XXXVII. (2.245) Accordingly, one of the followers of Moses, having compared this speech to a river, has said in the Psalms, “The river of God was filled with Water;”{111}{psalm 65:10.} and it is absurd to give such a title to any of the rivers which flow upon the earth. But as it seems the psalmist is here speaking of the divine word, which is full of streams and wisdom, and which has no part of itself empty or desolate, or rather, as some one has said, which is diffused everywhere over the universe, and is raised up on high, on account of the continued and incessant rapidity of that ever-flowing spring. (2.246) There is also another expression in the Psalms, such as this, “The course of the river makes glad the city of God.”{112}{psalm 45:5.} What city? For the holy city, which exists at present, in which also the holy temple is established, at a great distance from any sea or river, so that it is clear, that the writer here means, figuratively, to speak of some other city than the visible city of God. (2.247) For, in good truth, the continual stream of the divine word, being borne on incessantly with rapidity and regularity, is diffused universally over everything, giving joy to all. (2.248) And in one sense he calls the world the city of God, as having received the whole cup of the divine draught, … and being gladdened thereby, so as to have derived from it an imperishable joy, of which it cannot be deprived for ever. But in another sense he applies this title to the soul of the wise man, in which God is said also to walk, as if in a city, “For,” says God, “I will walk in you, and I will be your God in You.”{113}{#le 26:12.} (2.249) And who can pour over the happy soul which proffers its own reason as the most sacred cup, the holy goblets of true joy, except the cup-bearer of God, the master of the feast, the word? not differing from the draught itself, but being itself in an unmixed state, the pure delight and sweetness, and pouring forth, and joy, and ambrosial medicine of pleasure and happiness; if we too may, for a moment, employ the language of the poets.
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