No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up tears away from the old, and the tear is made worse.
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Bede
AD 735
By wine we are refreshed inwardly. By a garment we are outwardly covered. Both relate to the dynamics of spiritual life. The garment indicates good works performed outwardly in order to shine in the sight of the world. By wine and new wine we mean that fervor of faith, hope and love by means of which, in the sight of our maker, our souls are recovered inwardly to newness of spirit. .
The souls of some are like an old garment, an old wineskin—not as yet renewed by faith. Not yet renovated in the grace of the Spirit, they remain weak and earthly. All their affections are turned toward this life, fluttering after worldly show, loving a glory that is ephemeral. If such a soul should incidentally hear that if he became a Christian he would immediately become like a servant, as if he had a manacle on his foot, he would recoil with indignity and horror from the word as preached. Concerning the Statues, Homily
-has determined for us, the disciples of the New Testament, a new form of prayer; for in this particular also it was needful that new wine should be laid up in new skins, and a new breadth be sewn to a new garment.
