Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Conclusion. The Resurrection of the Flesh in Its Absolute Identity and Perfection. Belief of This Had Become Weak. Hopes for Its Refreshing Restoration Under the Influences of the Paraclete. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
LXIII.—Conclusion. The Resurrection of the Flesh in Its Absolute
Identity and Perfection. Belief of This Had Become Weak. Hopes for Its
Refreshing Restoration Under the Influences of the
Paraclete.
And so the flesh shall rise again, wholly in every
man, in its own identity, in its absolute integrity. Wherever it may
be, it is in safe keeping in God’s presence, through that most
faithful “Mediator between God and man, (the man) Jesus
Christ,”7755 who shall reconcile
both God to man, and man to God; the spirit to the flesh, and the flesh
to the spirit. Both natures has He already united in His own self; He
has fitted them together as bride and bridegroom in the reciprocal bond
of wedded life. Now, if any should insist on making the soul the bride,
then the flesh will follow the soul as her dowry. The soul shall never
be an outcast, to be had home by the bridegroom bare and naked.
She has her dower, her outfit, her fortune in the flesh, which shall
accompany her with the love and fidelity of a foster-sister. But
suppose the flesh to be the bride, then in Christ Jesus she has in
the contract of His blood received His Spirit as her spouse. Now, what
you take to be her extinction, you may be sure is only her temporary
retirement. It is not the soul only which withdraws from view.
The flesh, too, has her departures for a while—in waters, in
fires, in birds, in beasts; she may seem to be dissolved into these,
but she is only poured into them, as into vessels. And should the
vessels themselves afterwards fail to hold her, escaping from even
these, and returning to her mother earth, she is absorbed once more, as
it were, by its secret embraces, ultimately to stand forth to view,
like Adam when summoned to hear from his Lord and Creator the words,
“Behold, the man is become as one of us!”7756 —thoroughly “knowing” by
that time “the evil” which she had escaped, “and the
good” which she has acquired. Why, then, O soul, should you envy
the flesh? There is none, after the Lord, whom you should love so
dearly; none more like a brother to you, which is even born along with
yourself in God. You ought rather to have been by your prayers
obtaining resurrection for her: her sins, whatever they were, were
owing to you. However, it is no wonder if you hate her; for you
have repudiated her Creator.7757
7757 In this apostrophe to
the soul, he censures Marcion’s heresy. | You have accustomed
yourself either to deny or change her existence even in Christ7758
7758 Compare the De
Carne Christi. | —corrupting the very Word of God
Himself, who became flesh, either by mutilating or misinterpreting the
Scripture,7759
7759 See the De
Præscript. Hæret. ch. xxxviii. supra, for
instances of these diverse methods of heresy. Marcion is mentioned as
the mutilator of Scripture, by cutting away from it whatever
opposed his views; Valentinus as the corrupter thereof, by his
manifold and fantastic interpretations. | and introducing,
above all, apocryphal mysteries and blasphemous fables.7760
7760 See the Adv.
Valentinianos, supra. | But yet Almighty God, in His most gracious
providence, by “pouring out of His Spirit in these last days,
upon all flesh, upon His servants and on His
handmaidens,”7761
7761 Joel ii. 28, 29; Acts ii. 17,
18. [See last sentence. He
improves upon St. Peter’s interpretation of this text (as see
below) by attributing his own clear views to the charismata,
which he regards as still vouchsafed to the more spiritual.] | has checked these
impostures of unbelief and perverseness, reanimated men’s
faltering faith in the resurrection of the flesh, and cleared from all
obscurity and equivocation the ancient Scriptures (of both God’s
Testaments7762
7762 We follow
Oehler’s view here, by all means. | ) by the clear light
of their (sacred) words and meanings. Now, since it was “needful
that there should be heresies, in order that they which are approved
might be made manifest;”7763 since, however,
these heresies would be unable to put on a bold front without some
countenance from the Scriptures, it therefore is plain enough that the
ancient Holy Writ has furnished them with sundry materials for their
evil doctrine, which very materials indeed (so distorted) are refutable
from the same Scriptures. It was fit and proper, therefore, that the
Holy Ghost should no longer withhold the effusions of His gracious
light upon these inspired writings, in order that they might be able to
disseminate the seeds of truth with no admixture of heretical
subtleties, and pluck out from it their tares. He has accordingly now
dispersed all the perplexities of the past, and their self-chosen
allegories and parables, by the open and perspicuous explanation of the
entire mystery, through the new prophecy, which descends in copious
streams from the Paraclete. If you will only draw water from His
fountains, you will never thirst for other doctrine: no feverish
craving after subtle questions will again consume you; but by
drinking in evermore the resurrection of the flesh, you will be
satisfied with the refreshing draughts.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|