PHIL. IUD. ON THE HEIR OF DIVINE THINGS §. 12. 13.

This kind is a molding of earth, while that other is a likeness fashioned after the divine image. Our molded dust, which is mixed with blood, is in no small need of help from God; therefore it is said, “This is Damascus, Eliezer.” original: "Οὗτος Δαμασκὸς Ἐλιέζερ." (Gen. 15:2) And Eliezer, when interpreted, is "my God is my helper"; because the ensanguined bulk, being of itself easily dissolved and dead, consists and is kept alive by the providence of God, who holds his hand over it and protects it, our race being unable to establish itself firmly for any single day of itself. Do you not see that the second of Moses’ sons is named after this one? “For the name,” he says, “of the second is Eliezer.” original: "Τὸ γὰρ ὄνομα," φησὶ, "τοῦ δευτέρου, Ἐλιέζερ." (Exod. 18:4) And he brings the cause: “For the God of my father is my helper, and delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh.” And to those who are still companions of the ensanguined and sensible life, the way that is terrible at scattering piety attacks, by the name Pharaoh, whose dominion, full of lawlessness and cruelty, it is impossible to escape without the birth of Eliezer in the soul, and without hoping for the help of the only Savior. Beautifully, he did not establish Damascus from a father, but from a mother, Masek, in order to show that the ensanguined soul, according to which even irrational creatures live, is kin to the maternal genus of women, devoid of the male lineage. But virtue is not Sarah; for she is transformed only by the male, the motherless beginning born only from the father, the God of all. “For truly,” he says, “she is my sister from my father, but not from my mother.” original: "Ἀληθῶς γὰρ," φησὶν, "ἀδελφή μού ἐστιν ἐκ πατρὸς, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐκ μητρός." (Gen. 20:12)

§. 13. We have unfolded what was necessary to hear beforehand; for the proposition was enigmatic and contained obscurity. But what the learner seeks must be interpreted more accurately. Perhaps it is this:

) Gen. 15, 2. — ) Exod. 18, 4. — ) Gen. 20:12.