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Against Heresies
St Irenaeus of Lyons, ANF 1
Fragments, Fragment 38 · The apostles ordained, that “we should not judge any one in…
XXXVIII
The1 apostles ordained, that “we should not judge any one in respect to meat or drink, or in regard to a feast day, or the new moons, or the sabbaths.”2 Whence then these contentions? whence these schisms? We keep the feast, but in the leaven of malice and wickedness, cutting in pieces the Church of God; and we preserve what belongs to its exterior, that we may cast away these better things, faith and love. We have heard from the prophetic words that these feasts and fasts are displeasing to the Lord.3
Notes
- Taken apparently from the Epistle to Blastus, de Schismate. Compare a similar passage, lib. iv. chap. xxxiii. 7.
- Col. ii. 16.
- Isa. i. 14.