In the second place, he says, even if you take them, take them not for yourself, but think what is thus given you a loan or deposit, and be ready to restore it to him who has deposited it with, or contributed it to you, requiting an older favour with a newer one, and an original kindness with one proffered instead of it, as justice and propriety require.
Section 105
For many men have become wicked in respect of such sacred deposits, having, through their immoderate covetousness improperly used the property of others as their own. But do thou, O good man! endeavour with all thy strength, not only to present what you have received without injury and without adulteration, but also to take even more care than that of such things, that he who has deposited them with you may have no grounds to blame the care which has been exercised by you.
Section 106
And what the Creator of man has deposited in your custody are soul, speech, and external sense; which are symbolically named a heifer, a ram, and a goat, in the sacred scriptures. But these things some persons have at once appropriated through self-love, but others have stored them up so as to be able to return them in due season.
Section 107
Now, of those who have appropriated them, it is impossible to tell the number; for Genesis xv. 9. who of us is there who does not think his soul, and his speech, and his external senses, all taken together, to be his own property, thinking that to feel, and to speak, and to comprehend, depend upon himself alone?
Section 108
But of those who really preserve their faith holy and inviolate, the number is very small. Such men attribute to God these three things: the soul, the external sense, and speech. For they have received all these things, not for themselves, but for him, in whose favour they naturally and appropriately confess that the energies according to each of these three things depend upon him, namely, the imaginations and apprehensions of the mind, the explanations of speech, and the perceptions of the outward senses.
Section 109
Those, now, who attribute these things to themselves, have received an allotment worthy of their own perverseness, namely, a soul fond of plotting against others, polluted with irrational passions, and enveloped in a multitude of vices; at one time eager to indulge in violent insolence through its gluttony and lasciviousness, as though it were in a brothel; at another time held fast by the multitude of its iniquities as in a prison, with wicked (not men but) actions which deserve to be led before all the judges. Secondly, speech insolent, loquacious, sharpened against the truth, injurious to all who come in its way, and bringing disgrace upon those who possess it. Thirdly, the external sense, insatiable, always filling itself with the objects of the outward senses, but through its immoderate appetites never able to be satisfied, disregarding all its monitors and correctors, so as to refuse to look upon or to listen to them, and to reject with disdain all that they say to it for its good.
Section 110
But those who take these things not for themselves but for God, attribute each one of them to him, guarding that which they have acquired in a truly holy and religious manner, keeping their mind, so that it shall think of nothing else but the things relating to God and to his excellencies, and their speech so as to make it, with unrestrained mouth, and with encomiums, and hymns, and announcements of happiness, honour the father of the universe, collecting together and exhibiting all its powers of interpretation and utterance in this one office; and regulating the external senses, so that forming a conception of the whole of that world which is perceptible by them, they may, in a guileless, honest, and pure manner, relate to the soul all the heaven and earth, and the natures whose home is between the two, and all animals and plants, and their respective energies and faculties, and all their motions and their stationary existence.
Section 111
For God has implanted in the mind a power of comprehending that world, which is appreciable only by the intellect, by its own power, but the invisible world by means of the external senses. And if any one were able in all his parts to live to God rather than to himself, looking by means of the external senses into those things which are their proper objects, for the sake of finding out the truth; and through the medium of the soul, investigating in a philosophical spirit the proper objects of intelligence, and those things which have a real existence, and by means of his organs of voice, singing hymns in praise of the world and of its Creator, he will have a happy and a blessed life.
Section 112
I think then that this is what intimated in the words, "Take for me;" God, intending to send down the perfection of his divine virtue from heaven to earth, out of pity for our race, in order that it might not be left destitute of a better portion, prepared in a symbolical manner the sacred tabernacle and the things in it, a thing made after the model and in imitation of wisdom.
Section 113
For he says that he has erected his oracle as a tabernacle in the midst of our impurity, in order that we may have something whereby we may be purified, washing off and cleansing all those things which dirt and defile our miserable life, full of all evil reputation as it is. Let us now then see in what manner he has commanded us to bring in the different things which are to contribute to the furnishing of the tabernacle. "The Lord," says the scripture, "spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take ye first-fruits for me of whatever it shall seem good to your heart to take my first-fruits." Exodus xxv. 1.
Section 114
Therefore here also there is an injunction to take not for themselves but for God, examining who it is who gives these things, and doing no injury to what is given, but preserving it free from danger, and free from spot, perfect and entire. And the injunction, by which he orders the first fruits to be offered to himself, is full of doctrine; for in real truth the beginnings both of bodies and of things are investigated with reference to God alone;
Section 115
and search if you wish to understand everything, plants and animals, and arts and sciences. Are then the first castings of the seed of plants, the actions Exodus xxv. 1. of husbandry or the invisible works of invisible nature? What more need I ask? What are the works of men and other animals? Have not they parents as co-operating causes, as it were, and also nature as the primary and more important and real cause?
Section 116
And is not nature the fountain, and root, and foundation of all arts and sciences, or any other name you please to give to the oldest of principles, nature, upon which all speculations are built up? And if nature be not first laid as the foundation, everything is imperfect, and on this account some one seems to me to have said with great felicity:— The first beginning is quite half the whole.