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But we should notice the ways in which the Lord points out that the
soul is weighed down: for He did not mention adultery, or fornication, or
murder, or blasphemy, or rapine, which everybody knows to be deadly and
damnable, but surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares or anxieties of
this world: which men of this world are so far from avoiding or considering
damnable that actually some who (I am ashamed to say) call themselves monks
entangle themselves in these very occupations as if they were harmless or
useful. And though these three things, when literally given way to weigh
down the soul, and separate it from God, and bear it down to things
earthly, yet it is very easy to avoid them, especially for us who are
separated by so great a distance from all converse with this world, and who
do not on any occasion have anything to do with those visible cares and
drunkenness and surfeiting. But there is another surfeiting which is no
less dangerous, and a spiritual drunkenness which it is harder to avoid,
and a care and anxiety of this world, which often ensnares us even after
the perfect renunciation of all our goods, and abstinence from wine and all
feastings and even when we are living in solitude--and of such the prophet
says: "Awake, ye that are drunk but not with wine;" and another: "Be
astonished and wonder and stagger: be drunk and not with wine: be moved,
but not with drunkenness." And of this drunkenness the wine must
consequently be what the prophet calls "the fury of dragons": and from what
root the wine comes you may hear: "From the vineyard of Sodom," he says,
"is their vine, and their branches from Gomorrha." Would you also know
about the fruit of that vine and the seed of that branch? "Their grape is a
grape of gall, theirs is a cluster of bitterness" for unless we are
altogether cleansed from all faults and abstaining from the surfeit of all
passions, our heart will without drunkenness from wine and excess of any
feasting be weighed down by a drunkenness and surfeiting that is still more
dangerous. For that worldly cares can sometimes fall on us who mix with no
actions of this world, is clearly shown according to the rule of the
Elders, who have laid down that anything which goes beyond the necessities
of daily food, and the unavoidable needs of the flesh, belongs to worldly
cares and anxieties, as for example if, when a job bringing in a penny
would satisfy the needs of our body, we try to extend it by a longer toil
and work in order to get twopence or threepence; and when a covering of two
tunics would be enough for our use both by night and day, we manage to
become the owners of three or four, or when a hut containing one or two
cells would be sufficient, in the pride of worldly ambition and greatness
we build four or five cells, and these splendidly decorated, and larger
than our needs required, thus showing the passion of worldly lusts whenever
we can.
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