76. This fire is dangerous, let us then not
feed it with the fuel of luxury. Lust is fed by feastings,
nourished by delicacies, kindled by wine, and inflamed by
drunkenness. Still more dangerous than these are the incentives
of words, which intoxicate the mind as it were with a kind of wine of
the vine of Sodom. Let us be on our guard against abundance of
this wine, for when the flesh is intoxicated the mind totters, the
heart wavers, the heart is carried to and fro. And so with regard
to each that precept is useful wherein Timothy is warned:
“Drink a little wine because of thy frequent
infirmities.” 1 Tim. v. 23. When the
body is heated, it excites the glow of the mind; when the flesh is
chilled with the cold of disease the spirit is chilled; when the body
is in pain, the mind is sad, but the sadness shall become
joy.