Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 24

XXIII.&#8212;Of Those Who are Everywhere Ready.

While thou obeyest the belly, thou sayest that thou art innocent; and, as if courteously, makest thyself everywhere ready.&#160; Woe to thee, foolish man! thou thyself lookest around upon death.&#160; Thou seekest in a barbarous fashion to live without law.&#160; Thou thyself hymnest thyself also to play upon a word, who feignest thyself simple.&#160; I live in simplicity with such a one.&#160; Thou believest that thou livest, whilst thou desirest to fill thy belly.&#160; To sit down disgracefully of no account in thy house, ready for feasting, and to run away from precepts.&#160; Or because thou believest not that God will judge the dead, thou foolishly makest thyself ruler of heaven instead of Him.&#160; Thou regardest thy belly as if thou canst provide for it.&#160; Thou seemest at one time to be profane, at another to be holy.&#160; Thou appearest as a suppliant of God, under the aspect of a tyrant.&#160; Thou shalt feel in thy fates by whose law thou art aided.