III. (13) When therefore the mind begins to become acquainted with itself, and to dwell among the speculations which come under the province of the intellect, all the inclinations of the soul for the species which is comprehensible by the intellect will be repelled, which inclination is called by the Hebrews, Lot; for which reason the wise man is represented as distinctly saying, “Depart, and separate yourself from Me;”{5}{#ge 13:9.} for it is impossible for a man who is overwhelmed with the love of incorporeal and imperishable objects to dwell with one, whose every inclination is towards the mortal objects of the outward senses. (14) Very beautifully therefore has the sacred interpreter of God’s will entitled one entire holy volume of the giving of the law, the Exodus, having thus found out an appropriate name for the oracles contained therein. For being a man desirous of giving instruction and exceedingly ready to admonish and correct, he desires to remove the whole of the people of the soul as a multitude capable of receiving admonition and correction from the country of Egypt, that is to say, the body, and to take them out from among its inhabitants, thinking it a most terrible and grievous burden that the mind which is endowed with the faculty of sight should be oppressed by the pleasures of the flesh, and should obey whatever commands the relentless desires choose to impose upon it. (15) Therefore, after the merciful God has instructed this people, groaning and bitterly weeping for the abundance of the things concerning the body, and the exceeding supply of external things (for it is said, “The children of Israel groaned by reason of the Works”){6}{#ex 2:23.} when, God, I say, had instructed them about their going out, the prophet himself led them forth in safety. (16) But there are some persons who have made a treaty with the body to last till the day of their death, and who have buried themselves in it as in a chest or coffin or whatever else you like to call it, of whom all the parts which are devoted to the slavery of the body and of the passions are consigned to oblivion and buried. But if anything well affected towards virtue has shot up by the side of it, that is preserved in the recollection, by means of which good things are naturally destined to be kept alive.
IV. (17) Accordingly, the sacred scriptures command the bones of Joseph–I mean by this the only parts of such a soul as were left behind, being species which know no corruption and which deserve to have mention made of them–to be preserved, thinking it preposterous for pure things not to be united to pure things. (18) And what is especially worthy of being mentioned is this, that he believed that God would visit the race which was capable of Seeing,”{7}{#ge 50:24.} and would not give it up for ever and ever to ignorance, that blind mistress, but would distinguish between the immortal and the mortal parts of the soul, and leave in Egypt those parts which were conversant about the pleasures of the body and the other immoderate indulgences of the passions; but with respect to those parts which are imperishable, would make a covenant that they should be conducted onwards with those persons who were going up to the cities of virtue and would further ratify this covenant with an oath. (19) What then are the parts which are imperishable? In the first place, a perfect alienation from pleasure which says, “Let us lie down Together,”{8}{#ge 39:7.} and let us enjoy human enjoyments; secondly, presence of mind combined with fortitude, by means of which the soul separates and distinguishes from one another those things which by vain opinions are accounted good things, as so many dreams, confessing that “the only true and accurate explanations of things are found with God;”{9}{#ge 40:8.} and that all those imaginings, which exist in the unsteady, puffed up, and arrogant life of those men who are not yet purified, but who delight in those pleasures which proceed from bakers, and cooks, and wine-bearers, are uncertain and indistinct; (20) so that such a man is not a subject but a ruler of Egypt, that is to say of the whole region of the body; so that “he boasted of being of the race of the Hebrews,”{10}{#ge 40:15.} who were accustomed to rise up and leave the objects of the outward senses, and to go over to those of the intellect; for the name Hebrew, being interpreted, means “one who passes over,” because he boasted that “here he had done Nothing.”{11}{#ge 40:17.} For to do nothing of those things which are thought much of among the wicked, but to hate them all and reject them, is praiseworthy in no slight degree; (21) as it is to despise immoderate indulgence of the desires and all other passions; to fear God, if a man is not yet capable of loving him, and even while in Egypt to have a desire for real life.
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