3.1

The rational person ought to be ready to free himself through the coming of the Son of God, knowing himself according to his intellectual existence. For whoever knows himself will know the dispensation of his own Creator and everything He does among His creatures. Beloved in the Lord, our members and co-heirs with the saints, I beg you in the name of Jesus Christ that He grant you all the spirit of discernment, so that you may learn and know the love I have for you, because it is not bodily love but spiritual love in the worship of God.

There is no need to name the names of our bodies, because they pass away. But let a person know what the true name is. For this reason Jacob wrestled with an angel throughout the night while his name was Jacob; when morning came, his name was called Israel, which means, “Mind that sees God.” I think you are not ignorant that the enemies of virtue besiege the truth.

Therefore God does not visit His creatures at one time only, but from the beginning of the world. Some prepared themselves to come to their own Creator through His covenant law and were taught by Him to worship their Maker as they ought. But because of the passion of weakness, the heaviness of the body, and evil discernment, that covenant grew cold and the functions of the soul’s perception became weary. Therefore they could no longer seek themselves according to their creation—to know that they were an immortal substance not dissolved with bodies—and so this substance could not free itself from injustice. For this reason God came to them through the written Law to teach them to worship the Father as they ought. But because God is one, and there is unity in intellectual substance, let this saying be clear to you: wherever there is no harmony, people gather wars against themselves and cause judgments to arise among themselves.