[3087] Ex traduce, that is, from a layer like that of the vine. This embodies the view that the soul is derived, with the body, from the parent. There is no English word for the process; and since the word Traducianism is used to express the theory, Traduction' is used here to express the process.
5. None of these answers will you give us. You turn to other things, and by your tricks and shew of words prevent us from paying close attention to the question. What! you will say, was not the question about the resurrection of the flesh and the punishment of the devil? True; and therefore I ask for a brief and sincere answer. I raise no question as to your declaration that it is this very flesh in which we live which rises again, without the loss of a single member, and without any part of the body being cut off (for these are your own words). But I want to know whether you hold, what Origen denies, that the bodies rise with the same sex with which they died; and that Mary will still be Mary and John be John; or whether the sexes will be so mixed and confused that there will be neither man nor woman, but something which is both or neither; and also whether you hold that the bodies remain uncorrupt and immortal, and, as you acutely suggest after the Apostle, spiritual bodies forever; and not only the bodies, but the actual flesh, with blood infused into it, and passing by channels through the veins and bones,--such flesh as Thomas touched; or that little by little they are dissolved into nothing, and reduced into the four elements of which they were compounded. This you ought either to confess or deny, and not to say what Origen also says, but insincerely, as if he were playing upon the weakness of fools and children, "without the loss of a single member or the cutting off of any part of the body." Do you suppose that what we feared was that we might rise without noses and ears, that we should find that our genital organs would be cut off or maimed and that a city of eunuchs was built up in the new Jerusalem?
6. Of the devil he thus frames his opinion:
"We affirm also a judgment to come, in which judgment every man is to receive the due meed of his bodily life, according to that which he has done, whether good or evil. And, if in the case of men the reward is according to their works how much more will it be so in the case of the devil who is the universal cause of sin. Of the devil himself our belief is that which is written in the Gospel, namely that both he and all his angels will receive as their portion the eternal fire, and with him those who do his works, that is, who become the accusers of their brethren. If then any one denies that the devil is to be subjected to eternal fires, may he have his part with him in the eternal fire, so that he may know by experience the fact which he now denies."
I will repeat the words one by one. "We affirm also a judgment to come, in which judgment &c." I had determined to say nothing about verbal faults. But, since his disciples admire the eloquence of their master, I will make one or two strictures upon it. He had already said "a future judgment;" but, being a cautious man, he was afraid of saying simply "in which," and therefore wrote "in which judgment;" for fear that, if he had not said "judgment" a second time, we, forgetting what had gone before, might have supplied the word "ass." That which he brings in afterwards "those who become the accusers of their brethren will with him have their portion in the eternal fire," is in a style of equal beauty. Who ever heard of possessing [3088] the flames'? It would be like enjoying tortures.' I suppose that, being now a Greek, he had tried to translate himself, and that for the word kleronomesousin, [3089] which can be rendered in Latin by the single word Hæreditabunt, he said Hæreditate potientur [3090] supposing it to be something more elaborate and ornate. With such trifles and such improprieties of speech his whole discourse is teeming. But to return to the meaning of his words.
[3088] Potiri, rendered above have their portion.'
[3089] Kleronomesousin, they shall inherit.
[3090] They will enjoy the inheritance.
7. To proceed:
"This is a great spear with which the devil is pierced, he, who is the universal cause of sin,' if he is to render account of his works, like a man, and with his angels possess the inheritance of eternal fires.' This, no doubt, was what was lacking to him, that, having brought mankind into torment, he should himself possess the eternal fires' which he had all the while been longing for."
You seem to me here to speak a little too hardly of the devil, and to assail the accuser of all with false accusations. You say he is the universal cause of sin;' and, while you make him the author of all crimes, you free men from fault, and take away the freedom of the will. Our Lord says that [3091] from our heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, railings,' and of Judas we read in the Gospel; [3092] "After the sop Satan entered into him," that is, because he had before the sop sinned voluntarily, and had not been brought to repentance either by humbling himself or by the forbearance of the Saviour. So also the Apostle says; [3093] "Such men I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme." He delivered to Satan as to a torturer, with a view to their punishment, those who, before they had been delivered to him learned to blaspheme by their own will. David also draws the distinction in a few words between the faults due to his own will and the incentives of vice when he says [3094] "Cleanse thou me from my secret faults, and keep back thy servant from alien sins." We read also in Ecclesiastes [3095] "If the spirit of a ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place;" from which we may clearly see that we commit sin if we give opportunity to the power which rises up, and if we fail to hurl down headlong the enemy who is scaling our walls. As to your threatening your brothers, that is, those who accuse you, with eternal fire in company with the devil, it seems to me that you do not so much drag your brethren down as raise the devil up, since he, according to you, is to be punished only with the same fires as Christian men. But you well know, I think, what eternal fires mean according to the ideas of Origen, namely, the sinners' conscience, and the remorse which galls their hearts within. These ideas he thinks are intended in the words of Isaiah: [3096] "Their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched." And in the words addressed to Babylon: [3097] "Thou hast coals of fire, thou shalt sit upon them, these shall be thy help." So also in the Psalm it is said to the penitent; [3098] "What shall be given to thee, or what shall be done more for thee against the false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals;" which means (according to him) that the arrows of God's precepts (concerning which the Prophet says in another place, [3099] "I lived in misery while a thorn pierces me") should wound and strike through the crafty tongue, and make an end of sins in it. He also interprets the place where the Lord testifies saying: [3100] "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish that it may burn" as meaning "I wish that all may repent, and burn out through the Holy spirit their vices and their sins; for I am he of whom it is written, [3101] "Our God is a consuming fire;" it is no great thing then to say this of the devil, since it is prepared also for men." You ought rather to have said, if you wished to avoid the suspicion of believing in the salvation of the devil; [3102] "Thou hast become perdition and shalt not be for ever;" and as the Lord speaks to Job concerning the devil, [3103] "Behold his hope shall fail him and in the sight of all shall he be cast down. I will not arouse him as one that is cruel, for who can resist my countenance? Who has first given to me that I may return it to him? for all things beneath the heaven are mine. I will not spare him and his words that are powerful and fashioned to turn away wrath." Hence, these things may pass as the work of a plain man. Their bearing is evident enough to those who understand these matters; but to the unlearned they may wear the appearance of innocence.
[3091] Matt. xv. 19
[3092] John xiii. 27
[3093] 1 Tim. i. 20
[3094] Ps. xix. 12, 13. Vulg.
[3095] Eccl. x. 4
[3096] Is. lxvi. 24
[3097] Is. xlvii. 14, 15. "There shall not be a coal to warm at nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee for whom thou hast laboured." A.V. in almost exact agreement with Vulgate. Jerome must have quoted memoriter from an older version.
[3098] Ps. cxx. 3, 4. Vulg.
[3099] Probably a loose reference to Ps. xlii. 9, 10
[3100] Luke xii. 49
[3101] Deut. iv. 24, Heb. xii. 29
[3102] Perhaps from Jer. li. 26
[3103] Leviathan, Job xli. 9-12. Vulg.
8. But what follows about the condition of souls can by no means be excused. He says:
"I am next informed that some stir has been made on the question of the nature of the soul. Whether complaints on a matter of this kind ought to be entertained instead of being put aside, you must yourself decide. If, however, you desire to know my opinion upon this subject, I will state it frankly. I have read a great many writers on this question, and I find that they express divers opinions. Some of these whom I have read hold that the soul is infused together with the material body through the channel of the human seed, and of this they give such proofs as they can. I think that this was the opinion of Tertullian or Lactantius among the Latins, perhaps also of a few others. Others assert that God is every day making new souls and infusing them into the bodies which have been framed in the womb; while others again believe that the souls were all made long ago, when God made all things of nothing, and that all that he now does is to send out each soul to be born in its body as it seems good to him. This is the opinion of Origen, and of some others among the Greeks. For myself, I declare in the presence of God that, after reading each of these opinions, I am unable to hold any of them as certain and absolute: the determination of the truth in this question I leave to God and to any to whom it shall please him to reveal it. My profession on this point is, therefore, first, that these several opinions are those which I have found in books, but, secondly, that I as yet remain in ignorance on the subject, except so far as this, that the Church delivers it as an article of faith that God is the creator of souls as well as of bodies."
9. Before I enter upon the subject matter of this passage, I must stand in admiration of words worthy of Theophrastus:
"I am informed, he says, that some stir has been made on the question of the nature of the soul. Whether complaints on a matter of this kind ought to be entertained instead of being put aside, you must yourself decide."
If these questions as to the origin of the soul have been stirred at Rome, what is the meaning of this complaint and murmuring on the question whether they ought to be entertained or not, a question which belongs entirely to the discretion of bishops? But perhaps he thinks that question and complaint mean the same thing, because he finds this form of speech in the Commentaries of Caper. Then he writes: "Some of those whom I have read hold that the soul is infused together with the material body through the channel of the human seed; and of these they give such proofs as they can." What license have we here in the forms of speech! What mixing of the moods and tenses! [3104] "I have read some sayings--they confirmed them with what assertions they could." And in what follows: "Others assert that God is every day making new souls and infusing them into the bodies which have been framed in the womb; while others again believe that the souls were all made long ago when God made all things of nothing, and that all that he now does is to send out each soul to be born in its body as seems good to him." Here also we have a most beautiful arrangement. Some, he says, assert this and that; some declare that the souls were made long ago, that is, when God made all things of nothing, and that He now sends them forth to be born in their own body as it pleases him. He speaks so distastefully and so confusedly that I have more trouble in correcting his mistakes than he in writing them. At the end he says: "I, however, though I have read these things;" and, while the sentence still hangs unfinished, he adds, as if he had brought forward something fresh: "I, however, do not deny that I have both read each of these things, and as yet confess that I am ignorant."