XIV. (59) And on this account, indeed, it is said in the greater prayer, “Inquire of thy father, and he will tell thee; of thy elders, and they will reply to thee, when the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he fixed the boundaries of the nations, according to the number of the angels of God, and the portion of the Lord himself was his people Israel.”{13}{#de 32:7.} (60) For, behold, here again, he uses the expression, “the portion and inheritance of God,” meaning that disposition which is capable of seeing him, and which sincerely worships him; and he says that the children of the earth, whom he calls the sons of Adam, were scattered and dispersed, and brought together again, and that a company was formed of them, since they were unable to use right reason as their guide. For, in real truth, virtue is the cause of harmony and unity, and the opposite disposition is the cause of dissolution and disagreement. (61) Indeed, it is a proof of what has been said, what happens every year on the day called the day of atonement; for on that day the people are enjoined “to take by lot two goats, one for the Lord, and one to be the Scapegoat;”{14}{#de 15:6.} that is to say, two reasons, the one in accordance with God, the other consistent with creation. He, therefore, who wishes to exalt the Cause of all things will acquire honour to himself; but he who attributes honour to creation will be banished, being driven from the most sacred places, and compelled to fall into inaccessible and wicked gulfs.
XV. (62) Moses, therefore, has such intimate connection with God, that, relying upon this in a very great degree, he is in the habit of using more fervent and energetic expressions and doctrines than are calculated for the ears of us inferior persons; for he not only thinks it fit to speak of God as an inheritor, but even, which is a more startling thing to the comprehension, he calls him the inheritance of others; (63) for to the entire tribe which came to him as a fugitive and a suppliant, he did not think fit to allot only a portion of land, as he did to the other eleven tribes, but he chose that they should receive an especial honour, namely, the priesthood, a possession not of earth, but of heaven. “For thou shalt not be,” says God, as Moses represents, “a portion to the tribe of Levi, nor any inheritance among the children of Israel, because the Lord himself is their Inheritance.”{15}{#de 10:9.} And again he speaks in the person of God, in his holy oracles, in this manner: “I am thy portion and Inheritance.”{16}{#nu 18:20.} (64) For, in real truth, the mind which is perfectly purified, and which knows all the things of creation, knows and recognizes one only God, the Uncreate, whom it approaches, and by whom it is received. For to whom is it permitted to say, “He alone is my God,” except to the man who is attached to none of the objects which are inferior to him? And this is the custom of the Levites; for the name of Levi, being interpreted, means, “He is to me,” because different things are honoured by different people, but by him only that which is highest and most excellent, the Cause of all things.
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