Ancient Catechism: On God and the Soul
Let there first, then, be laid (as a foundation in your soul) the doctrine concerning God: that God is One, the only unbegotten, Who has no beginning, change, or variation; He was not begotten of another, nor does He have another who will succeed Him in His life; He neither began to live in time, nor does He have an end, forever. Learn that He is both merciful and a Judge, so that if you ever hear a heretic say that there are two Gods, one who is a Judge, and another who is merciful, you should immediately remember what you were taught, and perceive the poisoned arrow of heresy.
For some have impiously dared to make a distinction and separate the One God in their teaching: and some have said that one God is the Creator and Lord of the soul, but another God is Creator and Lord of the body; a doctrine that is simultaneously absurd and impious. For how can a man be one servant of two masters, when our Lord says in the Gospels, No man can serve two masters? There is only One God, then, the Maker of both souls and bodies: One Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of both Angels and Archangels: the Creator of many, but the Father before all ages of only One - His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom He made all things, both visible and invisible.
This Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not confined in any place, nor is He smaller than the heaven; rather, the heavens are the works of His fingers, and the whole earth is held in His grasp: He is in all things and around all things. Do not think that the sun is brighter than He is, or equal to Him: for He who formed the sun must necessarily be incomparably greater and brighter. He foreknows the things that are yet to be, and is mightier than all, knowing all things and doing as He wills; not subject to any necessary sequence of events, nor to nativity, nor chance, nor fate; in all things He is perfect, equally possessing every virtue, neither diminishing nor increasing, but always the same both mode and conditions; He has prepared punishment for sinners, and a crown for the righteous.
Having seen, then, that many have gone astray in various ways from the One God - some having deified the sun, which means that when the sun sets, they must go through the night hours without God; others deifying the moon, so that they have no God by day; others deifying other parts of the world; others the arts; others their various kinds of food; others their pleasures; while some, lusting after women, have set up an image of a naked woman in high places, called it Aphrodite, and worshipped their own lust in a visible form; and others who are dazzled by the brightness of gold have deified it and other kinds of material - but if you lay as your first foundation in your heart the doctrine of the unity of God, and trust in Him, He roots out simultaneously the whole crop of various idolatries and the error of the heretics: lay, therefore, this first doctrine of religion as a foundation in your soul by faith.
...
After the knowledge of this venerable, glorious, and all-holy Faith, learn next what you yourself are: that as man you are made of two components, soul and body; learn that, as we said recently, the same God is the Creator of both soul and body. Know also that you have a soul that is self-governed, the noblest work of God, created in the image of its Creator: immortal because God gives it immortality; a living being, rational, imperishable, because He has bestowed these gifts: this soul has free power to do what it wills. For it is not according to your birth that you sin [1], nor is it by the power of chance that you commit fornication, nor, as some foolishly think, do the alignment of the stars force you to give yourself to wantonness. Why do you hesitate to confess your own evil deeds, and blame to the innocent stars instead? Pay no more attention, please, to astrologers; for the divine Scripture says, Let the stargazers of the heaven stand up and save you, and what follows: Behold, they will all be consumed like straw on the fire, and will not save their souls from the flame.
Learn this also: that the soul, before it came into this world, had committed no sin, but after having come in sinless[2], we now sin of our own free-will. Do not listen, I say, to any one who perversely interprets the words, But if I do the things which I do not want to do: but remember Him who says, If you are willing, and listen to Me, you will eat the good things of the land: but if you are not willing, and do not listen to Me, the sword will devour you, etc.: and again, As you presented your members as slaves to sin ... even so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification. Remember also the Scripture which says, Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge: and, The things that may be known of God are made known; and again, they have closed their eyes. Also remember how God again accuses them, and says, Yet I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true: how are you now turned to bitterness, you the strange vine?
The soul is immortal, and all souls are the same, whether of men or women; for only the parts of the body are different. There is not a category of souls that sin by nature, and a category of souls that practise righteousness by nature: but both act by choice, and the essence of their souls are of one kind only, and common to all. I know that I am talking a lot, and that we have already been here a long time: but what is more precious than salvation? Are you not willing to take the trouble of getting provisions for the way against the heretics? And will you not learn the bye-paths of the road, lest out of ignorance you accidentally fall down a precipice? If your teachers think it no small benefit for you to learn these things, shouldn't you, the learner, gladly receive the multitude of things being taught?
The soul is self-governed: and though the devil can suggest, he does not have the power to force against the will. He supplies for you in images the thought of fornication: if you will it, you accept it; if you do not will it, you reject it. For if you were a fornicator by necessity or by nature, then for what reason did God prepare hell? If you were a doer of righteousness by nature and not by choice, for what purpose did God prepare crowns of ineffable glory? The sheep is gentle, but it does not receive a crown for being gentle: since its gentle quality is in its nature, and not a result of choice.
-- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, Lecture 4: On the Ten Points of Doctrine (approx. 350 AD)
[1] As is clear from the rest of the lecture, St. Cyril is not denying Original Sin, or that we are "by nature, children of wrath." He is saying that we are not like the animals, who do everything purely because of their nature and never by choice - we have a choice to resist sin, so we cannot blame our evil deeds on our human nature, as if we had no choice but to act according to our nature.
[2] Again, St. Cyril is not denying the guilt of Original Sin, but here her is talking about personal and actual sins - sins that we commit by act, as opposed to the Original Sin that we inherit.
For some have impiously dared to make a distinction and separate the One God in their teaching: and some have said that one God is the Creator and Lord of the soul, but another God is Creator and Lord of the body; a doctrine that is simultaneously absurd and impious. For how can a man be one servant of two masters, when our Lord says in the Gospels, No man can serve two masters? There is only One God, then, the Maker of both souls and bodies: One Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of both Angels and Archangels: the Creator of many, but the Father before all ages of only One - His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom He made all things, both visible and invisible.
This Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not confined in any place, nor is He smaller than the heaven; rather, the heavens are the works of His fingers, and the whole earth is held in His grasp: He is in all things and around all things. Do not think that the sun is brighter than He is, or equal to Him: for He who formed the sun must necessarily be incomparably greater and brighter. He foreknows the things that are yet to be, and is mightier than all, knowing all things and doing as He wills; not subject to any necessary sequence of events, nor to nativity, nor chance, nor fate; in all things He is perfect, equally possessing every virtue, neither diminishing nor increasing, but always the same both mode and conditions; He has prepared punishment for sinners, and a crown for the righteous.
Having seen, then, that many have gone astray in various ways from the One God - some having deified the sun, which means that when the sun sets, they must go through the night hours without God; others deifying the moon, so that they have no God by day; others deifying other parts of the world; others the arts; others their various kinds of food; others their pleasures; while some, lusting after women, have set up an image of a naked woman in high places, called it Aphrodite, and worshipped their own lust in a visible form; and others who are dazzled by the brightness of gold have deified it and other kinds of material - but if you lay as your first foundation in your heart the doctrine of the unity of God, and trust in Him, He roots out simultaneously the whole crop of various idolatries and the error of the heretics: lay, therefore, this first doctrine of religion as a foundation in your soul by faith.
...
After the knowledge of this venerable, glorious, and all-holy Faith, learn next what you yourself are: that as man you are made of two components, soul and body; learn that, as we said recently, the same God is the Creator of both soul and body. Know also that you have a soul that is self-governed, the noblest work of God, created in the image of its Creator: immortal because God gives it immortality; a living being, rational, imperishable, because He has bestowed these gifts: this soul has free power to do what it wills. For it is not according to your birth that you sin [1], nor is it by the power of chance that you commit fornication, nor, as some foolishly think, do the alignment of the stars force you to give yourself to wantonness. Why do you hesitate to confess your own evil deeds, and blame to the innocent stars instead? Pay no more attention, please, to astrologers; for the divine Scripture says, Let the stargazers of the heaven stand up and save you, and what follows: Behold, they will all be consumed like straw on the fire, and will not save their souls from the flame.
Learn this also: that the soul, before it came into this world, had committed no sin, but after having come in sinless[2], we now sin of our own free-will. Do not listen, I say, to any one who perversely interprets the words, But if I do the things which I do not want to do: but remember Him who says, If you are willing, and listen to Me, you will eat the good things of the land: but if you are not willing, and do not listen to Me, the sword will devour you, etc.: and again, As you presented your members as slaves to sin ... even so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification. Remember also the Scripture which says, Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge: and, The things that may be known of God are made known; and again, they have closed their eyes. Also remember how God again accuses them, and says, Yet I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true: how are you now turned to bitterness, you the strange vine?
The soul is immortal, and all souls are the same, whether of men or women; for only the parts of the body are different. There is not a category of souls that sin by nature, and a category of souls that practise righteousness by nature: but both act by choice, and the essence of their souls are of one kind only, and common to all. I know that I am talking a lot, and that we have already been here a long time: but what is more precious than salvation? Are you not willing to take the trouble of getting provisions for the way against the heretics? And will you not learn the bye-paths of the road, lest out of ignorance you accidentally fall down a precipice? If your teachers think it no small benefit for you to learn these things, shouldn't you, the learner, gladly receive the multitude of things being taught?
The soul is self-governed: and though the devil can suggest, he does not have the power to force against the will. He supplies for you in images the thought of fornication: if you will it, you accept it; if you do not will it, you reject it. For if you were a fornicator by necessity or by nature, then for what reason did God prepare hell? If you were a doer of righteousness by nature and not by choice, for what purpose did God prepare crowns of ineffable glory? The sheep is gentle, but it does not receive a crown for being gentle: since its gentle quality is in its nature, and not a result of choice.
-- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, Lecture 4: On the Ten Points of Doctrine (approx. 350 AD)
[1] As is clear from the rest of the lecture, St. Cyril is not denying Original Sin, or that we are "by nature, children of wrath." He is saying that we are not like the animals, who do everything purely because of their nature and never by choice - we have a choice to resist sin, so we cannot blame our evil deeds on our human nature, as if we had no choice but to act according to our nature.
[2] Again, St. Cyril is not denying the guilt of Original Sin, but here her is talking about personal and actual sins - sins that we commit by act, as opposed to the Original Sin that we inherit.
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