מי יורש קנייני אלוה נ״הWho is the Heir of Divine Things 55
א׳
1[271] The sovereignties of the passions here named entail a grievous slavery on their subjects, until God the arbiter and judge makes a separation between the ill-treater and the ill-treated, brings forth the one to full liberty and renders to the other the recompense for his misdeeds.
ב׳
2[272] For we read, “the nation whom they shall serve I will judge, and after this they shall come out hither with much stock” (Gen. 15:14). It must needs be that mortal man shall be oppressed by the nation of the passions and receive the calamities which are proper to created being, but it is God’s will to lighten the evils which are inherent in our race.
ג׳
3[273] So while we shall suffer at first such things as are proper to ourselves, enslaved as we are to cruel masters, God will accomplish the work which is proper to Himself in proclaiming redemption and liberty to the souls which are His suppliants, and not only will He provide release from bonds and an issue from the closely-guarded prison, but give us also the viaticum which he here calls “stock.” What is the meaning of this?
ד׳
4[274] It is when the mind which has come down from heaven, though it be fast bound in the constraints of the body, nevertheless is not lured by any of them to embrace like some hybrid, man-woman or woman-man, the pleasant-seeming evils, but holding to its own nature of true manhood has the strength to be victor instead of victim in the wrestling-bout. Reared in all the lore of the schools, it acquires therefrom a longing for the higher contemplation, and wins the sturdy virtues of self-mastery and perseverance; and thus when the pilgrim wins his return to his native land, he takes with him all these fruits of instruction, which are here called “stock.”
