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"The fruits of this death-giving tree, are as diverse
as sins are diverse. See that some of these fruits
are the food of beasts who live impurely, using their
body and their mind like a swine who wallows in mud,
for in the same way they wallow in the mire of
sensuality.
"Oh, ugly soul, where have you left your dignity? You
were made sister to the angels, and now you are
become a brute beast. To such misery come sinners,
notwithstanding that they are sustained by Me, who am
Supreme Purity, notwithstanding that the very devils,
whose friends and servants they have become, cannot
endure the sight of such filthy actions.
"Neither does any sin, abominable as it may be, take
away the light of the intellect from man, so much as
does this one. This the philosophers knew, not by the
light of grace, because they had it not, but because
nature gave them the light to know that this sin
obscured the intellect, and for that reason they
preserved themselves in continence the better to
study.
"Thus also they flung away their riches in order that
the thought of them should not occupy their heart.
Not so does the ignorant and false Christian, who has
lost grace by sin."
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