We have example in the Egyptians, the representatives of those who love the body, who are shewn to us as flying not from the water, but “under the water,” that is under the stream of the passions, and when they are submerged therein they are shaken and wildly disordered; they cast away the stability and peacefulness of virtue and take upon them the confusion of vice. For we are told, “that he shook off the Egyptians in the midst of the sea, fleeing under the water” (Ex. 14:27). These are they who know not even Joseph, the many-sided pride of worldly life, and give way to their sins without veil or disguise, husbanding no vestige or shadow or semblance of honourable living. For there rose up, we are told, another King over Egypt, who “knew not” even “Joseph” (Ex. 1:8)—the good that is, which is given by the senses, the last and latest in the scale of goods. It is this same King who would destroy not only all perfection but all progress; not only the clear vision such as comes of sight, but the instruction also that comes of hearing. He says, “Come hither, curse me Jacob, and come hither, send thy curses upon Israel” (Num. 23:7), and that is equivalent to “Put an end to them both, the soul’s sight and the soul’s hearing, that it may neither see nor hear any true and genuine excellence.” For Israel is the type of seeing, and Jacob of hearing. The mind of such as these is in a sense shaken and casts forth the whole nature of good, while the mind of the virtuous in contrast claims as its own the Idea of the good, an Idea pure and unalloyed, and shakes and casts off what is worthless. Thus mark how the Man of Practice speaks: “Take away the alien gods who are with you from the midst of you, and purify yourselves and change your raiment and let us rise up and go up to Bethel” (Gen. 35:2, 3), so that, even though Laban demand a search, no idols may be found in all the house (Gen. 31:35) but veritable substantial realities graven, as though on stone, on the heart of the wise, realities which are the heritage of the self-taught nature, Isaac. For Isaac alone receives from his father the “real substance” (Gen. 25:5).
On the Confusion of Tongues 16
Tap any verse to see what it echoes — and start a chain or echo from it.