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SERAPION: Everybody is perfectly agreed that there are eight principal
faults which affect a monk. And all of them are not included in the figure
of the nations for this reason, because in Deuteronomy Moses, or rather the
Lord through him, was speaking to those who had already gone forth from
Egypt and been set free from one most powerful nation, I mean that of the
Egyptians. And we find that this figure holds good also in our case, as
when we have got clear of the snares of this world we are found to be free
from gluttony, i.e., the sin of the belly and palate; and like them we have
a conflict against these seven remaining nations, without taking account at
all of the one which has been already overcome. And the land of this nation
was not given to Israel for a possession, but the command of the Lord
ordained that they should at once forsake it and go forth from it. And for
this cause our fasts ought to be made moderate, that there may be no need
for us through excessive abstinence, which results from weakness of the
flesh and infirmity, to return again to the land of Egypt, i.e., to our
former greed and carnal lust which we forsook when we made our renunciation
of this world. And this has happened in a figure, in those who after having
gone forth into the desert of virtue again hanker after the flesh pots over
which they sat in Egypt.
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