De Virtutibus

And there is evident proof that God was their ally, in the fact that many myriads of men were defeated by a few, and that not one man of the enemy escaped, and that not one of their own troops was slain, and that the army was not diminished in either number or power;

on which account Moses says in his exhortations to his people: [*]( Deuteronomy xxviii 15. ) "If you practise justice, and holiness, and the other virtues, you shall enjoy a life untroubled by wars and invariably peaceful; or if any war comes upon you, you shall with ease subdue your enemies, God being the leader of your host, although invisibly, who takes care to put forth his might to save the good.

Therefore, if thy enemies come upon thee with many myriads of [*]( Deuteronomy xxviii 15. )

For very often a violent wind, falling upon them as upon a merchant vessel laden with all kinds of good things, has at once overthrown and destroyed these things; while upon those who have been imperfectly supplied, and who have been sorrowful, hanging down their heads like ears of corn withering under drought and disease, God has suddenly showered down and poured forth his saving powers, and has caused them to rise up and become prosperous and perfect.

From which it is plain that he cleaves to what is holy and righteous; for those whose ally is God are consummately happy, but those to whom he is an enemy are sunk in the lowest depths of misery. This appears sufficient to say on the present occasion on the subject of courage.

We must now proceed in due order to consider that virtue which is more nearly related to piety, being as it were a sister, a twin sister, namely, humanity, which the father of our laws loved so much that I know not if any human being was ever more attached to it. For he knew that this was as it were a plain and level road conducting to holiness; and, therefore, he trained and instructed all the people who were in subjection to himself in precepts of fellowship, the most excellent of all lessons, exhibiting to them his own life as an archetypal model for them to copy.

Every thing, then, that was ever done by him from his earliest infancy to old age in the way of taking care and providing for each separate individual and for all men in general, has been already explained in the three books of the treatise which I have set forth about the life of Moses. But it is necessary also to make mention of one or two points which he set in order when at the point of death; for they are indicative of that continual and uninterrupted virtue which he stamped upon his own soul, which was thus fashioned after the