Having received from their father self-love as their portion, his children desire to add to it and raise it heaven high, until Justice who loves virtue and hates evil comes to the aid. She razes to the ground the cities which they fortified to menace the unhappy soul, and the tower whose name is explained in the book of Judges. That name is in the Hebrew tongue Penuel, but in our own “turning from God.” For the stronghold which was built through persuasiveness of argument was built solely for the purpose of diverting and deflecting the mind from honouring God. And what greater sin against justice could there be than this? But there stands ready armed for the destruction of this stronghold the robber who despoils injustice and ever breathes slaughter against her, whom the Hebrews call Gideon, which is interpreted the “Robbers’ Hold.” Gideon swore, we read, to the men of Penuel saying, “When I return with peace I will demolish this tower” (Jud. 8:9). A grand boast, most fitting to the evil-hating soul whose edge has been made sharp against the impious, that it receives the strength to pull down every argument which would persuade the mind to turn away from holiness. And the words are true to nature, for when the mind “returns,” all in it that was starting aside or turning away is brought to nothing. And the fit time for destruction of this, though clean contrary to expectation, is, as Gideon says, not war but peace. For it is through that stability and tranquillity of understanding, which it is the nature of piety to engender, that every argument is overturned which impiety has wrought. Many too have exalted their senses, as though they were a tower, so that they touch the boundaries of heaven, that is symbolically our mind, wherein range and dwell those divine forms of being which excel all others. They who do not shrink from this give the preference to sense rather than understanding. They would use perceptible things to subdue and capture the world of things intelligible, thus forcing the two to change places, the one to pass from mastery to slavery, the other from its natural servitude to dominance.
On the Confusion of Tongues 26
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