3. For he who sets out a banquet, like that rich man in the Gospel, (for we must compare Divine things with each other the better to draw our conclusion,) prepares every thing first, kills his oxen and fatlings, and then bids his friends to supper. The more trivial things therefore are prepared in the first place, and then he who is worthy of honour is invited. Hence the Lord also first provided for the food of man all other animals, and then invited to the feast man himself, as His friend: and truly His friend, seeing that he was partaker of the Divine Charity and heir of His Glory. To man himself it is that He says: _Friend, how camest thou in hither?_ So then all things that precede are to minister to the need of the friend, and it is the friend who is invited last. Sidenote: Rev. ii. 10. Sidenote: 2 Tim. iv. 7. Sidenote: Ib. ii. 5. 4. Take another instance. What is the world but a sort of arena of continual strife? Wherefore also in the Apocalypse the Lord says, _To him that overcometh will I give a crown of life_; and Paul says, _I have fought a good fight_; and in another place, _No man is crowned except he strive lawfully_. He who institutes this combat is Almighty God. Now he who in this world offers a combat, does he not first provide all things which are necessary thereto, and prepare the chaplets of victory before he summons the athletics to contend for the prize; and all this that the conqueror may not suffer delay, but retire from the contest crowned with his reward? Now the rewards of man are the fruits of the earth and the lights of heaven; the former for the use of this present life, the latter for the hope of life eternal. Sidenote: Rom. viii. 20. Sidenote: Dan. xii. 3. Sidenote: 1 Cor. ix. 26.