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mE INSTRUCTOR 183 and strihing at the mora os irrationat lusu, potnting out What me ought in abstain hom, and supplying Hl the antidotes of
salvation to those Who are diseraed. For the greatest and most regia mork of Ood is the salvation os humani . The sich are vexed at a physician, Who oves no advice bearing on their restoration in health. But hoπ shali me not achnowledge thehioest gratitude to the divine Instructor, Who is not silent, who omita not those threatenings that polat to ards destra tion, but disci es them, and cura off the impulses that tend tothem; and who indoctrinates in those counseis Whicli resultin tho true Way os livingi We must confess, therefore, thodeepest obligations to Him. For What elae do wo say is incumbent on the rational creature-Ι mean man-than the contemplation of the Divine Τ I say, iso, that it is requisiteto contemplato human nature, and is live as the truth directa, and is admire the Instructor and His injunctions, as sultableand harmonious to each other. According to Whicli image also Wo ouot, conforming ourselves to the Instructor, and maing the word and our deeds agris, in live a real lise.
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VIRTVE RATIONAL, SIN IRRATIONAL. VERYTII IN G that is contra to right Nason is sin. Accordingly, theresore, the philosophersthinh fit to dcfine tho most generio passions thus :lust, as destre diso dient to reason; fear, asu eanem disobedient to reason; pleasure, as an elation ofilio spirit disobedient to reason. Ii, then, disobedience in referetice to reason is the generating cause of sin, hoW shallve escape the conclusion, that obedience in re on-the Word-which wo cali faith, will os necessity be the essicacious cause of duul For virtuo itseli is a state of the foui renderedharmonious by reason in respect to the whole lise. Nay, tocrom ali, philosophy itseli is pronounced in bo the cultivation of right reason; so that, necessarily, Whateuer is donethrouo error os reason is transgression, and is rightly called
sor he who transgresses against reason is no longer rational,
But that which is done right, in obedience to reason, thsfollo re of the Stoica cali προσῆκον and καθηκον, that is, incumbent and fitting. What is fitting is incumbent. And
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according in iust reasoning, duties consist in actions, not in svings. And Christian conduci is the operation of the rational mul in accordance With a correct jud ent and aspiration aster tho truth, whicli attains iis destinod ondthrough the body, the wurs consori and Hly. Virtus is a
wili in conso tu to God and Christ in lite, rightly adjuste lis life evertasting. For tho lise of Christians, in Whicli Moare non trained, is a system os reason te actions-that is, os
wo havo called faith. The system is the commandments of the Lord, whicli, being divine statutes and spirituat counself, have been written for ourseives, being adapted for ourselves and our net boura. MoreoVer, they turn bach on us, as thebait rebounds on him that throws it by the repercussion. Whence also duties ars essentiat for divine discipline, as beingenioined by God, and furnished for our salvation. Andsince, of those things Whicli are necessary, some relate only tollia here, and others, Whicli relate to the blessed life yonder, wing us for flight hence; so, in an analogous manner, Osduties, wine are ordained With reserence is life, othere fortho bl sed liso. Tho commandments issued mitti respect tonatural life are published to the multitude; but thoso thatare suiled for living well, and Dom Whicli eternal liso springs,
we have to consider, as in a sketch, as We read them Out osilio Scriptures.
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man who is called a Christian ought to bo during the wholo of his lite. We must accordin y begin With ou
therelare, preserving a due regata to the symmetry of this Work, to say hoW each os us ought to conduci himself in respect to his body, or rather lio. to regulato tho body iiseis. For WheneVer any one, Who has been brought aWay by the Word hom externat things, and from attention to the bovitself to the mind, acquires a clear view of What happensaccording in nature in man, he will know that he is not to boearnestly occupied about externat things, but about what is proper and peculiar to man-to purge the ve of the foui, andio sanctify also his flesh. For he that is clem rid of thosethings which eonstituto him stili dust, What elso has he more serviceable than himself for Walhing in the way whicli leadsto the comprehension os God Some men, in truth, live that they may eat, as the irrationalcreatures, Whose lise is their belly, and nothing olse.' Butilio Instructor enjoins us to eat that me may live. Forneithor is Dod our business, nor is pleas e our aim; but both are on account of our life here, Whicli the Word is training up to immortality. Wherefore also there is discriminationto be employed in referencs in Mod. And it is to bo simple, truly plain, sulting precisely simple and arilem chilhen-as
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conduces consista os tWo things-health and strength; tomhich plainnem os fare is most suit te, betag conducive in is digestion and lighinem os bodri from Whicli comegro is, and health, and right strennii, not strengin that ismong or dangerous and wretched, as is that os athletes produced by compulsory seeding. - must theresore reject different varieties, Whicli en-gender Various mischleis, such as a depraved habit of body and disordere of the stomach, the inste being vitiated by an unhappyart-that os cookery, and the Meleas ari os mining pastry. For peopte dare to cali by the namo of laod thela dabblingin luxuries, which glides into mischievous pleasures. Antiphanes, the Delian physician, said that this variety of viandsWas the one cause of diserae; there Ming peopte mlio distiae tho truth, and through various absurd notions abjure mod ration os diei, and put them solves to a Morid os uouble toprocure dianties from beyond seM. For my pari, I am soro sor this disease, While they arenot ashamed is sing the pruises of their delicacies, oving themselves great tro te in get lampreys in the Stratis of Sicily, the eeis of the weander, and tho hici found in Melos, and tho mullera in Sciathus, and the musseis of Pelorus, theoysters of Abydos, not omitting the sprata found in Lipara, and tho Mantinican turnip; and furthermore, the beetrootthat groWs among the Ascraeans: they s h out tho cochles of Μethymna, the turbois of Attica, and the thrushes of Daphnis, and the reddish-bmπn dried fim, on account of whichtho ill-starred Persian marched into Greeca with flve hundred thousand men. Besides these, they purchase bitas hom Phasis, the Egyptian snipes, and the Median peafo l. Altering theseis means os condimenta, the glutions gape for the fauces. Whalaver earth and the depths of the sea, and the unme sured space of ths air produce,' they cater for their gluttony. In their greed and solicitudo, tho glutions seem absolutely tosweep the worid mith a draynet in gratisy their luxurioustastes. These gluttons, surrounded Mith the found of hissingimingssans, and wearing their Whole lite aWay at the pestio
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and mortar, cling to matter liko fire. More than stat, si emasculate plata lood, namely bread, is strianing off thenourishing part of the grain, so that the necessary part of
, Prov. xxiii. 3. 3 1 Cor. vi. 13. R 1 Cor. vi. 13. 3 an emendation sor ον. si Love, or Iove-least, a name applied by the ancienta in public enter
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great supper, and called many. in But I perceivo whonce thospectous appellation os suppem floWed: μ hom the gulleis and furious love sor suppers -according to the comic poet. For, in truth, μω mann many things are on account of
sor sustenance, not sor pleraure; since tho body derives noadvantage from extravagance in viands. For, quite tho contrary, those Who me the most fruges fare ars the strongestand tho healthiest, and the noblest; as domestics are healthierand stronger than their masters, and husbandmen than the proprietors; and not Only more robust, but miser, as phil sophers are miser than rich men. For they have not buried
says the apostle, in order that the meat spolien os may notbe conceived as ephemerat, but righteousness, and peace,
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suffciency injures a man, deteriorates his spirit, and rendere his body prono to diserae. Besides, those dianu lastes, Whichtroubio themsolves about rich dishes, drive to practices of ilbrepute, diantiness, gluttony, Meed, voraci , insatiabili . Appropriate designations of such peopte as so indulge arestim, Weasela, flatterers, gladiatore, and the monstrous tribes of parasites-the one clam surrendering reason, the other
triendship, and the other lite, for the gratification of tho Mily;
crawling on their bellies, beasta in human shape after theimage of their sather, the voractous beast. Peopte first callodiho abandoned ασώτους, and w appear to me to indicatetheir end, underetanding them as thoso Who are ἀσώτους unsaVed, excluding tho σ. For those stat are absorbed inpora, and exquisitely prepared niceties of condimenta, are
mirili, hilling calves, and sacrificing sheep, saying, Let us eat
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attachment to them, as having command oVer ourselves. For We are erioined in rei and rule over meata, not tobo flavos to them. It is an admirable thing, thereiore, toralse our eyes alost to What is true, to depend on that divino Mod above, and in satiate oursolves mitti the exhaustiess con