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FIRST then we must trample under foot gluttonous desires, and to this
end the mind must be reduced not only by fasting, but also by vigils, by
reading, and by frequent compunction of heart for those things in which
perhaps it recollects that it has been deceived or overcome, sighing at one
time with horror at sin, at another time inflamed with the desire of
perfection and saintliness: until it is fully occupied and possessed by
such cares and meditations, and recognizes the participation of food to be
not so much a concession to pleasure, as a burden laid upon it; and
considers it to be rather a necessity for the body than anything desirable
for the soul. And, preserved by this zeal of mind and continual
compunction, we shall beat down the wantonness of the flesh (which becomes
more proud and haughty by being fomented with food) and its dangerous
incitement, and so by the copiousness of our tears and the weeping of our
heart we shall succeed in extinguishing the fiery furnace of our body,
which is kindled by the Babylonish king who continually furnishes us
with opportunities for sin, and vices with which we burn more fiercely,
instead of naphtha and pitch--until, through the grace of God, instilled
like dew by His Spirit in our hearts, the heats of fleshly lusts can be
altogether deadened. This then is our first contest, this is as it were our
first trial in the Olympic games, to extinguish the desires of the palate
and the belly by the longing for perfection. On which account we must not
only trample down all unnecessary desire for food by the contemplation of
the virtues, but also must take what is necessary for the support of
nature, not without anxiety of heart, as if it were opposed to chastity.
And so at length we may enter on the course of our life, so that there may
be no time in which we feel that we are recalled from our spiritual
studies, further than when we are obliged by the weakness of the body to
descend for the needful care of it. And when we are subjected to this
necessity--of attending to the wants of life rather than the desires, of
the soul--we should hasten to withdraw as quickly as possible from it, as
if it kept us back from really health-giving studies. For we cannot
possibly scorn the gratification of food presented to us, unless the mind
is fixed on the contemplation of divine things, and is the rather entranced
with the love of virtue and the delight of things celestial. And so a man
will despise all things present as transitory, when he has securely fixed
his mental gaze on, those things which are immovable and eternal, and
already contemplates in heart--though still in the flesh--the blessedness
of his future life.
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