A further thought of the same nature is revealed to us.… There are still others, whom God has advanced even higher, and has trained them to soar above species and genus alike and stationed them beside himself. Such is Moses to whom He says “stand here with Me” (Deut. 5:31). And so when Moses was about to die we do not hear of him “leaving” or “being added” like those others. No room in him for adding or taking away. But through the ‘Word’ of the Supreme Cause he is translated (Deut. 34:5), even through that Word by which also the whole universe was formed. Thus you may learn that God prizes the Wise Man as the world, for that same Word, by which He made the universe, is that by which He draws the perfect man from things earthly to Himself. And even when He sent him as a loan to the earthly sphere and suffered him to dwell therein, He gifted him with no ordinary excellence, such as that which kings and rulers have, wherewith to hold sway and sovereignty over the passions of the soul, but He appointed him as god, placing all the bodily region and the mind which rules it in subjection and slavery to him. “I give thee,” He says, “as god to Pharaoh” (Exod. 7:1); but God is not susceptible of addition or diminution, being fully and unchangeably himself. And therefore we are told that no man knows his grave (Deut. 34:6). For who has powers such that he could perceive the passing of a perfect soul to Him that “IS”? Nay I judge that the soul itself which is passing thus does not know of its change to better things, for at that hour it is filled with the spirit of God. For God does not consult with those whom He blesses as to the gifts He means to bestow. His wont is to extend His loving-kindness unstinted to those who have no thought of them. Such is the meaning of the words that God added to the mind the birth of the perfect good. The good is holiness and the name of holiness is Abel.
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 3
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