Chapter 34

§ 1.

Moreover our Lord hath taught very fully, that souls besides their continuance without passing from body to body,¹ keep likewise the very same bodily form, in which they are moulded; and that they remember the deeds which they have done here, and from which they have ceased; in the Scripture narrative of the rich man and that Lazarus who was refreshed in Abraham’s bosom²:³ wherein He saith that the rich man knows Lazarus after death, and Abraham too as well, and that each one of them remains in his own station, and how he asks for Lazarus to be sent to his aid, to whom he used not to impart even crumbs from his table; and concerning Abraham’s answer, who was aware not only of his own condition but also of that of the rich man; and enjoined that such as would not rather come into that place of torment should assent unto Moses and the Prophets, receiving also the preaching of Him Who rose from the dead. For hereby it was clearly declared, first that souls continue, next that they pass not from one body to another; also that they have the figure of a man, so as to be both known and to remember the things which are here: likewise that there abides in Abraham something prophetic: and that each sort of people receives its meet habitation, even before the judgment.

§ 2.

But should any say here, that such souls as began to exist but a little before cannot last any long time,⁴ but must either be unborn to be undying: or if they receive any beginning of birth must die together with the body: let them be told, that God alone is without beginning and without end, really and evermore the same, and alike disposed, He Who is Lord of all. But all things beneath Him, as many as have been and are made, admit of a beginning to their production, and are inferior to their Maker in this, that they are not uncreated; but they continue and are drawn out into length of ages, according to the will of their Maker, God: I mean that they are so framed at the beginning, and that He afterwards gives them their being.

§ 3.

For as the Heaven which is above us, the firmament, and the Sun and Moon and other Stars,⁵ and all their furniture, were made when before they were not, and last a long time according to the will of God: so if a man think of souls also and of spirits, and of all things which are made, he will in no wise be wrong: since all things which are made both have a beginning of their production and last as long as God shall have willed them both to be, and to abide. To these opinions the Prophetic spirit too bears witness, saying, For He spake and they were made,⁶ He commanded and they were created. He made them fast for ever and ever. And again about saving man thus He speaks,⁷ He asked Life of Thee, and Thou gavest Him length of days for ever and ever—as though the Father of all bestowed continuance for ever and ever upon those that are saved. For Life is not of ourselves, nor of our own nature: but is given according to the grace of God. Wherefore he who shall have preserved the gift of life, and been thankful to the Giver, shall receive also length of days for ever and ever. But whoso shall have cast it away, and become unthankful to his Maker, even because he was made, and will not recognize Him That bestoweth it, that man deprives himself of perseverance for ever.⁸ And therefore did the Lord say to them that were ungrateful towards Him, If ye have not been faithful in a little, who will give you that which is great? meaning that they who in the short temporal life, have proved ungrateful to Him That gave it, will justly fail to receive from Him length of days for ever and ever.

§ 4.

But as the living body is not itself the soul, but partakes of the soul as long as God willeth,⁹ so too the soul is not itself Life, but partakes of the Life bestowed on it by God. Whence also the Prophetic Word saith concerning the first made-Man, He was made a Living Soul;¹⁰ teaching us that the soul was made living by participation of life: the soul being understood severally as one thing, the life which belongs to it, as another. God therefore being the Giver both of life and of perpetual duration, it is possible that souls also, though at first not existing, continue afterwards, because of God’s will that they should both exist and continue. For first in all things, and sovereign, ought to be the will of God: and all other things must yield to It, and be subject, and given up to serve Him. Now of the Creation and Continuance of the soul let thus much be said.