XVIII. (74) Will not this person be justly looked upon as a murderer, by many who are influenced by the customs which have so much weight among women? But with God, the ruler and father of the universe, he will be thought worthy of infinite praises and panegyrics, and of rewards which can never be taken away; and the rewards are great, and akin to one another, being peace and the priesthood: (75) for it was an illustrious achievement, after having put to flight the almost invincible troops of men who live according to the common fashion, and having put down the civil war of the appetites in the soul, to establish a peace firmly; and for this great exploit to receive nothing else, not riches, not glory, not honour, not authority, not beauty, not strength, not any of the advantages of the body, nor, on the other hand, earth or heaven, or all the world, but that most important and valuable of all things, the rank of the priesthood, the office of serving and paying honour to Him who is in truth the only being worthy of honour and service; this is an admirable thing, an object worthy of contention. (76) And I was not wrong when I called those rewards, brothers to one another, but I said so, knowing that he cannot be made a true priest who is still serving in human and mortal warfare, in which vain opinions are the officers of the companies; and that he cannot be a peaceful man, who does not in sincerity cultivate and serve, with all simplicity, the only Being who has no share in warfare, and everlasting peace.

XIX. (77) Such are the persons who honour their father, and the things belonging to their father, but who pay but little regard to their mother and to things that belong to her. But Moses represents the man who is at variance with both his father and his mother, and brings them forward as saying, “I know not the Lord; and I will not let Israel Go.”{18}{#ex 5:2.} For he appears to put himself in opposition to those divine things, which are established in accordance with divine reason, and also to those which are established with reference to created beings, by means of education, and to be throwing everything into confusion in every direction. (78) And there are even now–for the human race has not as yet entirely purified itself from unmixed wickedness–there are still persons who have absolutely determined to do nothing which has any bearing on piety or on human society, but who, on the contrary, are the companions of impiety and atheism, and treacherous towards their equals. (79) And these men go about, being the greatest imaginable pests of their cities, out of curiosity and a love of interfering, mixing themselves up with, or rather, if one must tell the truth, throwing into confusion all kinds of affairs, both public and private, men who ought to have put up prayers and offered sacrifices to avert (as if it had been a great disease) famine, or pestilence, or any other evil inflicted by God; for these calamities are great evils to those on whom they fall; in reference to which Moses sings their destruction, when they have been destroyed by their own allies, and swallowed up by their own opinions, as if by the waves of a stormy sea.