together with the seed from which the body is formed does it receive its existence, but, by the will of the Creator, it appears in the body soon after its formation.” (p. 440.)
When this formation of the body takes place it does not say. For the purpose of elucidation the following is said:
“At the time when the body is formed it becomes capable of receiving the soul.”
If that does not explain the matter, what follows explains whence and from what the soul is created by God. Here we again have a controversy. Some have said that the soul originated by itself from the souls of the parents, while others have said that it came from nothing, directly from the seed. All are wrong:
“God creates the human souls, just as he creates the bodies, by force of the same blessing, to be fruitful and multiply, which he gave to our forefathers in the beginning,—he creates them not out of nothing, but out of the souls of the parents. For, according to the teaching of the church, although the souls of men receive their existence through creation, the stigma of the ancestral sin passes to them from the parents,—and this could not be, if God created them from nothing.” (pp. 441 and 442.)
80. The composition of man. Man consists of two parts, of the soul and the body, and not of three parts. As usual, there comes after that a dispute and confirmations from Holy Scripture. The dispute is directed against those who assert that man consists of three parts, of body, soul, and spirit. That is not so,—he consists only of body and soul.
81. The properties of the human soul are the following: “(1) It is an independent essence, separate from the body, (2) immaterial, simple (spirit), (3) free, and (4) immortal.” (pp. 449-453.)
There follow proofs from Holy Scripture. But what is
