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| Chapter XVIII.—Judgment Must Have Reference Both to Soul and Body: There Will Therefore Be a Resurrection.
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Chapter XVIII.—Judgment Must Have Reference Both to Soul and Body: There Will Therefore Be a Resurrection.
The arguments I just now proposed for examination, as
establishing the truth of the resurrection, are all of the same kind,
since they all start from the same point; for their starting-point is
the origin of the first men by creation. But while some of them derive
their strength from the starting-point itself from which they take
their rise, others, consequent upon the nature and the life of men,
acquire their credibility from the superintendence of God over us; for
the cause according to which, and on account of which, men have come into
being, being closely connected with the nature of men, derives its force
from creation; but the argument from rectitude, which represents God as
judging men according as they have lived well or ill, derives its force
from the end of their existence: they come into being on the former
ground, but their state depends more on God’s superintendence.
And now that the matters which come first have been demonstrated by me
to the best of my ability, it will be well to prove our proposition by
those also which come after—I mean by the reward or punishment
due to each man in accordance with righteous judgment, and by the final
cause of human existence; and of these I put foremost that which takes
the lead by nature, and inquire first into the argument relating to the
judgment: premising only one thing, from concern for the principle which
appertains to the matters before us, and for order—namely, that
it is incumbent on those who admit God to be the Maker of this universe,
to ascribe to His wisdom and
rectitude the preservation and care of all that has been created,
if they wish to keep to their own principles; and with such views to
hold that nothing either in earth or in heaven is without guardianship
or providence, but that, on the contrary, to everything, invisible and
visible alike, small and great, the attention of the Creator reaches;
for all created things require the attention of the Creator,845
| 845 [Noble testimony to a minute
and particular Providence. Kaye, p. 191.] | and each one in
particular, according to its nature and the end for which it was made:
though I think it would be a useless expenditure of trouble to go through
the list now, or distinguish between the several cases, or mention in
detail what is suitable to each nature. Man, at all events, of whom it
is now our business to speak, as being in want, requires food; as being
mortal, posterity; as being rational, a process of judgment. But if each
of these things belongs to man by nature, and he requires food for his
life, and requires posterity for the continuance of the race, and requires
a judgment in order that food and posterity may be according to law, it
of course follows, since food and posterity refer to both together, that
the judgment must be referred to them too (by both together I mean man,
consisting of soul and body), and that such man becomes accountable for
all his actions, and receives for them either reward or punishment. Now,
if the righteous judgment awards to both together its retribution for
the deeds wrought; and if it is not proper that either the soul alone
should receive the wages of the deeds wrought in union with the body
(for this of itself has no inclination to the faults which are committed
in connection with the pleasure or food and culture of the body), or that
the body alone should (for this of itself is incapable of distinguishing
law and justice), but man, composed of these, is subjected to trial
for each of the deeds wrought by him; and if reason does not find this
happening either in this life (for the award according to merit finds
no place in the present existence, since many atheists and persons who
practice every iniquity and wickedness live on to the last, unvisited
by calamity, whilst, on the contrary, those who have manifestly lived
an exemplary life in respect of every virtue, live in pain, in insult,
in calumny and outrage, and suffering of all kinds) or after death
(for both together no longer exist, the soul being separated from
the body, and the body itself being resolved again into the materials
out of which it was composed, and no longer retaining anything of its
former structure or form, much less the remembrance of its actions):
the result of all this is very plain to every one,—namely, that,
in the language of the apostle, “this corruptible (and dissoluble)
must put on incorruption,”846
in order that those who were dead, having been
made alive by the resurrection, and the parts that were separated and
entirely dissolved having been again united, each one may, in accordance
with justice, receive what he has done by the body, whether it be good
or bad.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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