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| Instances from Scripture of Divine Judgments Upon the Self-Indulgent; And Appeals to the Practices of Heathens.
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Chapter
XVI.—Instances from Scripture of Divine Judgments Upon the
Self-Indulgent; And Appeals to the Practices of Heathens.
For even if He does prefer “the works
of righteousness,” still not without a sacrifice, which
is a soul afflicted with
fasts.1110
He, at all
events, is the God to whom neither a People incontinent of appetite,
nor a priest, nor a prophet, was pleasing. To this day the
“monuments of concupiscence” remain, where the People,
greedy of “flesh,” till, by devouring without digesting the
quails, they brought on cholera, were buried. Eli breaks his neck
before the temple doors,1111
his sons fall in
battle, his daughter-in-law expires in child-birth:1112
for such was the blow which had been
deserved at the hand of God by the shameless house, the defrauder of
the fleshly sacrifices.1113
Sameas, a
“man of God,” after prophesying the issue of the idolatry
introduced by King Jeroboam—after the drying up and immediate
restoration of that king’s hand—after the rending in twain
of the sacrificial altar,—being on account of these signs invited
(home) by the king by way of recompense, plainly declined (for he had
been prohibited by God) to touch food at all in that place; but having
presently afterwards rashly taken food from another old man, who
lyingly professed himself a prophet, he was deprived, in accordance
with the word of God then and there uttered over the table, of burial
in his fathers’ sepulchres. For he was prostrated by the
rushing of a lion upon him in the way, and was buried among strangers;
and thus paid the penalty of his breach of fast.1114
These will be warnings both to people and to
bishops, even spiritual ones, in case they may ever have been guilty of
incontinence of appetite. Nay, even in Hades the admonition has
not ceased to speak; where we find in the person of the rich feaster,
convivialities tortured; in that of the pauper, fasts refreshed;
having—(as convivialities and fasts alike had)—as
preceptors “Moses and the prophets.”1115
For Joel withal exclaimed:
“Sanctify a fast, and a religious service;”1116
foreseeing even then that other apostles and
prophets would sanction fasts, and would preach observances of special
service to God. Whence it is that even they who court their
idols by dressing them, and by adorning them in their sanctuary,
and by saluting them at each particular hour, are said to do them
service. But, more than that, the heathens recognise every
form of ταπεινοφρόνησις. When the heaven is rigid and the year arid, barefooted
processions are enjoined by public proclamation; the magistrates lay
aside their purple, reverse the fasces, utter prayer, offer a
victim. There are, moreover, some colonies where, besides (these
extraordinary solemnities, the inhabitants), by an annual rite, clad in
sackcloth and besprent with ashes, present a suppliant importunity to
their idols, (while) baths and shops are kept shut till the ninth
hour. They have one single fire in public—on the altars; no
water even in their platters. There is, I believe, a Ninevitan
suspension of business! A Jewish fast, at all events, is
universally celebrated; while, neglecting the temples, throughout all
the shore, in every open place, they continue long to send prayer up to
heaven. And, albeit by the dress and ornamentation of mourning
they disgrace the duty, still they do affect a faith in abstinence, and
sigh for the arrival of the long-lingering evening star to sanction
(their feeding). But it is enough for me that you, by heaping
blasphemies upon our xerophagies, put them on a level with the
chastity of an Isis and a Cybele. I admit the comparison in the
way of evidence. Hence (our xerophagy) will be proved divine,
which the devil, the emulator of things divine, imitates. It is
out of truth that falsehood is built; out of religion that superstition
is compacted. Hence you are more irreligious, in
proportion as a heathen is more conformable. He, in short,
sacrifices his appetite to an idol-god; you to (the true) God
will not. For to you your belly is god, and your lungs a temple,
and your paunch a sacrificial altar, and your cook the priest, and your
fragrant smell the Holy Spirit, and your condiments spiritual gifts,
and your belching prophecy.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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