On the question, Who is the Heir of Divine Things (6-10)

When then has a slave freedom of speech towards his master? Is it not when he is conscious that he has not wronged him, but that he has done and said everything with a view to the advantage of his owner?

When therefore is it proper for the servant of God to use freedom of speech to the ruler and master of himself, and of the whole word? Is it not when he is free from all sins, and is aware in his conscience that he loves his master, feeling more joy at the fact of being a servant of God, than he would if he were sovereign over the whole race of mankind, and were invested without any effort on his part with the supreme authority over land and sea.

And he mentions the ministrations and services by which Abraham displayed his love to his master in the last sentence of the divine oracle given to his son, "I will give to thee and to thy seed all this land, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept all my precepts, and all my commandments, and my laws, and my judgments." [*]

And it is the greatest possible praise of a servant that he does not neglect a single thing of the commandments which his master lays upon him, but that he labours earnestly without any hesitation and with all his vigour, and even beyond his power to perform them all with a well affected mind.

There are persons, then, to whom it is becoming to listen but not to speak, with respect to whom it is said, "Be silent and hear," [*] a very admirable injunction; for ignorance is a very bad and a very audacious thing, the first remedy for which is silence, and the second, attention to those who present you with anything worthy of your listening to.