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JOSEPH: We do not lay this down with regard to those fundamental
commands, without which our salvation cannot in any way exist, but with
regard to those which we can either relax or hold fast to without
endangering our state, as for instance, an unbroken and strict fast, or
total abstinence from wine or oil, or entire prohibition to leave one's
cell, or incessant attention to reading and meditation, all of which can be
practised at pleasure, without damage to our profession and purpose, and,
if need be, can be given up without blame. But we must most resolutely make
up our minds to observe those fundamental commands, and not even, if need
arise, to avoid death in their cause, with regard to which we must
immovably assert: "I have sworn and am purposed." And this should be done
for the preservation of love, for which all things else should be
disregarded lest the beauty and perfection of its calm should suffer a
stain. In the same way we must swear for the purity of our chastity, and we
ought to do the same for faith, and sobriety and justice, to all of which
we must cling with unchangeable persistence, and to forsake which even for
a little is worthy of blame. But in the case of those bodily exercises,
which are said to be profitable for a little, we must, as we said,
decide in such a way that, if there occurs any more decided opportunity for
a good act, which would lead us to relax them, we need not be bound by any
rule about them, but may give them up and freely adopt what is more useful.
For in the case of those bodily exercises, if they are dropped for a time,
there is no danger: but to have given up these others even for a moment is
deadly.
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