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FOR even if spirit is mingled with this crass and solid matter; viz.,
flesh (as very easily happens), should we therefore believe that it can be
united to the soul, which is in like manner spirit, in such a way as to
make it also receptive in the same way of its own nature: a thing which is
possible to the Trinity alone, which is so capable of pervading every
intellectual nature, that it cannot only embrace and surround it but even
insert itself into it and, incorporeal though it is, be infused into a
body? For though we maintain that some spiritual natures exist, such as
angels, archangels and the other powers, and indeed our own souls and the
thin air, yet we ought certainly not to consider them incorporeal. For they
have in their own fashion a body in which they exist, though it is much
finer than our bodies are, in accordance with the Apostle's words when he
says: "And there are bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial:" and again:
"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body;" from which
it is clearly gathered that there is nothing incorporeal but God alone, and
therefore it is only by Him that all spiritual and intellectual substances
can be pervaded, because He alone is whole and everywhere and in all
things, in such a way as to behold and see the thoughts of men and their
inner movements and all the recesses of the soul; since it was of Him alone
that the blessed Apostle spoke when he said: "For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the
dividing of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow; and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; and there is no
creature invisible in His sight, but all things are naked and open to His
eyes." And the blessed David says: "Who fashioneth their hearts one by
one;" and again: "For He knoweth the secrets of the heart;" and Job too:
"Thou who alone knowest the hearts of men."
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