The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
man nature, even in sinners, is superior to the beasts. For it is the nature of man that is from God, not the wickedness in which he implicates himself by an evil use of free will. Nevertheless, if he did not possess free will, he would not have the same high excellence in nature.
For we must think of a man living justly but not having any foreknowledge of future events, and there we must observe how, when he has good will, he is not prevented from leading a life upright and pleasing to God, because in his ignorance of the future he lives by faith. Whoever is unwilling to admit the existence of such a creature in the real world denies the goodness of God. But whoever does not wish such a creature to undergo punishment for his sins is an enemy of justice.
CHAPTER 27
The soul naturally tends to a body. The spiritual matter of the soul was concreated with its form.
38. If the soul is made to be sent into a body, we may ask whether it is compelled to go though unwilling. But it is more reasonable to suppose that it has such a will by nature, that is, the nature with which it is created is such that it wishes a body,®? just as it is natural for us to wish to live, although living an evil life is not prompted by nature but by a perverse will, for which just punishment is given.
39, It is useless, then, for one to ask about the quasi material from which the soul has been made, if we are right in understanding that it was made in those first works when day was made. For just as those creatures which were not existing were made, so the soul was made along with them. But if there was any matter to be formed, either corporeal or spiritual,®® it was not made by anyone except God, from whom are all things; and it preceded its formation by a priority not of time but of origin,°? as the sound of a voice precedes a song."° What, then, is more reasonable than to assume that the soul was made of spiritual matter? 7