XXIII. (127) We have now, then, said enough about gifts which God is accustomed to bestow on those who are to become perfect, and through the medium of them on others also. In the next passage it is said, that “Abraham went as the Lord commanded Him.”{62}{#ge 7:4.} (128) And this is the end which is celebrated among those who study philosophy in the best manner, namely, to live in accordance with nature. And this takes place when the mind, entering into the path of virtue, treads in the steps of right reason, and follows God, remembering his commandments, and at all times and in all places confirming them both by word and deed;” (129) for “he went as the Lord commanded him.” And the meaning of this is, as God commands (and he commands in a beautiful and praiseworthy manner), in that very manner does the virtuous man act, guiding the path of his life in a blameless way, so that the actions of the wise man are in no respect different from the divine commands. (130) At all events, God is represented in another passage as saying, “Abraham has kept all my Law.”{63}{#ge 26:5.} And law is nothing else but the word of God, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is not right, as he bears witness, where he says, “He received the law from his Words.”{64}{#de 33:4.} If, then, the divine word is the law, and if the righteous man does the law, then by all means he also performs the word of God. So that, as I said before, the words of God are the actions of the wise man. (131) Accordingly, the end is according to the most holy Moses, to follow God; and he says also in another passage, “Thou shalt walk after the Lord thy God;”{65}{#de 13:4.} not meaning that he should employ the motion of his legs; for the earth is the support of a man, but whether the whole world is sufficient to be the support of God, I do not know; but he seems here to be speaking allegorically, intending to represent the way in which the soul follows the divine doctrines, which has a direct reference to the honour due to the great cause of all things.
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