ABSTINENCE. Many are of opinion that the Men who lived in the first Ages of the World, before the Deluge, abstained from Wine and Flesh meats, because the Scripture expresly takes notice that Noah after the Deluge began to plant a Vineyard, and that God permitted him to eat Flesh; whereas he gave Adam no other food than Herbs and the Fruits of the Earth. But the contrary opinion is supported by many learned Interpreters, who believe that the Men who lived before the Deluge denied themselves none of the pleasures of wine and good cheer, and the Scripture in few words intimates enough to convince us to what an excess of Corruption they were grown, when it tells us, that all Gen. vi. 11, 12.Flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth; and that if God had not permitted them to use either Flesh or Wine, they wou’d have taken very little notice of his Prohibition.
The Law ordained that the Priests should forbear the use of Wine during all the time of their being imployed in the service Lev. x. 9.of the Temple. The same Abstinence was enjoined the Nazarites for the whole Numb. vi. 3.time of their Nazariteship or Separation. The Jews abstain from several sorts of Animals, whereof we have spoken under the general Article ANIMALS. St. Paul says 1 Cor. ix. 25.that Wrestlers abstain from all things, in order to obtain a corruptible Crown; that is to say, they abstain from every thing which may weaken them: And in his Epistle to Timothy, he blames certain Hereticks who 1 Tim. iv. 3.condemned Marriage, and the use of those Meats which God hath created. Among the primitive Christians some denied themselves the use of such Meats as were prohibited by the Law, and Flesh that had been sacrificed to Idols. Others looked with contempt upon these Acts of Forbearance, as unprofitable, and made use of that liberty which Jesus Christ had procured for his Followers. St. Paul has laid down very 1 Cor. viii. 7, 10. & Rom. xiv. 1, 2, 3.wise rules as to this particular, whereof we have an account in his Epistles to the Corinthians and Romans.
The Council of Jerusalem, which was held by the Apostles, enjoins Believers converted from Heathenism to abstain from Acts xv. 20.Blood, from Meats strangled, from Fornication and Idolatry.
St. Paul requires the faithful to abstain 1 Thess. v. 21.from all appearance of Evil; and with much stronger reason from every thing which is really evil, and contrary to Religion and Piety.