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| About to Speak of the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First Complains of the Lust of Eating and Drinking.
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Chapter XXXI.—About to Speak of
the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First Complains of the
Lust of Eating and Drinking.
43. There is another evil of the day that I
would were “sufficient” unto it.887
For by eating and drinking we
repair the daily decays of the body, until Thou destroyest both
food and stomach, when Thou shall destroy my want with an amazing
satiety, and shalt clothe this corruptible with an eternal
incorruption.888
But now is
necessity sweet unto me, and against this sweetness do I fight,
lest I be enthralled; and I carry on a daily war by fasting,889
| 889 In Augustin’s time, and indeed till the Council
of Orleans, A.D. 538, fasting appears to
have been left pretty much to the individual conscience. We find
Tertullian in his De Jejunio lamenting the slight
observance it received during his day. We learn, however, from the
passage in Justin Martyr, quoted in note 4, on p. 118, above, that
in his time it was enjoined as a preparation for Baptism. | oftentimes
“bringing my body into subjection,”890
and my pains are expelled by
pleasure. For hunger and thirst are in some sort pains; they
consume and destroy like unto a fever, unless the medicine of
nourishment relieve us. The which, since it is at hand through the
comfort we receive of Thy gifts, with which land and water and air
serve our infirmity, our calamity is called pleasure.
44. This much hast Thou taught me, that I should
bring myself to take food as medicine. But during the time that I
am passing from the uneasiness of want to the calmness of satiety,
even in the very passage doth that snare of concupiscence lie in
wait for me. For the passage itself is pleasure, nor is there any
other way of passing thither, whither necessity compels us to pass.
And whereas health is the reason of eating and drinking, there
joineth itself as an hand-maid a perilous delight, which mostly
tries to precede it, in order that I may do for her sake what I say
I do, or desire to do, for health’s sake. Nor have both the same
limit; for what is sufficient for health is too little for
pleasure. And oftentimes it is doubtful whether it be the necessary
care of the body which still asks nourishment, or whether a sensual
snare of desire offers its ministry. In this uncertainty does my
unhappy soul rejoice, and therein prepares an excuse as a defence,
glad that it doth not appear what may be Sufficient for the
moderation of health, that so under the pretence of health it may
conceal the business of pleasure. These temptations do I daily
endeavour to resist, and I summon Thy right hand to my help, and
refer my excitements to Thee, because as yet I have no resolve in
this matter.
45. I hear the voice of my God commanding, let
not “your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and
drunkenness.”891
“Drunkenness,” it is far from me; Thou wilt have mercy, that it
approach not near unto me. But “surfeiting” sometimes creepeth
upon Thy servant; Thou wilt have mercy, that it may be far from me.
For no man can be continent unless Thou give it.892
Many things which we pray for
dost Thou
give us; and what good soever we receive before we prayed for it,
do we receive from Thee, and that we might afterwards know this did
we receive it from Thee. Drunkard was I never, but I have known
drunkards to be made sober men by Thee. Thy doing, then, was it,
that they who never were such might not be so, as from Thee it was
that they who have been so heretofore might not remain so always;
and from Thee, too was it, that both might know from whom it was. I
heard another voice of Thine, “Go not after thy lusts, but
refrain thyself from thine appetites.”893
And by Thy favour have I heard this
saying likewise, which I have much delighted in, “Neither if we
eat, are we the better; neither if we eat not, are we the
worse;”894
which is to
say, that neither shall the one make me to abound, nor the other to
be wretched. I heard also another voice, “For I have learned, in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, I know both how to
be abased, and I know how to abound . . . I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me.”895
Lo! a soldier of the celestial
camp—not dust as we are. But remember, O Lord, “that we are
dust,”896
and that of
dust Thou hast created man;897
and he “was lost, and is
found.”898
Nor could he
do this of his own power, seeing that he whom I so loved, saying
these things through the afflatus of Thy inspiration, was of that
same dust. “I can,” saith he, “do all things through Him
which strengtheneth me.”899
Strengthen me, that I may be able.
Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.900
| 900 In his De Dono Persev. sec. 53, he tells us
that these words were quoted to Pelagius, when at Rome, by a
certain bishop, and that they excited him to contradict them so
warmly as nearly to result in a rupture between Pelagius and the
bishop. | He confesses
to have received, and when he glorieth, he glorieth in the Lord.901
Another have
I heard entreating that he might receive,—“Take from me,”
saith he, “the greediness of the belly;”902
by which it appeareth, O my holy
God, that Thou givest when what Thou commandest to be done is
done.
46. Thou hast taught me, good Father, that
“unto the pure all things are pure;”903
but “it is evil for that man who
eateth with offence;”904
“and that every creature of Thine
is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with,
thanksgiving;”905
and that
“meat commendeth us not to God;”906
and that no man should “judge us
in meat or in drink;”907
and that he that eateth, let him
not despise him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not
judge him that eateth.908
These things have I learned, thanks
and praise be unto Thee, O my God and Master, who dost knock at my
ears and enlighten my heart; deliver me out of all temptation. It
is not the uncleanness of meat that I fear, but the uncleanness of
lusting. I know that permission was granted unto Noah to eat every
kind of flesh909
| 909 He here refers to the doctrine of the Manichæans
in the matter of eating flesh. In his De Mor. Manich.
secs. 36, 37, he discusses the prohibition of flesh to the
“Elect.” From Ep. ccxxxvi. we find that the
“Hearers” had not to practice abstinence from marriage and from
eating flesh. For other information on this subject, see notes, pp.
66 and 83. | that was
good for food;910
that Elias
was fed with flesh;911
that John, endued with a wonderful
abstinence, was not polluted by the living creatures (that is, the
locusts912
) which he
fed on. I know, too, that Esau was deceived by a longing for
lentiles,913
and that
David took blame to himself for desiring water,914
and that our King was tempted not
by flesh but bread.915
And the people in the wilderness,
therefore, also deserved reproof, not because they desired flesh,
but because, in their desire for food, they murmured against the
Lord.916
47. Placed, then, in the midst of these
temptations, I strive daily against longing for food and drink. For
it is not of such a nature as that I am able to resolve to cut it
off once for all, and not touch it afterwards, as I was able to do
with concubinage. The bridle of the throat, therefore, is to be
held in the mean of slackness and tightness.917
| 917 So all God’s gifts are to be used, but not
abused; and those who deny the right use of any, do so by virtually
accepting the principle of asceticism. As Augustin, in his De
Mor. Ecc. Cath. sec. 39, says of all transient things,
we “should use them as far as is required for the purposes and
duties of life, with the moderation of an employer instead of the
ardour of a lover.” | And who, O Lord, is he who is not
in some degree carried away beyond the bounds of necessity? Whoever
he is, he is great; let him magnify Thy name. But I am not such a
one, “for I am a sinful man.”918
Yet do I also magnify Thy name; and
He who hath “overcome the world”919
maketh intercession to Thee for my
sins,920
accounting
me among the “feeble members” of His body,921
because Thine eyes saw that of him
which was imperfect; and in Thy book all shall be written.922
| 922 Ps. cxxxix. 16; he similarly applies this
passage when commenting on it in Ps. cxxxviii. 21, and also
in Serm. cxxxv. |
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