Miscellanies 2.20.109

This would be the practice of death: if we were willing to be content with the appetites measured by nature alone, which do not go beyond what is natural to excess or against nature, where sinfulness springs up. We must, then, “put on the whole armor of God, so that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil,” since “the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful before God for the pulling down of strongholds, pulling down reasonings and every height raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” says the divine apostle. There is need, then, of a man who will use without admiration or confusion the things from which the passions arise, such as wealth and poverty, glory and disgrace, health and disease, life and death, toil and pleasure. For in order to use indifferent things indifferently, we need much discernment, since we have been corrupted beforehand by great weakness and by the distortion of bad upbringing and nurture, having indulged ourselves in ignorance.