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| From St. Paul's Analogy of the Seed We Learn that the Body Which Died Will Rise Again, Garnished with the Appliances of Eternal Life.
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Chapter LII.—From St.
Paul’s Analogy of the Seed We Learn that the Body Which Died Will
Rise Again, Garnished with the Appliances of Eternal Life.
Let us now see in what body he asserts that the
dead will come. And with a felicitous sally he proceeds at once to
illustrate the point, as if an objector had plied him with some such
question. “Thou fool,” says he, “that which
thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.”7674
From this example of the seed it is
then evident that no other flesh is quickened than that which shall
have undergone death, and therefore all the rest of the question will
become clear enough. For nothing which is incompatible with the idea
suggested by the example can possibly be understood; nor from the
clause which follows, “That which thou sowest, thou sowest not
the body which shall be,”7675
are you
permitted to suppose that in the resurrection a different body is to
arise from that which is sown in death. Otherwise you have run
away from the example. For if wheat be sown and dissolved in the
ground, barley does not spring up. Still it is not7676
| 7676 An objection of the
opponent. | the very same grain in kind; nor is its
nature the same, or its quality and form. Then whence comes it,
if it is not the very same? For even the decay is a proof of the
thing itself, since it is the decay of the actual grain.
Well, but does not the apostle himself suggest in what sense it is that
“the body which shall be” is not the body which is sown,
even when he says, “But bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of
some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth
Him?”7677
Gives it of
course to the grain which he says is sown bare. No doubt, you say. Then
the grain is safe enough, to which God has to assign a body. But how
safe, if it is nowhere in existence, if it does not rise again if it
rises not again its actual self? If it rises not again, it is not safe;
and if it is not even safe, it cannot receive a body from
God. But there is every possible proof that it is safe. For what
purpose, therefore, will God give it “a body, as it pleases
Him,” even when it already has its own “bare” body,
unless it be that in its resurrection it may be no longer bare? That
therefore will be additional matter which is placed over the
bare body; nor is that at all destroyed on which the
superimposed matter is put,—nay, it is increased. That, however,
is safe which receives augmentation. The truth is, it is sown the
barest grain, without a husk to cover it, without a spike even in germ,
without the protection of a bearded top, without the glory of a stalk.
It rises, however, out of the furrow enriched with a copious crop,
built up in a compact fabric, constructed in a beautiful order,
fortified by cultivation, and clothed around on every side. These
are the circumstances which make it another body from God, to which it
is changed not by abolition, but by amplification. And to every seed
God has assigned its own body7678
—not,
indeed, its own in the sense of its primitive body—in order that
what it acquires from God extrinsically may also at last be accounted
its own. Cleave firmly then to the example, and keep it well in view,
as a mirror of what happens to the flesh: believe that the very same
flesh which was once sown in death will bear fruit in
resurrection-life—the same in essence, only more full and
perfect; not another, although reappearing in another form. For it
shall receive in itself the grace and ornament which God shall please
to spread over it, according to its merits. Unquestionably it is in
this sense that he says, “All flesh is not the same
flesh;”7679
meaning not to deny
a community of substance, but a parity of prerogative,—reducing
the body to a difference of honour, not of nature. With this view he
adds, in a figurative sense, certain examples of animals and heavenly
bodies: “There is one flesh of man” (that is, servants of
God, but really human), “another flesh of beasts” (that is,
the heathen, of whom the prophet actually says, “Man is like the
senseless cattle”7680
), “another
flesh of birds” (that is, the martyrs which essay to mount up to
heaven), “another of fishes” (that is, those whom the water
of baptism has submerged).7681
In like manner does
he take examples from the heavenly bodies: “There is one glory of the
sun” (that is, of Christ), “and another glory of the
moon” (that is, of the Church), “and another glory of the
stars” (in other words, of the seed of Abraham). “For one
star differeth from another star in glory: so there are bodies
terrestrial as well as celestial” (Jews, that is, as well as
Christians).7682
Now, if this
language is not to be construed figuratively, it was absurd enough for
him to make a contrast between the flesh of mules and kites, as well as
the heavenly bodies and human bodies; for they admit of no comparison
as to their condition, nor in respect of their attainment of a
resurrection. Then at last, having conclusively shown by his examples
that the difference was one of glory, not of substance, he adds:
“So also is the resurrection of the dead.”7683
How so? In no other way than as
differing in glory only. For again, predicating the resurrection of the
same substance and returning once more to (his comparison of) the
grain, he says: “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in
incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it
is raised a spiritual body.”7684
Now, certainly
nothing else is raised than that which is sown; and nothing else is
sown than that which decays in the ground; and it is nothing else than
the flesh which is decayed in the ground. For this was the substance
which God’s decree demolished, “Earth thou art, and to
earth shalt thou return;”7685
because it was
taken out of the earth. And it was from this circumstance that
the apostle borrowed his phrase of the flesh being “sown,”
since it returns to the ground, and the ground is the grand depository
for seeds which are meant to be deposited in it, and again sought out
of it. And therefore he confirms the passage afresh, by putting on it
the impress (of his own inspired authority), saying, “For so it
is written;”7686
that you may not
suppose that the “being sown” means anything else than
“thou shalt return to the ground, out of which thou wast
taken;” nor that the phrase “for so it is written”
refers to any other thing that the flesh.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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