains that he refers to certain teachers of abstinence who acted from pride, not from a sense of right:—
“And even if he has handed over to you the keys of the slaughter-house or butcher’s shop (Macelli) in permitting you to eat all things, excepting sacrifices to idols, at least he has not made the kingdom of heaven to consist in butchery; ‘for,’ says he, ‘eating and drinking is not the kingdom of God, and food commends us not to God.’ You are not to suppose it said of vegetable, but of gross and luxurious, food, since he adds, ‘Neither if we eat have we anything the more, nor if we eat not have we anything the less.’[59] How unworthily, too, do you press the example of Christ as having come ‘eating and drinking’ into the service of your lusts. I think that He who pronounced not the full but the hungry and thirsty ‘blessed,’ who professed His work to be (not as His disciples understood it) the completion of His Father’s will, I think that He was wont to abstain—instructing them to labour for that ‘meat’ which lasts to eternal life, and enjoining in their common prayers petition, not for rich and gross food, but for bread only.
“And if there be One who prefers the works of justice, not, however, without sacrifice—that is to say, a spirit exercised by abstinence—it is surely that God to whom neither a gluttonous people nor priest was acceptable—monuments of whose concupiscence remain to this day, where was buried [60]
“Your belly is your god,” [thus he indignantly reproaches the apologists of kreophagy,] “your liver is your temple, your paunch is your altar, the cook is your priest, and the fat steam is your Holy Spirit; the seasonings and the sauces are your chrisms, and your eructations are your prophesyings. I ever,” continues Tertullian with bitter irony, “recognise Esau the hunter as a man of taste (sapere), and as his were so are your whole skill and interest given to hunting and trapping—just like him you come in ‘from the field’ of your licentious chase. Were I to offer you ‘a mess of pottage,’ you would, doubtless, straightway sell all your ‘birthright.’ It is in the cooking-pots that your love is inflamed—it is in the kitchen that your faith grows fervid—it is in the flesh dishes that all your hope lies hid.... Who is held in so much esteem with you as the frequent giver of dinners, as the sumptuous entertainer, as the practised toaster of healths?
“Consistently do you men of flesh reject the things of the spirit. But if your prophets are complacent towards such persons, they are not my prophets. Why preach you not constantly, ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,’ just as we preach, ‘Let us abstain, brothers and sisters, lest to-morrow, perchance, we die’?
“Let us openly and boldly vindicate our teaching. We are sure that they ‘who are in the flesh cannot please God.’[61] Not, surely, meaning ‘in the covering or substance of the flesh,’ but in the care, the affection, the desire for it. As for us, less grossness (macies) of the body is no cause of regret, for neither does God give flesh by weight any more than he gives spirit by measure.... Let prize-fighters and pugilists fatten themselves up (saginentur)—for them a mere corporeal ambition suffices. And yet even they become stronger by living on vegetable food (xerophagia—literally, ‘eating of dry foods’). But other strength and vigour is our aim, as other contests are ours, who fight not against flesh and blood. Against our antagonists we must fight—not by means of flesh and blood, but with faith and a strong mind. For the rest, a grossly-feeding Christian is akin (necessarius) to lions and bears rather than to God, although even as against wild beasts it should be our interest to practice abstinence.”[62]
