XVI. (81) And the statement, “He led him Out”{33}{#ge 15:5.} (exeµgagen auton exoµ), has a bearing also on moral considerations, though some persons, through their want of instruction in moral philosophy, are accustomed to ridicule it, saying, “For is any one ever led out in (exoµ eisagetai), or led in out (eiserchetai exoµ)?” “Certainly,” I would reply, “you ridiculous and very foolish man; for you have never learnt how to trace the dispositions of the soul; but by this language of yours you only seek to understand those motions of the bodies which are exerted in change of place. On which account it seems paradoxical to you to speak of any one coming out into (exerchetai eisoµ), or going in out (exerchetai exoµ); but to those acquainted with Moses none of these things seem inconsistent.” (82) Would you not say that the perfect high priest when, being in the inmost shrine, he is performing his national sacrifices, is both within and without at the same time? within in respect of his visible body, but without in respect of his soul, which is roaming about and wandering? And again, on the other hand, would you not say that a man who was not of the family consecrated to the priesthood, but who was a lover of God and beloved by God, though standing without the holy shrine, was nevertheless in reality in its inmost parts? looking upon his whole life in the body as a sojourning in a foreign land; but while he is able to live only in the soul, then he thinks that he is abiding in his own country. (83) For every fool is outside of friendship, even though he may not depart for one moment from daily association with people. But every wise man is within friendship, even if he be dwelling at a distance, not merely in a different country, but in another climate and region of the world. But, according to Moses, a friend is so near to one as to differ in no respect from one’s own soul, for he says, “the friend who is like thy Soul.”{34}{deuteronomy 13:6.} (84) And again he says, “The priest shall not be a man by himself, when he goeth into the holy of holies, until he cometh Out;”{35}{#le 16:17.} speaking not with reference to the motions of the body, but to those of the soul; for the mind, while it is offering holy sacrifices to God in all purity, is not a human but a divine mind; but when it is serving any human object, it then descends from heaven and becomes changed, or rather it falls to the earth and goes out, even though the mind may still remain within. (85) Very correctly, therefore, it is said, he led him out (exeµgagen exoµ) of the prison according to the body, of the caves existing in the external senses, of the sophistries displayed in deceitful speech; and beyond all this, out of himself and out of the idea that by his own self-exerted, selfimplanted, and independent power he was able to conceive and comprehend.
XVII. (86) And after he has conducted him out, he says to him, “Look up to heaven, and count the stars, if thou art able to number them; thus shall be thy Seed.”{36}{#ge 15:5.} He says very beautifully, “Thus shall be thy seed,” not so great shall it be, equal in number to the stars; for he does not intend here to allude to their multitude only, but also to an infinite number of other circumstances which contribute to entire and perfect happiness. (87) “Thus shall thy seed be,” says God, as the ethereal firmament which thou beholdest, so heavenly, so full of unshadowed and pure brilliancy (for night is driven away from heaven, and darkness from virtue,) most thoroughly like the stars, beautifully adorned, having an arrangement which knows no deviation, but which is always the same and proceeding in the same way. (88) For he means him to speak of the soul of the wise man as a copy of heaven, or, if one may use such a hyperbolical expression, as an actual heaven upon earth, having pure appearances in the air, and well arranged motions, and harmonious progress, and periodical revolutions of divine character, star-like and brilliant rays of virtue. But if it is impossible to find out the number of the stars which are perceptible by the outward senses, how much more so must it be to count those which are discernible only by the intellect? (89) for in proportion, I suppose, as that which judges is better or worse than that which is judged of (for the mind is better than the outward sense, and the outward sense is duller than the intellect; in the same ratio do the subjects of the judgment differ; so that the objects of the intellect are infinitely superior to those of the outward senses; for the eyes in the body are the smallest imaginable portion of the eye of the soul; for the one is like the sun, but the others only resemble lamps, which are at one time lighted and at another extinguished.
Page 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233
