[45] Again the words “I am the Lord” must not be understood merely as meaning “I am the perfect, the imperishable, the truly good existence,” which whoso embraces will turn away from the imperfect, the perishable, the element which is dependent on the flesh. They mean also “I am the sovereign and king and master.”
[46] When the subject is in the presence of the ruler, or the slave of his master, wrongdoing is perilous. For when the ministers of punishment are near, those who of their own nature have no ears for reproof are chastened and controlled by fear.
[47] God, since His fullness is everywhere, is near us, and since His eye beholds us, since He is close beside us, let us refrain from evil-doing. It were best that our motive should be reverence, but if not, let us at least tremble to think of the power of His sovereignty, how invincible it is, how terrible and inexorable in vengeance, when He is minded to use His power of chastisement. Thus may the divine spirit of wisdom not lightly shift His dwelling and be gone, but long, long abide with us, since He did thus abide with Moses the wise.
[48] For the posture and carriage of Moses whether he stand or sit is ever of the most tranquil and serene, and his nature averse to change and mutability. For we read “Moses and the ark were not moved” (Numb. 14:44). The reason may be either that the wise man cannot be parted from virtue, or that neither is virtue subject to movement nor the good man to change, but both are stayed on the firm foundation of right reason.
[49] Again in another place we have “stand thou here with Me” (Deut. 5:31). Here we have an oracle vouchsafed to the prophet; true stability and immutable tranquillity is that which we experience at the side of God,
[50] who Himself stands always immutable. For when the measuring-line is true all that is set beside must needs be made straight.
This, I think, is why worldly-wise vanity called Jethro, struck with amazement before the wise man’s rule of life, which never swerves from its absolute consistency, never changes its tenor or its character, begins to scold and ply him with questions thus.
[51] “Why dost thou sit alone?” (Exod. 18:14). For indeed one who sees the perpetual war-in-peace of men, how it rages not only between nations and countries and cities, but also in the household and still more in each individual man—the fierce mysterious storm in the soul, whipped into fury by the wild blast of life and its cares—can well wonder that another should find fair weather in the storm, or calm amid the surges of the tempestuous sea.
[52] Mark you that not even the high-priest Reason, though he has the power to dwell in unbroken leisure amid the sacred doctrines, has received free licence to resort to them at every season, but barely once a year (Lev. 16:2 and 34). For when we have reason (or thought) in the form of utterance we have no constancy, because it is twofold. But when without speech and within the soul alone we contemplate the Existent, there is perfect stability, because such contemplation is based on the Indivisible Unity.