XLI. (2.268) But there are many occasions which are not well suited to silence: and if we go to the language of ordinary prose, of which we may again see memorials laid up, how did there, ever an unexpected participation in good take place to any one? It is well, therefore, to give thanks and to sing hymns in honour of him who bestowed it. (2.269) What, then, is the good? The passion which is attacking us is dead, and is thrown out on its face without burial. Let us not delay, but standing still, let us sing that most sacred and becoming hymn, feeling that we are command to say to all men, “Let us sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the Sea.”{120}{#ex 15:1.} (2.270) But the rout and destruction of the passions is indeed a good, but not a perfect good; but the discovery of wisdom is a surpassing good, and when that is found all the people will sing harmonies and melodies, not with one kind of music only, but with every sort; (2.271) for then, says the scripture, “Israel sang this song at the Well;”{121}{numbers 21:17.} that is to say, in triumph for the fact that knowledge, which had long been hidden but which was sought for, had at length been found by all men, though lying deep by nature; the duty of which was to irrigate the rational fields existing in the souls of those men who are fond of contemplation. (2.272) What, then, shall we say? When we bring home the legitimate fruit of the mind, does not the sacred scripture enjoin us to display in our reason, as in a sacred basket, the first fruits of our fertility; a specimen of the glorious flowers, and shoots, and fruits which the soul has brought forth, bidding us speak out distinctly, and to utter panegyrics on the God who brings things to perfection, and to say, “I have cleared away the things which were holy out of my house, and I have arranged them in the house of God:”{122}{#de 26:13.} appointing as stewards and guardians of them, men selected for their superior merit, and giving them the charge of these sacred things; (2.273) and these persons are Levites, proselytes, and orphans, and widows. But some are suppliants, some are emigrants and fugitives, some are persons widowed and destitute of all created things, but enrolled as belonging to God, the genuine husband and father of the soul which is inclined to worship.
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