Chapter VI.
Virtue is attained through enthusiasm and hard work. This is proven by the example of Jacob, who achieved primacy over his brother; and the mystical teachings about Abraham, Moses, and the same two brothers are explained.
You have heard the mysteries of pleasures, you have also heard the gifts of our resources, which I thought should not be covered with furniture, but demonstrated by naked speeches of Scriptures; so that they would shine with their own light, and emit their own voice to each other. For the moon does not usually need an interpreter. It has an interpreter of the brightness of its light, with which the whole world is filled. To them, enlightenment is faith without a witness, a certain, so to speak, unclaimed witness that does not need the testimony of others, as it suddenly pours itself out before the eyes of all. Therefore, our works are not reported, but they cry out and report themselves. Indeed, I will not pass over the fact that this is considered laborious in our case; faith is demanded, desire is required, deeds are sought. For the Lord Jesus defined the duties of human devotion with these three things, saying: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). And below: Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man (ibid., 24).
23. Whoever pursues these things diligently will receive the primacy of blessing, just as the patriarch Jacob, who by continence and faith trampled upon the traces of human passions. He said: 'God has had mercy on me, and I have everything' (Gen. XXXIII, 11). Therefore, may we deserve this mercy through faith, study, and works, by which disciplines Israel found the grace of God, and through it, everything. For he rejoiced not in the riches of this world, but in the disciplines of virtues. We heirs substitute for ourselves, whom holy Abraham substituted in Isaac his son, considering all his works as inheritance to a wise and just man, not leaving any hereditary right to the sons of slaves or slave women, but only gifts of donation. For perfect virtues receive the entire inheritance of glory, while something of little value is sprinkled on common and mediocre things. Therefore, Hagar, who is called a foreigner in Latin and a sojourner, and Keturah, which signifies fragrance, are not heirs. For whoever makes use of the intermediate disciplines, resident, is not an inhabitant of wisdom. Sprinkled with fragrance, one is not filled by fruit. However, food conveys health, not fragrance, because fragrance is the messenger of fruits. Therefore, recognizing the main disciplines, we acknowledge that they should be preferred by the residents.
24. This is according to natural disposition. But truly, according to the mystery, Abraham, the father of nations, legally transmitted his entire inheritance to his legitimate seed, which is Christ, who was a stranger in this land; so that he might bring the fragrance of this life rather than its fruits. When the mind hears this, it turns away from pleasure and joins virtue, admiring the grace of true beauty, pure affection, simple thought, moderate attire; that is, not in the persuasion of speech, but in the manifestation of the Spirit, as the form of apostolic sentiment, dressed in the splendor of wisdom and piety, shining more precious than gold, taking on the chorus of prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice, which burned with the fragrance of disciplines, instilling reverence, and pouring forth grace. Therefore, moved by such things, he chose pursuits of virtue, to which Jacob, a man full of exercise, directed his mind. And for this reason, he is led to be a shepherd of sheep (Gen. XXX, 31 and seq.); because it is considered more excellent to govern his body and senses and their pleasures, and to keep a measure of desire, so that he does not wander like a wandering sheep, than to rule peoples or preside over cities. For it is more difficult for someone to control himself than to rule others. To conquer the mind, to restrain anger, and to bring together in one the conflicting laws of the body and the soul, is the task of a certain immortal man whom the gates of hell could not capture. Finally, the Legislator himself claimed this responsibility for himself, to feed the sheep of Jethro (Exod. III, 1), who is called superfluous, and to act in the desert: because he compelled the irrational and superfluous loquacity of common speech to certain indiscreet mysteries of sober doctrine. Therefore, the shepherds of sheep were an abomination to the Egyptians. For all those who are devoted to the passions of the body and indulge in their own pleasures, they turn away from the interpreter of the word and the teacher of virtue with a certain curse. And therefore, through these enigmas, Moses taught that sacrifices are pleasing to God, which every fool avoids, that is, the works and precepts of virtue. And so, Abel, the shepherd, is read as opposed to Cain, the worker of the land, who, as a foolish man, could not bear the expressed form and appearance of virtue in his brother.