Apology for himself against the Books of Rufinus

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 'from our heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, railings,' and of Judas we read in the Gospel; “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; “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 “Cleanse me from my secret faults, and keep back your servant from alien sins.” We read also in Ecclesiastes “If the spirit of a ruler rise up against you, leave not your 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: “Their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched.” And in the words addressed to Babylon: “You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them, these shall be your help.” So also in the Psalm it is said to the penitent; “What shall be given to you, or what shall be done more for you 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, “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: “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, “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; “You have become perdition and shall not be for ever;” and as the Lord speaks to Job concerning the devil, “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.

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 various 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.”