Chapter IX.
In the lower part of the abdomen we are taught that the receptacles of food should be made small; and on this occasion, the conformation and use of the intestines are discussed. The origin of a flood arising from intemperance, and the remedy to be applied to it, are shown.
Now let us inquire what the Lord means when He says: You shall make the lower compartments of the ark two and three contraries (Gen. VI, 16). By saying 'lower,' He wishes us to understand that the receptacles for food are to be properly regarded as lower vessels, that is, those organs which digest the food that has been consumed. For food is perishable, and what is perishable should be compared not with things that are higher but with things that are lower. Moreover, since food descends, only a small portion of it nourishes the body and provides sustenance, while the rest is cleansed through the intestines, for they are the organs through which the excess of food descends.
Thus our Creator has designed our organs, so that they are not extended from the stomach to the bottom, but curved and bent; in order to prolong the use of our lives. For if the intestines of a human were to be extended, which receive and process food, it would immediately pass through without delay; and it would be necessary for us to constantly be hungry, constantly feast, or quickly run out of nourishment. But now, in that bending and curving of the intestines, food adheres and gradually provides nourishment by descending, it imparts juices to the body, maintains satiety, and delays the craving to eat: it is neither a sudden outpouring, nor a sudden evacuation, nor an insatiable craving, nor an insatiable desire to feast. First therefore there is need and hunger: then from these would follow the continuation of eating without interruption. But what is more ugly than always tending to the stomach, which when it is filled, must be emptied; when it is emptied, must be refilled? What surpasses the third, except death mixed among the very foods and banquets? For how could they continue life any longer, while eating and hungry, and drinking and thirsty, and emptying everything they had taken before they were filled, and immediately hungry again? But now, as the food gradually descends, the natural providence moderates hunger and the natural craving. For first, in the stomach, which most people call the upper belly, the food is digested; then it is cooked in the liver, and there it is digested by heat. Its juice is divided into certain portions of the viscera, from which the whole body gains strength. This testifies to the growth of the youth, and the perseverance of the old. The remaining food flows into the belly. Whom we all call the belly without addition, many people say the lower belly; from which it is necessary for someone who had already descended full of corruption to be discharged through that sideways door.
29. When these things, composed by nature's skillful arrangement, appear to be designed for the instruction of God; nevertheless, if the manner of eating and acting is not observed by us, like a flood generated by excessive passions, and a certain corruption of the whole body occurs. For intemperance kindles desire, generates crudeness, creates corruption. Therefore, either the internal hardness is strained and shaken by pains, or a certain covering of the intestines is rubbed by the moisture of uncooked food and the roughness of indigestion; because, like a folded sheet, a twofold covering of them is asserted: one exterior, which the learned call continuous, or those who have examined it more diligently, directed from top to bottom; another interior, as if woven on the sides; hence they say it is not completely dissolved when it is rubbed. For if its interior were continuous, its rupture would be incurable, there the remains of food adhere through the delay of adjunctions. And if these adjunctions are dissolved, half-digested food and flowing drinks pass, which is the deluge of the human body.
30. Therefore, it seems to me that God wanted to teach us through the story of this ark how we may be safe from this particular flood. For the corruption caused by the flood is the reason: once it creeps in, the waters burst forth, and all the fountains of desires bubble up, so that the whole body may be submerged in such a great and deep flood of vices. For there is nothing that subjects a person to such wretched servitude as lust and such desires that weigh down the wretched conscience with a heavy yoke of crimes, to the extent that it cannot raise itself up, since it has lost the freedom of innocence. Therefore, the maximum remedy in this flood is to prioritize righteousness and choose it as the executor of divine command. Who is righteous within us, if not the intellectual power which includes all species of living beings above the earth within this ark? Restrain your rage and subdue all your irrational passions, subject all your senses to the mind, and accustom yourself to the commands of the soul. Do not allow your desires to escape and indulge in the common vices; and through rational thinking, you will be able to free even your irrational tendencies and impure sins from all danger of the flood.