Chapter XVIII.
... You crown the years of the just with blessings but you are unchanging, your years can never fail, [Ps 102:27] and in them you prepare a granary for the years that pass. In your eternal wisdom you bestow your heavenly blessings upon the earth in due season. To some through your Spirit you give the power to speak with wisdom, [1 Cor 12:8-12] and this power is like the greater light which you made, [Gen 1:16] for it shines like the sun at dawn for those who know the joy of the light of lucid truth. Others you teach to speak with knowledge, with the same Spirit for their rule, and this gift is like the lesser light. One, through the same Spirit, is given faith; another, through the same Spirit, powers of healing; one can perform miracles, one can prophesy, another can test the spirit of the prophets; one can speak in different tongues; and all these gifts are like stars. But all this is the work of one and the same Spirit, who distributes his gifts as he wills to each severally and causes these stars to appear, shining brightly for our benefit.
But knowledge, embracing all mysteries which change - for as the moon varies with the seasons, so do they - and the other gifts, which I have compared to stars, differ from that pure light of wisdom which gladdens the day as dusk differs from dawn. Yet they are needed for such as those whom Paul, your far-sighted servant, had to approach as men with natural, not with spiritual thoughts, [1 Cor 3:1] though there is a wisdom which he makes known among those who are fully grounded. [1 Cor 2:6] Man with his natural gifts alone is like a mere infant in Christ's nursery. He must be fed on milk until he is strong enough to eat solid food, and until his sight is fortified to face the sun, if he is not to be left in a night of utter darkness, he must be content with the light of the moon and the stars.
In your great wisdom you, who are our God, speak to us of these things in your Book, the firmament made by you. And you do this so that in the wonder of contemplation we may see all things clearly, though we are still subject to signs and seasons, days and years.
