The human soul, moreover, is shown to be rational in that it is narrated to have been made after the image and likeness of God. Whence men are divinely admonished not to become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps. 31:9). 34. But that the soul is a part of God, that is, of one nature with God, is the opinion of the blind impiety of the Manichaeans: who reckon that the substance of God is bound up not only in the bodies of men, cattle, birds, and fishes, but even in woods and grasses, in trees and vegetables. For the wretches are ignorant, and do not consider, that the creature is not that which the Creator is; since God is immutable, but the soul is mutable: which now knows, now does not know; now fails, now advances; now is wise, now is foolish;
now remembers, now forgets; now hates what it had just loved, now loves what it had just hated; now falls into the snare of seduction, now, even when not seduced, gives its consent to error. This the blessed Apostle most certainly shows in Adam and his wife, saying: 'For Adam was not seduced, but the woman, being seduced, was in the transgression' (1 Tim. 2:14). The woman therefore, being seduced, sinned, and to her the man, not being seduced, consented by voluntary perversity. It is therefore impious to believe that the soul is a part of God: for from the very fact that it is at times changed for the worse, it is found to be not a part of the divine nature, but a certain part of the divine works.
For it is among those works which God made, each of them indeed good, but all of them together very good. CHAPTER XXI. — 35. That also is wholly contrary to the faith: that the soul, before it was in the body, committed some fault in whatever heavenly or earthly places, and by the desert of some sin deserved to be thrust down into the body; which Origen is said to have held. Him the apostle Paul wholly opposes, saying that the unborn had done nothing good or evil (Rom. 9:11). For the acts of those being born are proper to none of them, since nevertheless we are born bound by the ancient sin of the first man. For 'through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death;'
'and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned' (Rom. 5:12): whence they were by nature made children of wrath, and slaves of sin; and while serving sin, they were made free unto righteousness: inasmuch as they were conceived in iniquities, and their mothers nourished them in the womb in sins (Ps. 50:7). 36. From this bondage of original sin that good freedom of the will was lost, when by the vice of evil freedom man began willingly to be enslaved to sin.
Therefore for all men set in all ages, that is, from birth itself out of the mother's womb until the end of decrepit old age, the blood of Christ is necessary, which was shed for the remission of sins, and alone can blot out all sin. 'For there is one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim. 2:5); in whose death whoever has not been buried together with him in baptism can neither obtain the kingdom nor be free from the punishment of the eternal fire. For the Truth says that 'unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John 3:5).
Wherefore, concerning all men, small and great, infants, boys, adolescents, young men, and old men, we must accept what that teacher of the nations truthfully says in faith and truth: 'For there is no distinction. For all have sinned, and need the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, for the showing of his righteousness, for the remission of former sins' (Rom. 3:22 ff.).
But when a former sin is sought in infants, that first sin of the first man is without doubt found, which through the first man entered into this world, and in that very author claimed the whole progeny for itself by origin. This progeny needs to be redeemed by the blood of that mediator, who, being true God remaining in the form of God, so emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, that he could have neither the stain of original nor of actual sin. CHAPTER XXIII. — 37. In him, therefore, true freedom was restored to us, in which there could be no iniquity, whether original or actual. Hence it is that he himself says: 'Behold, the prince of the world comes, and in me he has nothing' (John 14:30).
He is himself just and justifying, free and freeing: who indeed by justifying frees, and by freeing justifies. He frees men from the power of the devil, he frees the will of man from the bondage of sin; that the will of man may be truly free, because it has been savingly freed, and that to this end true freedom may be in it, so that no iniquity may lord it over it. That he would give this freedom through grace, our Liberator himself testifies in this saying: 'Everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin.' And a little later: 'If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed' (John 8:34, 36).
The Son therefore frees from that bondage of sin, so that the free will, freed by the grace of Christ, may laudably serve righteousness, which it had wickedly served sin. Thus it comes about that not through the will of man, but through the grace of the Liberator, sin does not reign in the mortal body (Rom. 6:12), while we are justified by faith; and through the help of grace God works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will; he himself giving us the good will, he himself supplying the ability for good work, from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift (James 1:17); without whom we can do nothing, and in whom we can do all things, insofar as we have received from him the grace of virtue.
This indeed the blessed Apostle presumes with right confidence, saying: 'I can do all things in him who strengthens me' (Phil. 4:13). And again: 'Wherein I labor, striving according to his working which he works in me in power' (Col. 1:29). CHAPTER XXIV. — 38. Holding all these things faithfully and without doubt, we are without danger, even if we do not know in what manner souls are given to bodies. But it suffices to know that we are polluted by the first birth, cleansed by the second birth; captives by the first birth, free by the second birth; earthly by the first birth, heavenly by the second birth; carnal by the vice of the first birth, spiritual by the benefit of the second birth;
children of wrath by the first birth, children of grace by the second birth; children of the world by the first birth, children of God by the second birth. Accordingly, even though we cannot know in what manner the soul is given to bodies, let us most earnestly strive after this—by believing rightly and living well—that in the kingdom of God both our soul and our body may rejoice. If, then, we cannot know that, let us patiently remain in ignorance of it: but let us seek the kingdom of God ardently and earnestly, where without doubt God will also reveal to us this very thing, which is not here vainly hidden from us, except perhaps because in this life it is not fitting that it be known. 39.
But if anyone, divinely enlightened, shall be able, either by the tokens of most certain reason or by the testimonies of holy authority, either to recognize or to teach that human souls are either given anew to individual bodies, or propagated together with the bodies themselves, let him meanwhile assert that which the faith of the Church holds manifest: namely that all men draw original sin from the very conception, which must be remitted in each one being born by the blood of the one mediator, so that the bond of impiety, which is contracted in the first birth, may be loosed in the second birth; and through the Son of God, who was made of a woman, made under the law (Gal.
4:4-5)—that we might receive the adoption of sons, [so that] each one may receive by the benefit of the Redeemer the grace of that very adoption, which each one had lost by the vice of sinful man. Asserting this without doubt, whatever he shall thereafter be able to demonstrate according to truth concerning the origin of souls, he will do rightly not to keep silent. Then, however, the question about the soul is rightly treated, if there is no doubt about the original sin of the human race, and about the benefit of holy baptism, which is granted to captives through the grace of the Savior, who deigned both to take the whole nature of our race without sin, and to abolish all the guilt of our crime.