18. Next to the knowledge of this venerable
and glorious and all-holy Faith, learn further what thou thyself
art: that as man thou art of a two-fold nature, consisting of
soul and body; and that, as was said a short time ago, the same God is
the Creator both of soul and body iv. 4.. Know also
that thou hast a soul self-governed, the noblest work of God, made
after the image of its Creator In the Clementine
Homily xvi. 16, the soul having come forth from God, clothed with His
breath, is said to be of the same substance, and yet not God. In
Tertull. c. Marcion II. c. 9, the soul is the
affatus (πνοή not πνεῦμα) of God, i.e. the
image of the Spirit, and inferior to it, though possessing the true
lineaments of divinity, immortality, freedom, its own mastery over
itself.: immortal
because of God that gives it immortality; a living being, rational,
imperishable, because of Him that bestowed these gifts: having
free power to do what it willeth Tertull. c.
Marc. II. 6: It was proper that he who is the image and
likeness of God should be formed with a free will, and a mastery of
himself, so that this very thing, namely freedom of will and
self-command, might be reckoned as the image and likeness of God in
him.. For it is
not according to thy nativity that thou sinnest, nor is it by the power
of chance that thou committest fornication, nor, as some idly talk, do
the conjunctions of the stars compel thee to give thyself to
wantonness Compare Aug. de Civ.
Dei. v. 1, where he says that the astrologers (Mathematici) say,
not merely such or such a position of Mars signifies that a man will be
a murderer, but makes him a murderer. See Dict. of Christian
Antiq., “Astrology.”. Why dost thou
shrink from confessing thine own evil deeds, and ascribe the blame to
the innocent stars? Give no more heed, pray, to astrologers; for
of these the divine Scripture saith, Let the stargazers of the
heaven stand up and save thee, and what follows: Behold,
they all shall be consumed as stubble on the fire, and shall not
deliver their soul from the flame Is. xlvii. 13..