Most Certain Salvation After the Death of his Body. The Tenth Sermon
Are men do confess that the reasonable soul of man hath affinity or likeness with spirits; neither is there any wise man, as I think, which doth deny that the knowledge of the reasonable soul of man, whereof the scripture teacheth so many things, and that too so diligently, is most wholesome and necessary to all the godly. The order therefore, the profit, and the very necessity also of things do require, that I speak ~ somewhat likewise of the reasonable soul of man: wherein I will follow the plainness of the scripture and of the interpreters thereof, leaving physical or natural points unto them to be expounded unto whom it belongeth by duty and profession; saving that we will so far deal in them as we cannot want them in this discourse of ours. The holy scripture and the interpreters thereof neither move curious questions of the soul of man; neither do they satisfy curious heads, when they desire to know those things which cannot be declared,
[3 Erasmus’ translation.] Rather, The order of things therefore, profit, and very necessity. ]]
or, if they could, yet it would always seem unto them that nothing were unto them more aptly spoken; for they always stagger, they are always learning and yet doubt, they never come to the knowledge of the truth with a quiet mind, they never abide in the plain truth when it is found, they search after other and many more and subtiler matters than they understand. But we know that all things which are necessary and for our salvation are simply and plainly delivered in the holy scriptures, and that we must simply, godlily, and religiously rest in them: therefore those things that are not delivered in them touching the matter of our salvation, we know that they are not to be sought after of us, and that they hinder not our salvation if we be ignorant of them.
The word anima, which we call soul, is diversely taken we 1ῃ the holy scripture. First of all anima, the soul, is taken for every living thing; for Moses bringeth in the Lord speaking, “Let the earth bring forth living creature! after his kind, cattle, worm, and beast of the earth after his kind.” For who knoweth not that there are reckoned three kinds or parts (give me leave so to speak for instruction’s sake) or three principal powers of the soul? For there is the soul vegetative which worketh in plants; there is the soul sensitive, which is not without the soul vegetative, and it giveth life to brute beasts and other creatures endued with life and feeling?; there is also the reasonable soul wherewith men are endued, which is furnished with many powers or abilities, and comprehendeth both the other. Hereof anima, the soul, is taken in the scripture for breath which men draw in and let go again, and also for the life of man, or of a living creature. Thus we read, Anima ejus &e., “His life is in xxvi. him 2” and, “I will do thee no more harm (saith Saul to David), because (anima mea) my life was precious in thine eyes this day.” The Grecians call anima, the soul, ψυχὴν, as it were ἀναψυχὴν, because by drawing breath it refresheth. The Hebricians call it Newphesch, of comforting. Again, “anima, the soul, is taken in the scriptures for the thing itself that hath life, yea, even for any, or rather for the whole man. For it is said in the law: “The soul that worketh with a
[1 animam viventem, Lat.] [2 and other—feeling, not in Lat. ] A [3 a refocillando, Lat. ] ἢ]
spirit, or that is a soothsayer, shall die.” Likewise in Paul we read: “Let every soul be subject to the higher power.” And again, in Genesis, the king of Sodom saith to Abraham: “Give me the souls, and take the substance or goods to thyself.” For the scripture is wont to name the whole by a part: for as by the soul he means the whole man, rehearsing the nobler part, so by flesh also he signifies the whole baser part. Moreover since man and also other living creatures have an appetitive or desiring soul, soul is used in the scripture for affection, will, desire, or lust. For Ezekiel saith, “They shall not satisfy their souls” (in Dutch, Sy werden iren glust nit bussen), “neither shall their bellies be filled.” Lastly, anima, the soul, signifieth the reasonable soul of man: whereof we will entreat (God assisting) at this present. Yet here I cannot dissemble, that among very famous writers there is controversy de anima, et animo, about the soul and the mind, whether they are one and the selfsame, or diverse; and that there are reasons on both sides. They that make a difference between them say, that by the soul we live, and that with the mind we understand: which thing Lactantius saith in his 18th chapter de Opificio Dei. 1 know that all the best and most approved writers use them both indifferently, and take the one for the other.