[228] For that which draws near to God enters into affinity with what is, and through that immutability becomes self-standing. And when the mind is at rest it recognizes clearly how great a blessing rest is, and, struck with wonder at its beauty, has the thought that it belongs either to God alone or to that form of being which is midway between mortal and immortal kind.
[229] Thus he says: “And I stood between the Lord and you” (Deut. 5:5), where he does not mean that he stood firm upon his feet, but wishes to indicate that the mind of the Sage, released from storms and wars, with calm still weather and profound peace around it, is superior to men, but less than God.
[230] For the human mind of the common sort shakes and swirls under the force of chance events, while the other, in virtue of its blessedness and felicity, is exempt from evil. The good man indeed is on the border-line, so that we may say, quite properly, that he is neither God nor man, but bounded at either end by the two, by mortality because of his manhood, by incorruption because of his virtue.
[231] Similar to this is the oracle given about the high priest: “When he enters,” it says, “into the Holy of Holies, he will not be a man until he comes out” (Lev. 16:17). And if he then becomes no man, clearly neither is he God, but God’s minister, through the mortal in him in affinity with creation, through the immortal with the uncreated,
[232] and he retains this midway place until he comes out again to the realm of body and flesh. That it should be so is true to nature. When the mind is mastered by the love of the divine, when it strains its powers to reach the inmost shrine, when it puts forth every effort and ardour on its forward march, under the divine impelling force it forgets all else, forgets itself, and fixes its thoughts and memories on Him alone Whose attendant and servant it is, to whom it dedicates not a palpable offering, but incense, the incense of consecrated virtues.
[233] But when the inspiration is stayed, and the strong yearning abates, it hastens back from the divine and becomes a man and meets the human interests which lay waiting in the vestibule ready to seize upon it, should it but shew its face for a moment from within.