Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit

And it is with particular beauty that he speaks of Damascus with reference, not to his father, but to his mother; in order to show that the soul depending on blood, by means of which the brute animals live, is akin properly to the female race; the race of his mother, and has no share in the male race. But this is not the case with virtue, that is with Sarah; [*](Genesis ii. 7. ) [*](Genesis xv. 2. ) [*](Exodus xviii. 4. )

for she has none but a male offspring, being borne only of God who is the father of all things, being that authority which has no mother. "For truly," says the scripture, "she is my sister by my father’s side, but not by my mother’s." [*](Genesis xx. 12. )

We have now explained what it was necessary for you to be apprised of as a preliminary. For the first part of the argument had a sort of enigmatical obscurity. But we must examine with more accurate particularity what the man who is fond of learning seeks. Perhaps then it is something of this sort: to know whether any one who is desirous of that life which is dependent on blood and who claims an interest in the objects of the outward sense, can become an inheritor of incorporeal and divine things?

for of such only he who is inspired from above is thought worthy, having received a portion of heavenly and divine inheritance, being in fact the most pure mind, disregarding not merely the body but also the other fragment of the soul, which being devoid of reason is mixed up with blood, kindling the fervid passions and excited appetites.

Accordingly, it pushes its inquiries in this manner: since you have not given to me a seed which is capable of becoming its own instructor, namely, that seed which is able to be comprehended by the intellect, "Shall the slave born in my house be my heir?" [*](Genesis xv. 3. ) the offspring of that life which is dependent upon blood.

Then God, making haste, anticipated the speaker, sending, as one may say, instruction on in advance of speech. "For immediately," says the scripture, "the voice of God came to him, saying, He shall not be thy heir;" nor any one else of those who come to an exhibition of the outward senses. For the incorporeal natures are the inheritors of those things which can only be appreciated by the intellect.

And it has been especially observed here, that the scripture does not say he spoke to him or conversed with him, but the expression is, "The voice of God came to him;" as if God uttering a loud and unceasing sound, in order that the voice being thus distributed into every soul, might leave no part destitute of proper instruction, but that all parts might every where be filled with healthy learning.

Who, then, shall be the heir? Not that reasoning which remains in the prison of the body according to its own voluntary intention, but that which is loosened from those [*](Genesis xx. 12. ) [*](Genesis xv. 3. )

Therefore if any desire comes upon thee, O soul, to be the inheritor of the good things of God, leave not only thy country, [*](Genesis xii. 1. ) the body, and thy kindred, the outward senses, and thy father’s house, that is speech; but also flee from thyself, and depart out of thyself, like the Corybantes, or those possessed with demons, being driven to frenzy, and inspired by some prophetic inspiration.

For while the mind is in a state of enthusiastic inspiration, and while it is no longer mistress of itself, but is agitated and drawn into frenzy by heavenly love, and drawn upwards to that object, truth removing all impediments out of its way, and making every thing before it plain, that so it may advance by a level and easy road, its destiny is to become an inheritor of the things of God.

But, O mind! take confidence, and explain to us how you depart and emigrate from those former things, you who utter things perceptible only by the intellect to those who have been taught to hear rightly, always saying, I emigrated from my sojourn in the body when I learnt to despise the flesh, and I emigrated from the outward sense when I learnt to look upon the objects of outward sense as things which had no existence in reality—condemning its judicial faculties as spurious and corrupted, and full of false opinion, and also condemning the objects submitted to that judgment as speciously devised to allure and to deceive, and to snatch the truth from out of the middle of nature. Again, I departed from speech when I convicted it of great unreasonableness, although it talked of sublime subjects and puffed itself up;

for it dared a not inconsiderable deed of daring, namely, to show me bodies through the medium of shadows, and things by means of words, which was impossible; therefore it kept stumbling about over repeated obstacles, and kept on talking vainly, being unable by common expressions to give a clear representation and understanding of the peculiar properties of the subjects with which it was dealing.

But I, learning by experience, like an infant and untaught child, decided that it was better to depart from all these things, and to attribute the powers of each to God, who makes and consolidates [*](Genesis xii. 1. )

and in the same manner in which you have departed from the other things, now rise up and emigrate from thyself. But what is the meaning of this expression? Do not treasure up in thyself the faculties of perceiving, and thinking, and comprehending, but offer and dedicate these things to him who is the cause of thinking accurately, and of comprehending without being deceived.

But it is the holier of the all-sacred places in the temple which receives this offering; for it appears that there are two; the one discernible only by the intellect, and the other perceptible by the outward senses. Now, of these creatures which are perceptible by the outward senses, this world is the receptacle; but of those things which are truly invisible, the world, which is discernible only by the intellect, is the magazine:

but he that goes out from us and desires to become an attendant of God, is the inheritor of the much celebrated wealth of nature; he bears witness, who says, "He brought him out, and said unto him, Look up to heaven;" [*](Genesis xv. 5. ) since that is the treasury of the good things of God. "May the Lord," says he, "open to thee the treasury of his good things," [*](Deut. xxviii. 12. )—that is, the heaven; out of which he who furnishes the supply does incessantly rain the most perfect joys. Look up, then, so as to convict the blind race of common men, which, though it appears to see, is blind.

For how can it be otherwise than blind, when it sees evil instead of good, and what is unjust instead of what is just, and the indulgence of the passions, instead of a mastery over them, and things mortal, instead of things immortal, and when it runs away from its monitors and correctors, and from conviction and instruction, and admits flatterers, and the reasonings of idleness, and ignorance, and luxury, all exerted in the cause of pleasure?

The good man, then, alone sees; in reference to whom the ancients also called the prophets, seers. [*](1 Samuel ix. 9. ) But he who advanced further outwards, not only seeing, but seeing God, was called Israel; the meaning of which name is, "seeing God." But others, even if they ever do open their eyes, still bend them down towards the earth, pursuing only earthly things, and being bred up among material objects;

for the one raises his eyes to the sky, beholding the manna, the divine [*](Genesis xv. 5. ) [*](Deut. xxviii. 12. ) [*](1 Samuel ix. 9. )

"For," says the scripture, "we remembered the fish which we ate in Egypt without payment, and the gourds, and the cucumbers, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our soul is dry, and our eyes behold nothing but manna." [*](Numbers xi. 5. )