LETTER XXXIV.
HORONTIANUS asks whether the soul is from heaven. S. Ambrose first refers him to the Book of Esdras, and then dwells upon S. Paul’s statement in Rom. viii.
AMBROSE TO HORONTIANUS[176], GREETING.
1. YOU have enquired of me whether the soul is formed of a heavenly substance; for you are too well instructedto suppose that the soul is made of blood or fire or any harmony of nerves, as the common herd of philosophers believe, nor as that patrician sect of them, the descendants of Plato assert, does that which moves of itself and is not moved by others appear to you to be the soul, nor indeed have you approved that fifth kind of element which the keen genius of Aristotle has introduced,namely a kind of[177] perfection of which the essence of the soul might be (as it were) framed and compounded.
2. On this subject I advise you to read the book of Esdras, who despised these trifles of the philosophers, and with a deeper wisdom which he had gathered from Revelation, pointed out that the soul is of a nobler substance.
3. The Apostle also, though he has not said it in so many words, has yet given us to understand, like a good master and spiritual husbandman calling forth the faculties of his disciples by the hidden seeds of doctrine, that our souls are of a better creation and a more excellent nature. For when he says that Rom. viii. 20, 21. the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, he shews that the grace of souls is not small, seeing that by their strength and excellence mankind rises to the adoption of the sons of God, having within itself that which is given to it to make it in the likeness and image of God. For souls are not perceived by truth, nor are they seen by the bodily eye, wherefore they bear upon them the likeness of this incorporeal and invisible nature, and excel in their substance corporeal and sensible qualities. For the things that are seen are temporal, they represent and are united to things that are temporal, but the things that are not seen are united to the Eternal and Chief Good, Acts xvii. 28. in Him they live and move and have their being, and suffer not themselves, if they are wise, to be separated or divided from Him.
4. Every soul therefore, seeing herself shut up in the prison-house of the body, if it be not debased by her connexion with this earthly habitation, 2 Cor. v. 4. groans under the burthen of the body to which she is joined; Wisd. ix. 15. for the corruptiblebody presseth down the soul, and the earthy tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things, knowing also that she walks 2 Cor. v. 7, 8. by faith not by sight, she is willing to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord.
5. Let us consider then how the creature hath been made subject to vanity, not indeed willingly, but by the Divine ordinance, which has appointed that our souls should be united to our bodies on account of their hopes, in order that, hoping for good, they should make themselves worthy of a heavenly recompense. Ib. 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,that every one may receive the things belonging to the body[178]. Every man’s soul must therefore consider that she will be rewarded according to deserts of life. And he says well the things belonging to the body, that is to say, the body which was assigned to her to govern, that if she have governed it well she may receive the reward for the sake of which she was subjected in hope, but if ill, she may be punished, forasmuch as she did not trust in God, nor aspire to that adoption of sons, and to the liberty of true glory.
6. So then the Apostle has taught that man is a creature subject to vanity. For what is so truly the man as his soul? of its companions he says, 2 Cor. v. 4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burthened. David also says, Ps. cxliv. 4. Man is like a thing of nought, and, Ib. xxxix. 6. Every man living is altogether vanity. Wherefore the life of man in this world is vanity, to which vanity the soul is subject. And when a holy man doeth the things of the body, he doeth them not willingly but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope, he does them for obedience sake. From this example of the soul then let us proceed to the other creatures.