XLVIII. So, also, now he who is perfectly wise, that is, Moses, will be found to have utterly shaken off an discarded the pleasures. But he who is only advancing towards perfection will be found to have escaped not from every pleasure, but to cling still to such as are desirable and simple, and to deprecate those which are superfluous and extravagant as unnecessary additions, (141) for, in the case of Moses, God speaks thus: “And he washed his belly and his feet, with the blood of the entire burnt Offering.”{59}{#le 9:14.} Speaking very truly, for the wise man consecrates his entire soul as what is worthy to be offered to God, because it is free from all reproach, whether wilfully or unintentionally incorrect, and being thus disposed, he washes his whole belly and all the pleasures which it knows, and all which pursue it, and cleanses them and purifies them from all uncleanliness, not being content with any partial cleansing. But he is disposed to regard pleasures so contemptuously that he has no desire for even the necessary meat or drink, but nourishes himself wholly on the contemplation of divine things. (142) On which account in another passage, he bears witness to himself, “For forty-eight years he did not eat bread, and he did not drink Water,”{60}{#ex 34:28.} because he was in the holy mouth listening to the oracular voice of God, who was giving him the law. But not only does he repudiate the whole belly, but he also at the same time washes off all the dirt from his feet, that is to say, to the supports in which pleasure proceeds. And the supports of pleasure are the efficient causes of it. (143) For he who is advancing onwards to perfection is said “to wash his bowels and his Feet,”{61}{#le 1:9.} and not his whole belly. For he is not capable of rejecting the whole of pleasure, but he is content if he can purify his bowels, that is to say, his inmost parts from it, which the lovers of pleasure say are certain additions to preceding pleasures, and which originate in the superfluous ingenuity of cooks and makers of delicacies and laborious gourmands.
Page 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364
