Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/29

 your own souls. All the orthodox fathers who wrote God's lore, spoke undoubtingly and unanimously agreed in this, that God createth each man's soul, and the soul is not of God's own nature. If it were taken from God's nature, evidently it could not sin. It is natural to man that he should love that which is good; who is good but God only, who is supreme goodness, without whom no man can have anything that is good ? This goodness, from which cometh to us every good thing, we must ever love, but the love of this goodness cannot exist except in the soul, and only that soul is nobly-born that loveth Him from whom it came, who created it such that it might have God's image and likeness in its understanding, and might be worthy of this thing, viz. that God should dwell in it. Philosophers say that the soul's nature is threefold : the first part in her is capable of desire, the second of anger, the third of reason. Two of these parts, beasts and cattle have in common with us, that is to say, desire and anger; man only hath reason and speech and intelligence. Desire is given to man to desire that which profiteth him, both in things needful and for everlasting salvation; but if the desire be perverted, it begetteth Gluttony, and Lechery, and Avarice. Anger is given to the soul to the end that it may be angry against vice, and be subject to no sins, because that Christ said, “Whosoever committeth sins is the servant of sins.' If anger be turned to evil, then cometh therefrom Wrath and Sloth. Reason is given to the soul to direct and govern its own life and all its deeds; from reason, if it be perverted, proceed Pride and Vainboasting [Envy]. Reason, not the soul, waxeth in children ; and the soul increaseth in virtues, yet is it no larger than it was at the beginning ; but becometh better, though it receiveth no bodily increase.

The soul hath (as we before said) in its nature a likeness to the Holy Trinity, in that it hath memory, understanding, and will. It is one soul, and one life, and one substance, which hath in itself these three things; and these three things are not three lives, but one; not three substances, but one. The soul, or the life, or the