ON THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM

 I. (1) And the Lord said to Abraham, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house to a land which I will show thee and I

 II. (7) That he means by Abraham's country the body, and by his kindred the outward senses, and by his father's house uttered speech, we have now show

 III. (13) When therefore the mind begins to become acquainted with itself, and to dwell among the speculations which come under the province of the in

 IV. (17) Accordingly, the sacred scriptures command the bones of Joseph--I mean by this the only parts of such a soul as were left behind, being speci

 V. Which he who sees, marvelling at (and indeed it was Enough[Ge 42:18.] to cause astonishment), says, It is a great thing for me if my son Joseph is

 VI. (26) And why do we wonder if he exhorts the man who is led away by the force of unreasonable passions, neither to yield, nor to allow himself to b

 VII. (31) How then should any good thing be wanting when the all-accomplishing God is at all times present with his graces, which are his virgin daugh

 VIII. (36) That then which is shown is that thing so worthy of being beheld, so worthy of being contemplated, so worthy of being beloved, the perfect

 IX. (43) And Moses speaks very cautiously, inasmuch as he defines not the present time but the future in the promise which he records, when he says,

 X. (53) Therefore, after having left all mortal things, God, as I have said before, gives, as his first gift to the soul, an exhibition and an opportu

 XI. But who are they who are worthy to obtain such a mercy as this? It is plain that they are all lovers of wisdom and knowledge (58) for these are t

 XII. (64) For, says Moses, you shall not eat those animals which have a multitude of feet, being numbered among all the reptiles that are upon the

 XIII. (70) There have now been two gifts of God already mentioned: the hope of a life devoted to contemplation, and an improvement in good things in r

 XIV. (76) For this reason also the allaccomplished Moss deprecates coming to a consideration of reasonable looking and plausible arguments, from the t

 XV. (80) At all events when the conceptions are at all indistinct and ambiguous, speech is the treading as it were on empty air, and often stumbles an

 XVI. (86) What then is the fourth gift? The having a great name, for God says, I will magnify thy Name [Ge 12:2.] and the meaning of this, as it app

 XVII. (95) I also admire Leah, that woman endued with all virtue, who, at the birth of Asher, who is the symbol of that bastard wealth, which is perce

 XVIII. (101) On this account also the selfinstructed Isaac prays to the lover of wisdom, that he may be able to comprehend both those good things whic

 XIX. (106) There is, also, a fifth gift, which consists only in the bare fact of existence and it is mentioned after all the previous ones, not becau

 XX. (109) These are the good things which are given to him who is about to be wise. But let us now examine what God, for the sake of the wise man, bes

 XXI. (118) These, then, are the things which, he says, happen in the first instance to others on account of the good man, when they seek to load him w

 XXII. (124) Let us therefore pray that the mind may be in the soul like a pillar in a house, and, in like manner, that the just man may be firmly esta

 XXIII. (127) We have now, then, said enough about gifts which God is accustomed to bestow on those who are to become perfect, and through the medium o

 XXIV. (132) And he also, with a wish further to excite an irresistible desire of what is good, enjoins one to cleave to it for he says, Thou shalt f

 XXV. (139) Since, then, these things are in this state, the mind, when it is rendered perfect, will pay its proper tribute to the God who causes perfe

 XXVI. (143) This is the end of the path of those who follow the arguments and injunctions contained in the law, and who walk in the way which God lead

 XXVII. (148) We must also inquire what the meaning of the expression, He went with Lot,[Ge 12:4.] is. Now, the name Lot, being interpreted, means d

 XXVIII. And it is with particular beauty and propriety that he calls the soul of the wicked man multitude: for it is truly a company which has been co

 XXIX. (158) Some persons then repudiate this mixed and rough multitude, and raise a wall of fortification to keep it from them, rejoicing only in the

 XXX. (164) Accordingly, as I have already said, the lovers of wisdom will raise a wall of exclusion against the man who, like a drone, has resolved to

 XXXI. (168) But whoever is raised on high to such a sublime elevation will never any more allow any of the portions of his soul to dwell below among m

 XXXII. (176) And Abraham, says Moses, was seventy-five years of age, when he departed out of Charren. Now concerning the number of seventy-five ye

 XXXIII. (184) These things then having been now said for the purpose of overturning the opinion of the Chaldeans he thinks that it is desirable to le

 XXXIV. (187) Abandoning therefore your superfluous anxiety to investigate the things of heaven, dwell, as I said just now within yourselves, forsaking

 XXXV. (192) Having then in this manner learnt to accomplish the abandonment of mortal things, you shall become instructed in the proper doctrines resp

 XXXVI. (196) On which account also that disposition which is ranked in the highest class by God, by name Samuel, does not explain the just precepts of

 XXXVII. (203) This number, therefore, as I have said before, is familiar to Moses, but the number of the five outward senses is familiar to him who em

 XXXVIII. (208) I very much admire Rebecca, who is patience, because she, at that time, recommends the man who is perfect in his soul, and who has dest

 XXXIX. (216) The mind, therefore, going forth out of the places which are in Charran, is said to have travelled through the land until it came to the

I. (1) And the Lord said to Abraham, "Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house to a land which I will show thee; and I will make thee into a great nation. And I will bless thee, and I will magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. And I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse them that curse thee; and in thy name shall all the nations of the earth be Blessed."[Ge 12:1.] (2) God, wishing to purify the soul of man, first of all gives it an impulse towards complete salvation, namely, a change of abode, so as to quit the three regions of the body, the outward sense and speech according to utterance; for his country is the emblem of the body, and his kindred are the symbol of the outward sense, and his father's house of speech. Why so? (3) Because the body derives its composition from the earth, and is again dissolved into earth; and Moses is a witness of this when he says, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou Return."[Ge 3:19.] For he says, that man was compounded by God fashioning a lump of clay into the form of a man; and it follows of necessity that, a composite being, when dissolved, must be dissolved into its component parts. But the outward sense in nearly connected with and akin to the mind, the irrational part to the rational, since they are both parts of one soul; but speech is the abode of the father, because our father is the mind, which implants in each of its parts its own powers, and distributes its energies among them, undertaking the care and superintendence of them all; and the abode in which it dwells is speech, a dwelling separated from the rest of the house; for as the hearth is the abode of a man, so is speech of the mind: (4) at all events, it displays itself, and all the notions which it conceives, arranging them and setting them in order in speech, as if in a house. And you must not wonder that Moses has called speech in man the abode of the mind, for he also says, that the mind or the universe, that is to say, God, has for his abode his own word. (5) And the practiser of virtue, Jacob, seizing on this apprehension, confesses in express words that, "This is no other than the house of God,"[Ge 28:17.] an expression equivalent to, The house of God is not this thing, or anything which can be made the subject of ocular demonstration, or, in short, anything which comes under the province of the outward senses, but is invisible, destitute of all specific form, only to be comprehended by the soul as soul. (6) What, then, can it be except the Word, which is more ancient than all the things which were the objects of creation, and by means of which it is the Ruler of the universe, taking hold of it as a rudder, governs all things. And when he was fashioning the world, he used this as his instrument for the blameless argument of all the things which he was completing.