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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: enveloped him, still bound the eyes of his heart. Howbeit he no
longer honoured his temple-keepers, nor would he keep feasts, nor
make drink offerings to his idols, but his mind was tossed
between two opinions. On the one hand, he poured scorn on the
impotence of his gods; on the other, he dreaded the strictness of
the profession of the Gospel, and was hardly to be torn from his
evil ways, being completely in slavery to the pleasures of the
body, and like a captive drawn towards sinful lusts, and being
drunken, as saith Esay, but not with wine, and led as it were
with the bridle of evil habit.
While the king was thus wrestling with two opinions, his noble
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