XXIV. (137) And wisdom, which, after the fashion of a mother, has conceived and brought fourth the self-taught race, points out that it is God who is the sower of it; for, after the offspring is brought forth, she speak magnificently, saying, “The Lord has caused me Laughter;”{49}{#ge 21:6.} an expression equivalent to, he has fashioned, he has made, he has begotten Isaac, since Isaac is the same with laughter. (138) But it does not belong to every one to hear this sound, since the evil of superstition is very widely spread among us, and has overwhelmed many unmanly and ignoble souls; on which account she adds, “For whoever hears this will not rejoice with me.” As if those persons were very few whose ears are opened and pricked up so as to be inclined to the reception of these sacred words, which teach that it is the peculiar employment of the only God to sow and to beget what is good; to which words all other persons are deaf. (139) And I know that this illustrious oracle was formerly delivered from the mouth of the prophet. “Thy fruit has been found from me: who is wise and will understand these things? who is prudent and will know Them?”{50}{#ho 14:9.} But I have observed, and comprehended, and admired him who causes to resound, and who himself, invisible as he is, does in an invisible manner strike the organ of the voice; being amazed also at the same time at what was uttered. (140) For if there be any good thing among existing things, that, or I should rather say the whole heaven and the whole world, if one must tell the truth, is the fruit of God; being preserved upon his eternal and everflourishing nature as upon a tree. But it belongs to wise and understanding men to understand and to confess such things as these, and not to the ignorant.
XXV. (141) We have now then explained what is meant by the words, “I will give unto thee.” We must now explain the words, “out of her.” Some now have understood them as meaning that which exists out of her, thinking that it has been most correctly decided by right reason that the soul never displays any peculiar beauty of its own, but only such as comes to it from without, in accordance with the greatness of the good will of God who showers his graces upon it. (142) But others understand these words to mean instant rapidity; for that the words (ex auteµs, which we have translated) “out of her,” are here equivalent to, “at once, immediately, without any delay, without hesitation.” And it is in this way that the gifts of God usually come to men, outstripping the differences of time. There is a third class of persons who say, that virtue is the mother of all created good, without having received the seed of it from any mortal man; (143) and to those who ask, whether she who is barren has an offspring (for the holy scriptures, which some time ago represented Sarrah as barren, now confess that she will become a mother); this answer must be given, that a woman who is barren cannot, in the course of nature, bring forth an offspring, just as a blind man cannot see, nor a deaf man hear; but that the soul, which is barren of bad things, and which is unproductive of immoderate license of the passions and vices, is alone very nearly attaining to a happy delivery, bringing forth objects worthy of love, namely, the number seven, according to the hymn which is sung by Grace, that is, by Hannah, who says, “she who was barren hath born seven, and she who had many children has become weak:”{51}{#1Sa 2:5.} (144) and what she means by, “She who has many children,” is the mind, which being pregnant of mixed and promiscuous reasonings, from all quarters confused together, by reason of the multitudes which crowd around her, and of the disorder which they cause, brings forth incurable evils; and by “she who was barren,” she means that the mind which had never received any mortal seed, as if it were productive of offspring, but has avoided and shunned all association and all connection with the wicked, and clings to the seventh, and to the most peaceful numbers in accordance with it, for it deserves to be pregnant of it, and to be called its mother.
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