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| Chapter XIII. Theory of the Soul’s Immortality.
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Chapter XIII.—Theory of the Soul’s Immortality.
The soul is not in itself immortal, O Greeks, but
mortal.461
| 461 [Here Bishop Kaye has
a very full note, quoting a beautiful passage textually from Beausobre,
with whom, however, he does not entirely coincide. Justin, p.
184.] | Yet it is possible for it not to die. If, indeed, it
knows not the truth, it dies, and is dissolved with the body, but rises
again at last at the end of the world with the body, receiving death by
punishment in immortality. But, again, if it acquires the knowledge of
God, it dies not, although for a time it be dissolved. In itself it is
darkness, and there is nothing luminous in it. And this is the meaning of
the saying, “The darkness comprehendeth not the light.”462
For the
soul does not preserve the spirit, but is preserved by it, and the light
comprehends the darkness. The Logos, in truth, is the light of God,
but the ignorant soul is darkness. On this account, if it continues
solitary, it tends downward towards matter, and dies with the flesh;
but, if it enters into union with the Divine Spirit,
it is no longer helpless, but ascends
to the regions whither the Spirit guides it: for the dwelling-place of
the spirit is above, but the origin of the soul is from beneath. Now,
in the beginning the spirit was a constant companion of the soul,
but the spirit forsook it because it was not willing to follow. Yet,
retaining as it were a spark of its power, though unable by reason of the
separation to discern the perfect, while seeking for God it fashioned
to itself in its wandering many gods, following the sophistries of the
demons. But the Spirit of God is not with all, but, taking up its abode
with those who live justly, and intimately combining with the soul,
by prophecies it announced hidden things to other souls. And the souls
that are obedient to wisdom have attracted to themselves the cognate
spirit;463
| 463 [See cap. v., note,
supra, p. 67.] | but the disobedient, rejecting the
minister of the suffering God,464
| 464
[τοῦ
πεπονθότος
Θεοῦ. A very noteworthy testimony
to the mystery of the Cross, and an early specimen of the
Communicatio idiomatum: the ἀντὶδοσις
or ἀντιμετάστασις
of the Greek theologians. Pearson, On the Creed, p. 314. London,
1824.] | have shown themselves to be fighters against God,
rather than His worshippers.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
