Chapter I.
After presenting the moral sense, it transitions to a deeper or allegorical meaning: how the soul is urged to leave its earth and its kinship; it also explains from whom it must depart for a complete purification. Finally, it refers to the promised posterity of Abraham.
Indeed, we have pursued a moral subject to the best of our understanding; so that those who read it can draw lessons in character: but because on both sides the edge of the sword is sharp and ready for battle; similarly, the word of God, which is sharper than any sharp sword, penetrates even to the division of the soul, wherever you turn, you will find it ready and opportune, to penetrate the soul of the reader in order to reveal the enigmas of the prophetic Scriptures. Therefore, I think it is not absurd to refer the meaning to higher things and to explain, through the history of various individuals, a certain progression of virtue; especially since we have already tasted the beginnings of a deeper understanding in Adam (From Paradise, Chapter 2). For we have said that Adam represents the intellect, Eve represents the senses, and we have expressed the delight of the serpent's appearance. But there, through the limitation of the senses and the temptation of pleasure, the flow regresses to sin. However, here we are given the opportunity to contemplate the progress of the mind. For the Lawgiver has provided this, so that just as he demonstrated the fall of the mind, we might avoid those paths of error: so too he indicated the process of the mind and a certain superior return, so that we might understand how the broken mind can reform itself. For the Lord had cleansed the earth by the pouring of the flood, he had washed away the mixture of human frailty: but it was not enough for the progress of virtue, unless man was instructed on how to govern and guide himself, Abraham is introduced in place of the mind. Lastly, the transition of Abraham is said. Therefore, in order for the mind, which had given itself entirely to pleasure and bodily allurements in Adam, to transition into the form and appearance of virtue, a wise man is set before us as an example to imitate. Lastly, according to the Hebrews, Abraham is called father, and according to the Latins, he is called father, because the paternal mind governs the whole man with authority, care, and concern.
2. Therefore, this mind was in Charra, that is, in the caverns, subject to various passions. And therefore it is said to her: 'Leave your land' (Gen. 12:1), that is, your body. He left this land, whose conversation is in heaven. And 'from your kindred,' he says. Our souls are related to the senses of the body. For our soul is divided into two parts: the rational and the irrational. In that which is irrational, there are senses: therefore, the rational part, that is, the mind, is related. And he said, 'And leave from your house.' The word 'house' is a verb of the mind. For just as the head of the household resides in his house, and has the power to govern his own house, so too does the mind reside in our words, and governs our speech, and its power and discipline shine forth in our speech. Just as a good head of the household is assessed from the very entrance of the house, so too is our mind weighed by our words. Lastly, it also knocks and calls with the tones of the voice.
Therefore, whoever wants to achieve perfect purification, must separate themselves from these three things: the body, the bodily senses, and the voice, in which all bodily passions and deceptive sensory limitations reside. None of these three things are good. Not in the flesh, even though the school of Epicurus and many hedonists praise the pleasure of the body; nor in the senses, which are often deceived; nor in the sound of the voice, which often soothes the soul with false songs. These things are corruptible, but what is truly good is incorruptible. But indeed faith remains. For when a man dies, the flesh decays, the senses perish, the voice is lost, but the immortal mind remains, receiving an incorporeal life. Hence it is called to another land full of bliss, where falsehoods are not mistaken for truths, as in this life, but where it sees the living substance of things. For when it is freed from the misty image of the body, the senses, and the voice, it casts off the corruptible darkness and, with unveiled face, gazes upon the grace of blessed life.
I will bless you, he says, and make you a great nation (Gen. XII, 2). He promises immortality when he promises offspring. For the offspring appears to be immortal, while the individuals are mortal, such as humans, horses, bees. About them, someone says:
But that which is far better, he said, is the great nation of the Church, the perpetual posterity, and that supernatural generation, which is truly great, that we may die to sin and be born again to God.