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| Chapter XIX
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Chapter XIX.
God, then, gives to each thing its own body as He
pleases: as in the case of plants that are sown, so also in the
case of those beings who are, as it were, sown in dying, and who in due
time receive, out of what has been “sown,” the body
assigned by God to each one according to his deserts. And we may
hear, moreover, the Scripture teaching us at great length the
difference between that which is, as it were, “sown,” and
that which is, as it were, “raised” from it in these
words: “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.”4149
And let
him who has the capacity understand the meaning of the words:
“As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is
the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we
have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly.”4150
And although
the apostle wished to conceal the secret meaning of the passage, which
was not adapted to the simpler class of believers, and to the
understanding of the common people, who are led by their faith to enter
on a better course of life, he was nevertheless obliged afterwards to
say (in order that we might not misapprehend his meaning), after
“Let us bear the image of the heavenly,” these words
also: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption.”4151
Then, knowing
that there was a secret and mystical meaning in the passage, as was
becoming in one who was leaving, in his Epistles, to those who were to
come after him words full of significance, he subjoins the following,
“Behold, I show you a mystery;”4152
which is his usual style in introducing matters of a profounder and
more mystical nature, and such as are fittingly concealed from the
multitude, as is written in the book of Tobit: “It is good
to keep close the secret of a king, but honourable to reveal the works
of God,”4153
—in a way
consistent with truth and God’s glory, and so as to be to the
advantage of the multitude. Our hope, then, is not “the
hope of worms, nor does our soul long for a body that has seen
corruption;” for although it may require a body, for the sake of
moving from place to place,4154
| 4154 διὰ τὰς
τοπικὰς
μεταβάσεις. | yet it
understands—as having meditated on the wisdom (that is from
above), agreeably to the declaration, “The mouth of the righteous
will speak wisdom”4155
—the
difference between the “earthly house,” in which is the
tabernacle of the building that is to be dissolved, and that in which
the righteous do groan, being burdened,—not wishing to “put
off” the tabernacle, but to be “clothed therewith,”
that by being clothed upon, mortality might be swallowed up of
life. For, in virtue of the whole nature of the body being
corruptible, the corruptible tabernacle must put on incorruption; and
its other part, being mortal, and becoming liable to the death which
follows sin, must put on immortality, in order that, when the
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and the mortal immortality,
then shall come to pass what was predicted of old by the
prophets,—the annihilation of the “victory” of death
(because it had conquered and subjected us to his sway), and of its
“sting,” with which it stings the imperfectly defended
soul, and inflicts upon it the wounds which result from
sin.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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