1. Nevertheless we ought so to abstain or to fast, that we do not subject ourselves to the necessity of fasting or abstaining: lest we now do, not as devout, but as unwilling persons, a thing that is voluntary. For if, having interrupted my fast, I refresh any guests who arrive, I do not break the fast, but fulfill the office of charity. But for the rest, if for abstinence's sake I sadden spiritual brethren whom I know to be delighted by my relaxation; my abstinence is not to be called a virtue, but a vice: since indeed the very continuation of abstinence and of fasts, unless it be omitted when the matter requires, both puffs me up, and saddens my brother, whom charity bids me serve; or at least shows that there is in me no fraternal charity;
since charity alone, without abstinence, can perfect any catholic man; and abstinence either ruins all, without the addition of charity, or perishes. 2. Since, therefore, even Manichaeans or any other heretics can abstain or fast—inasmuch as, detesting all flesh not for abstinence but for uncleanness, they wear out their bodies by the partaking of bread and water—let us not reckon it a great thing when we abstain from those things which they too reject; but rather when our abstinence is commended by faith and consummated by charity, which virtues they, not having, can kill themselves, but cannot by abstaining in such a way be edified or perfected.
But as to those very catholic Christians who, whether through being unable to abstain, or through being unwilling, partake of all things granted to our use with thanksgiving, let us not prefer ourselves to them on account of abstinence: lest perhaps they have more of humility and of the other virtues, whence they may rightly be preferred to us who abstain. Wherefore, if we wish our abstinence and our fasts to profit us, let us depart first of all from pride, which either expels all virtues or diminishes them, and from boastfulness, an enemy to all virtues, and from absolutely all vices, that what we abstain from delectable foods may profit us. For then it will profit us that we chastise our bodies, or certainly the incentives of our bodies, by the rigor of stricter abstinence;
if, being freed from carnal desires, we flourish in holy virtues. But now let the book come to an end, that concerning the virtues and vices, of which here we have touched but a few things, we may, God granting it, dispute more amply and more fully in the third volume.