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IS THERE A CREATOR
95
It may also be added that in the allegorical sense, creation is deemed to have been made by the Word which does everything. This again is clear, that the restoration of the soul's divinity can only be accomplished by divine wisdom appearing in the consciousness of the soul. Divine Wisdom is the first to manifest itself in the consciousness of those involved in ignorance, and then it will remove the confusion and chaos from the mind of the soul, and people it with true conceptions and ideas and emotions, described as various kinds of things, beasts and animals, in the account' of the Creation, in the Book of Genesis.
The body is a prison for the soul (Arnobius: A.N. C.L. vol. sis. p. 113 cited ante); it is described as vile in St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (chapter üi. 21); and St. Paul cries out against it in the agony of anguish:
"O wretched man that I am who shall rid me of the body of this death? "--Romans vi. 24.
Certainly no sensible man will ever dream of giving thanks to any one for the making of such an enemy!
It will be noticed that with reference to the Word, Cyprian states :
"For this is He who strengthened their hearts and minds ... This is He who places propbets in the church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, offers discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, sog. gests counsels and orders, and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismat& ..."-A.N.C.L. vol. xiii. p. 372.
This really means that souls accomplish their salvation by their own risdom, not that of anyone else from outside. In other words, the soul is its own