On the Cherubim; and on the Flaming Sword; and on the First-Born Child of Man, Cain (126-130)

For come now, suppose any one should say, what things must meet together, that any house or city may be made?

And for what reason is it built, except to serve as a shelter and protection? This is the object. Now passing on from these particular buildings, consider the greatest house or city, namely, this world, for you will find that God is the cause of it, by whom it was made. That the materials are the four elements, of which it is composed; that the instrument is the word of God, by means of which it was made; and the object of the building you will find to be the display of the goodness of the Creator. This is the discriminating opinion of men fond of truth, who desire to attain to true and sound knowledge; but they who say that they have gotten anything by means of God, conceive that the cause is the instrument, the Creator namely, and the instrument the cause, namely, the human mind.

And all sound reason would reproach Joseph for saying, "That the true interpretation of the dreams would be found out by means of God;" [*] for he should have said, that owing to him, as the cause indeed, would be the unfolding and accurate understanding of those things which were obscure; for we are the instruments by whom the particular energies are developed, both in our states of tension and of relaxation; but the Creator is "he who gives the blow which sets in motion" the faculties of body and soul, by whom all things are moved.

Those then who are unable to distinguish between the differences of things must be instructed as ignorant; but those who, from a contentious spirit, invert the orders of the things signified, must be avoided as disputatious; but those who, after an accurate investigation into the phaenomena which present themselves to them, assign its proper place to each of the objects discovered, must be praised as men who have attained to a true philosophy, and are void of error.

For Moses says to those who fear lest they should be destroyed by the wicked man, who is pursuing them with all his host, "Stand still, and see the salvation which is from the Lord, and which he will work for you;" [*] teaching them that salvation [*] [*]