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| Chapter VII.—Inasmuch as Christ did rise in our flesh, it follows that we shall be also raised in the same; since the resurrection promised to us should not be referred to spirits naturally immortal, but to bodies in themselves mortal.
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Chapter VII.—Inasmuch as Christ did
rise in our flesh, it follows that we shall be also raised in the same; since the
resurrection promised to us should not be referred to spirits naturally
immortal, but to bodies in themselves mortal.
1. In the same manner,
therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out
to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side4483
(now these are the tokens of that
flesh which rose from the dead), so “shall He also,” it is
said, “raise us up by His own power.”4484
And again to the Romans he says, “But if the Spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.”4485
What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be
souls? Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal
bodies; for God “breathed into the face of man the breath of life,
and man became a living soul.” Now the breath of life is an
incorporeal
thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that
the very breath of life is mortal. Therefore David says, “My soul
also shall live to Him,”4486
just
as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other hand, can they
say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is there left to
which we may apply the term “mortal body,” unless it be the
thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that
God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed, but not
the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power, and to become
henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of motion, and to melt away
into those [component parts] from which also it derived the commencement
of [its] substance. But this event happens neither to the soul, for it is
the breath of life; nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not
composite, so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of
those who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference
to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the
soul’s departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is
decomposed gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then,
is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says, “He shall
also quicken your mortal bodies.” And therefore in reference to it
he says, in the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians: “So also is the
resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it rises in
incorruption.”4487
For he declares,
“That which thou sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it
die.”4488
2. But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is
sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in
the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said,
“It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory.”4489
For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or,
on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and
partakes of incorruption? “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in
power:”4490
in its own weakness certainly,
because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the
power of God, who raises it from the dead. “It is sown an animal
body, it rises a spiritual body.”4491
He has
taught, beyond all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either
with reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have
become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which
partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then,
rising through the Spirit’s instrumentality, they become spiritual
bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a perpetual life. “For
now,” he says, “we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but
then face to face.”4492
And this it is which
has been said also by Peter: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in
whom now also, not seeing, ye believe; and believing, ye shall rejoice
with joy unspeakable.”4493
For our
face shall see the face of the Lord4494
| 4494 Grabe, Massuet, and Stieren prefer to read, “the
face of the living God;” while Harvey adopts the above, reading
merely “Domini,” and not “Dei vivi.” |
and shall rejoice with joy unspeakable,—that is to say, when it
shall behold its own Delight.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
