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| The Vow of Chastity, and Its Rites in the Law; Vines, Christ, and the Devil.
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Chapter V.—The Vow of
Chastity, and Its Rites in the Law; Vines, Christ, and the
Devil.
I will now endeavour to explain to you, O virgins,
the rest of that which is prescribed; for this is attached to your
duties, consisting of laws concerning virginity, which are useful as
teaching how we should abstain, and how advance to virginity. For
it is written thus:2649
“And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a
Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord; he shall separate
himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine,
or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of
grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried, all the days of his
separation.” And this means, that he who has devoted and
offered himself to the Lord shall not take of the fruits of the plant
of evil, because of its natural tendency to produce intoxication and
distraction of mind. For we perceive from the Scriptures two
kinds of vines which were separate from each other, and were
unlike. For the one is productive of immortality and
righteousness; but the other of madness and insanity. The sober
and joy-producing vine, from whose instructions, as from branches,
there joyfully hang down clusters of graces, distilling love, is our
Lord Jesus, who says expressly to the apostles,2650
“I am the true vine, ye are the
branches; and my Father is the husbandman.” But the wild
and death-bearing vine is the devil, who drops down fury and poison and
wrath, as Moses relates, writing concerning him,2651
“For their vine is of the vine of
Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of
gall, their clusters are bitter: their wine is the poison of
dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.” The inhabitants of
Sodom having gathered grapes from this, were goaded on to an unnatural
and fruitless desire for males. Hence, also, in the time of Noah,
men having given themselves up to drunkenness, sank down into unbelief,
and, being overwhelmed by the deluge, were drowned. And Cain,
too, having drawn from this, stained his fratricidal hands, and defiled
the earth with the blood of his own family. Hence, too, the
heathen, becoming intoxicated, sharpen their passions for murderous
battles; for man is not so much excited, nor goes so far astray through
wine, as from anger and wrath. A man does not become intoxicated
and go astray through wine, in the same way as he does from sorrow, or
from love, or from incontinence. And therefore it is ordered that
a virgin shall not taste of this vine, so that she may be sober and
watchful from the cares of life, and may kindle the shining torch of
the light of righteousness for the Word. “Take heed to
yourselves,” says the Lord,2652
“lest at any time your hearts be
overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,
and so that day come upon you unawares, as a
snare.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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