異端寓言彙編 第 1 章 第 10/10 段

but the Church has legislated nothing concerning these things:

for it does not forbid partaking of them.

For this reason, some enjoy without fear the customary delicacies, while others abstain.

But none of those who think rightly condemns the one who eats:

for both abstinence and partaking fall under the authority of one's own judgment, and the solitary life too is not compulsory, but voluntary.

And this too we were taught from the apostolic laws:

‘Let not him who eats,’ he says, ‘despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats.’ And again:

‘All things are clean, but it is evil for the man who eats so as to cause offense.’ And accusing these very unholy men of this same fault in the Epistle to Timothy, he wrote as follows:

which God created, for the faithful and those who have come to know the truth to partake of with thanksgiving:

for every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving:

for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. And he also directed the Corinthians to eat everything sold in the meat-market, examining nothing on account of conscience.

And he commanded that whoever is invited by an unbeliever to a feast should partake without fear of what is set before him, unless indeed someone should point out that some of the dishes are meat offered to idols.

So far was that divine man from forbidding the partaking of meats.

And the Lord himself also said concerning himself:

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say:

"Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." And indeed, when he had kept the Passover, he ate the lamb, evidently together with his disciples;

and when he was invited to the wedding, he not only did not forbid the drinking of wine, but even wondrously made wine for those at the feast.

Accordingly, the divine doctrines also brilliantly refute the error of the Encratites;

and the Church of God arrays herself against the myths of the heretics, but follows the divine doctrines.

I exhort, then, those who shall read this treatise to set the divine teachings beside each of those wicked doctrines, and by that comparative examination to learn how great is the distance between falsehood and truth.

For what fellowship has light with darkness? And what harmony has Christ with Belial? For indeed the former are inventions of diabolical malice;

but these are the doctrines of the divine Spirit;

which it is fitting to follow continually, and to keep their unswerving rule, and by it to direct one's own soul;

in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom, together with the all-holy Spirit, glory, honor, and majesty are due to the Father, now and always, and unto the ages of ages.