We say, then, as was said before: just as they denied God and worship lifeless things, so by supposing that they do not have a rational soul they immediately bear the penalty for their madness, being counted among irrational creatures. And because they place their superstition in lifeless things as though they themselves were without life, they are worthy of pity and guidance.
But if they claim to have a soul and take pride in being rational—and rightly so—why do they dare to act against reason as though they had no soul? Why do they not think as they ought, but make themselves superior even to the Divine? For though they have an immortal soul that is invisible to them, they represent God in visible and mortal things. Or why, just as they turned away from God, do they not return to Him again? For just as they turned their mind away from God and fashioned things that have no being into gods, so they can ascend by the mind of the soul and turn back again to God.
They can return if they cast off the filth of every desire that they have put on and wash themselves until they have removed everything alien that has attached itself to the soul, showing the soul alone as it was made. Then they will be able to contemplate within it the Word of the Father, according to whom they were made from the beginning. For the soul was made according to the image of God and came to be according to His likeness, as divine Scripture also indicates when it speaks in the person of God: “Let Us make man according to Our image and likeness.”
Therefore, when the soul lays aside from itself all the filth of sin poured over it and keeps pure only what is according to the image, then, once this has been made bright, it naturally contemplates as in a mirror the Image of the Father, the Word, and in Him considers the Father, whose Image the Savior is.
Or if the soul’s own teaching is not sufficient because things from outside cloud its mind and prevent it from seeing what is higher, it is still possible to grasp the knowledge of God from visible things. Creation, as though in written letters, signifies and cries aloud through its order and harmony that He is its own Master and Maker.
We say, then, as was said before: just as they denied God and worship lifeless things, so by supposing that they do not have a rational soul they immediately bear the penalty for their madness, being counted among irrational creatures. And because they place their superstition in lifeless things as though they themselves were without life, they are worthy of pity and guidance.
But if they claim to have a soul and take pride in being rational—and rightly so—why do they dare to act against reason as though they had no soul? Why do they not think as they ought, but make themselves superior even to the Divine? For though they have an immortal soul that is invisible to them, they represent God in visible and mortal things. Or why, just as they turned away from God, do they not return to Him again? For just as they turned their mind away from God and fashioned things that have no being into gods, so they can ascend by the mind of the soul and turn back again to God.
They can return if they cast off the filth of every desire that they have put on and wash themselves until they have removed everything alien that has attached itself to the soul, showing the soul alone as it was made. Then they will be able to contemplate within it the Word of the Father, according to whom they were made from the beginning. For the soul was made according to the image of God and came to be according to His likeness, as divine Scripture also indicates when it speaks in the person of God: “Let Us make man according to Our image and likeness.”
Therefore, when the soul lays aside from itself all the filth of sin poured over it and keeps pure only what is according to the image, then, once this has been made bright, it naturally contemplates as in a mirror the Image of the Father, the Word, and in Him considers the Father, whose Image the Savior is.
Or if the soul’s own teaching is not sufficient because things from outside cloud its mind and prevent it from seeing what is higher, it is still possible to grasp the knowledge of God from visible things. Creation, as though in written letters, signifies and cries aloud through its order and harmony that He is its own Master and Maker.