§5Denique ubi iam et familiaris populus allegi deo coepit et restitutio hominis imbui potuit, tunc leges disciplinaeque omnes impositae, etiam quae decerperent uictum, ademptis quibusdam ueluti immundis, quo facilius aliquando ieiunia toleraret homo perpetua in quibusdam abstinentia usus.
Finally, when the familiar people also began to be chosen for God and the restoration of man could be initiated, then all laws and disciplines were imposed, even those which restricted diet, some things being taken away as if unclean, so that man might some day more easily tolerate fasts, having used perpetual abstinence in certain things.
nam et primus populus primi hominis resculpserat crimen pronior uentri quam deo deprehensus, cum de duritia Aegyptiae seruitutis ualida manu dei et sublimi brachio ereptus dominus eius uisus est, terrae lacte et melle mananti destinatus, statim autem solitudinis incopiosae circumspectu scandalizatus, saturitatis Aegyptiae detrimenta suspirans in Moysen et Aaron mussitauit: utinam obiissemus percussi a domino in terra Aegypti, quando super ollas carnium sedebamus et panes in plenitudinem comedebamus.
For the first people too had re-sculptured the crime of the first man, being found more inclined to the belly than to God, when, rescued from the harshness of Egyptian servitude by the strong hand of God and His uplifted arm, their Lord appeared to them, destined as they were for the land flowing with milk and honey, but immediately scandalized by the sight of the unprovided wilderness, and sighing for the losses of Egyptian satiety, they murmured against Moses and Aaron: "Would that we had died, struck by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the pots of meat and ate bread to the full!
quomodo eduxisti nos in haec deserta ad interficiendam synagogam istam fame? eadem uentris praelatione deploraturus erat eosdem duces suos et dei arbitros, quos desiderio carnis et recordatu Aegyptiarum copiarum exacerbabat.
Why have you led us out into this wilderness to kill this assembly with hunger?" By the same preference for the belly they were destined to bewail those same leaders of theirs and arbiters of God, whom they provoked by the desire for flesh and the memory of Egyptian abundances: "Who will feed us with flesh?
quis nos uescet carne? uenerunt in mentem nobis pisces quos in Aegypto edebamus gratis, et cucumeres et pepones et porri et cepe et allia.
We remember the fish which we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.
at nunc anima nostra arida, nihil nisi manna uident oculi nostri. ita et illis xerophagiae panis angelici displicebant, allium potius et cepe quam caelum fragrare malebant.
But now our soul is dry; our eyes see nothing but manna." Thus to them also the dry diets of the angelic bread were displeasing, and they preferred that they should smell of garlic and onions rather than of heaven.
et ideo tam ingratis gratiora et esculentiora quaeque detracta sunt, puniendae simul gulae et exercendae continentiae causa, ut illa damnaretur, ista erudiretur.
And therefore, from such ungrateful ones, all the more pleasing and esculent things were taken away, for the sake of both punishing gluttony and exercising continence, so that the former might be condemned and the latter trained.
§6Nunc si temere rationes castigati a deo uictus et castigandi propter deum a nobis ad primordiorum experimenta reuocauimus, conscientiam communem consulamus.
Now, if we have rashly referred the reasons for the diet restricted by God, and to be restricted for God's sake by us, to the experiences of the beginnings, let us consult our common conscience.
ipsa natura enuntiabit, quales nos ante pabulum et potum in uirgine adhuc saliua exhibere consuerit rebus dumtaxat sensu agendis, quo diuina tractantur, si multo pollentioris mentis, si multo uiuacioris cordis, quam cum totum illud domicilium interioris hominis escis stipatum, uinis inundatum, decoquendis iam stercoribus exaestuans praemeditatorium efficitur latrinarum, in quo plane nihil tam in proximo supersit quam ad lasciuiam sapere.
Nature itself will declare what sort of people she is accustomed to present us before food and drink, while our saliva is still virgin, at least in matters to be performed by the mind, by which divine things are handled—whether we are of a much more potent intellect, of a much more lively heart, than when that entire dwelling of the inner man, stuffed with foods, inundated with wines, and seething with dregs now to be digested, is turned into a preparatory room for latrines, in which clearly nothing remains so close at hand as to relish wantonness.
manducauit populus et bibit, et surrexerunt ludere. intellege sanctae scripturae uerecundiam: lusum nisi impudicum non denotasset.
"The people ate and drank, and they rose up to play." Understand the modesty of Holy Scripture: it would not have denoted "play" unless it were unchaste.
ceterum quotusquisque meminerit religionis occupatis memoriae locis, impeditis sapientiae membris? nemo ita ut decet, ita ut par est, ita ut utile est, recordabitur dei eo in tempore, quo ipsum sibi hominem excidere sollemne est.
Moreover, how few would remember religion when the places of memory are occupied and the limbs of wisdom obstructed?
omnem disciplinam uictus aut occidit aut uulnerat.
No one will remember God in such a manner as is fitting, as is right, as is profitable, at that time when it is customary for man to forget himself.
mentior, si non dominus ipse obliuionem sui exprobrans Israeli causam plenitudini reputat.
Excess of diet either kills or wounds all discipline.
incrassatus est dilectus et pinguefactus et dilatatus est, et dereliquit deum, qui fecit eum, et abscessit a domino salutificatore suo. denique in eodem Deuteronomio eandem causam praecaueri iubens, ne, inquit, cum manducaueris et biberis et domos optimas aedificaueris, ouibus et bubus tuis multiplicatis et argento et auro extollatur cor tuum et obliuiscaris domini dei tui. praeposuit corruptelae diuitiarum edacitatis enormitatem, cui ipsae diuitiae procurant.
I lie, if the Lord himself, reproaching Israel for forgetfulness of Him, does not impute the cause to satiety: "The beloved was waxed fat, and grown thick, and became broad, and he forsook the God who made him, and departed from the Lord his savior." Finally, in the same Deuteronomy, commanding the same cause to be guarded against, He says: "Lest, when you have eaten and drunk, and have built excellent houses, and when your sheep and oxen are multiplied, and silver and gold, your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God." He placed the enormity of voracity before the corruption of riches, for which riches themselves provide.
per illam scilicet incrassatum erat cor populi, ne oculis uideret et auribus audiret et corde coniceret adipibus obstructo, quas nominatim esui abstulit dedocens hominem saginae studere.
By that, of course, the heart of the people had been waxed fat, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and perceive with their heart, obstructed as it was by fats, which He specifically took away from eating, teaching man not to study fattening.
ceterum cui cor erectum potius inueniebatur quam impinguatum, qui quadraginta diebus totidemque noctibus supra humanae naturae facultatem ieiunium perennauit spiritali fide uirtutem subministrante, et uidit oculis dei gloriam et audiuit auribus dei uocem et corde coniecit dei legem iam tunc docentis non in solo pane uiuere hominem, sed in omni uerbo dei, cum quidem nec ipsum Moysen deo pastum inediamque eius nomine saginatam constanter contemplari ualeret pinguior populus.
But for whom a heart was found rather erected than fattened—he who for forty days and as many nights, beyond the capacity of human nature, prolonged his fast, with spiritual faith supplying the power—both saw with his eyes the glory of God, and heard with his ears the voice of God, and perceived with his heart the law of God, who even then was teaching that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God; when indeed the fatter people could not constantly look upon Moses himself, fed by God and whose hunger was fattened in His name.
merito igitur etiam in carne se dominus ei ostendit collegae ieiuniorum suorum, non minus et Heliae.
Deservedly, therefore, the Lord showed Himself to him in the flesh as the colleague of His own fasts, and no less to Elijah.
nam et Helias hoc primum, quod famem fuerat imprecatus, satis iam se ieiuniis uouerat.
For Elijah too, by this very first thing, that he had prayed for hunger, had already sufficiently vowed himself to fasts.
uiuit, inquit, dominus, cui adsisto in conspectu eius, si erit ros istis annis et imber. dehinc minantem Iezabel fugiens post unicum pabulum et potum, quem ab angelo expergefactus inuenerat, et ipse quadraginta diebus et noctibus uacuo uentre, arido ore peruenit in montem Choreb, ubi cum in speluncam deuertisset, quam familiari congressu dei exceptus est! quid tu Helia hic? multo amicior ista uox quam Adam ubi es? illa enim pasto homini minabatur, ista ieiuno blandiebatur.
"The Lord lives," he said, "before whose face I stand, if there shall be dew or rain these years." Thereafter, fleeing from the threatening Jezebel, after a single food and drink which, having been awakened, he had found from an angel, he himself also for forty days and nights, with an empty stomach and dry mouth, arrived at Mount Horeb.
tanta est circumscripti uictus.
Where, when he had turned aside into a cave, with how familiar an encounter of God was he received!
praerogatiua, ut deum praestet homini contubernalem, parem reuera pari.
"What doest thou here, Elijah?" This voice was much more friendly than that to Adam: "Where art thou?" For that one was threatening the fed man, but this one was caressing the fasting man.
si enim deus aeternus non esuriet, ut testatur per Esaiam, hoc erit tempus, quo homo deo adaequetur, cum sine pabulo uiuit.
Great is the prerogative of restricted diet, so as to present God as a companion to man, an equal indeed to an equal. For if the eternal God will not hunger, as He testifies through Isaiah, this will be the time in which man is made equal to God, when he lives without food.