Chapter XI.—The Power of God Fully Competent to Effect the Resurrection of the Flesh.

Thus far touching my eulogy of the flesh, in opposition to its enemies, who are, notwithstanding, its greatest friends also; for there is nobody who lives so much in accordance with the flesh as they who deny the resurrection of the flesh, inasmuch as they despise all its discipline, while they disbelieve its punishment. It is a shrewd saying which the Paraclete utters concerning these persons by the mouth of the prophetess Prisca: “They are carnal,80    Carnes. [To explain the state of mind in which this sentence is written, let the reader kindly turn back to Vol. II. p. 4, the paragraph, “As Eusebius informs us, etc.”] and yet they hate the flesh.” Since, then, the flesh has the best guarantee that could possibly accrue for securing to it the recompense of salvation, ought we not also to consider well the power, and might, and competency81    Licentiam. of God Himself, whether He be so great as to be able to rebuild and restore the edifice of the flesh, which had become dilapidated and blocked up,82    Oehler explains “devoratum” by “interceptum.” and in every possible way dislocated?—whether He has promulgated in the public domains of nature any analogies to convince us of His power in this respect, lest any should happen to be still thirsting for the knowledge of God, when faith in Him must rest on no other basis than the belief that He is able to do all things? You have, no doubt amongst your philosophers men who maintain that this world is without a beginning or a maker. It is, however, much more true, that nearly all the heresies allow it an origin and a maker, and ascribe its creation to our God. Firmly believe, therefore, that He produced it wholly out of nothing, and then you have found the knowledge of God, by believing that He possesses such mighty power. But some persons are too weak to believe all this at first, owing to their views about Matter. They will rather have it, after the philosophers, that the universe was in the beginning made by God out of underlying matter. Now, even if this opinion could be held in truth, since He must be acknowledged to have produced in His reformation of matter far different substances and far different forms from those which Matter itself possessed, I should maintain, with no less persistence, that He produced these things out of nothing, since they absolutely had no existence at all previous to His production of them. Now, where is the difference between a thing’s being produced out of nothing or out of something, if so be that what existed not comes into being, when even to have had no existence is tantamount to having been nothing? The contrary is likewise true; for having once existed amounts to having been something. If, however, there is a difference, both alternatives support my position. For if God produced all things whatever out of nothing, He will be able to draw forth from nothing even the flesh which had fallen into nothing; or if He moulded other things out of matter, He will be able to call forth the flesh too from somewhere else, into whatever abyss it may have been engulphed. And surely He is most competent to re-create who created, inasmuch as it is a far greater work to have produced than to have reproduced, to have imparted a beginning, than to have maintained a continuance. On this principle, you may be quite sure that the restoration of the flesh is easier than its first formation.

CAPUT XI.

Hucusque de praeconio carnis adversus inimicos, et nihilominus amicissimos ejus. Nemo enim tam carnaliter vivit, quam qui negant carnis resurrectionem. Negantes enim ejus poenam, despiciunt et disciplinam. De quibus luculenter et Paracletus per 0809A prophetidem Priscam: «Carnes sunt, et carnem oderunt.» Quam si tanta auctoritas munit, quanta illi ad meritum salutis patrocinari possit, numquid etiam Dei ipsius potentiam, et potestatem, et licentiam recensere debemus, an tantus sit qui valeat dilapsum, et devoratum et quibuscumque modis ereptum tabernaculum carnis reaedificare atque restituere? An et aliqua nobis exempla hujus sui juris in publico naturae promulgavit , ne qui forte adhuc nesciant Deum nosse, qui non alia lege credendus est, quam ut omnia posse credatur? Plane apud Philosophos habes, qui mundum hunc innatum infectumque defendant: sed multo melius, quod omnes fere haereses natum et factum mundum annuentes, conditionem Deo nostro adscribunt. Igitur confide 0809B illum totum hoc ex nihilo protulisse, et Deum nosti, fidendo quod tantum Deus valeat. Nam et quidam, infirmiores hoc prius credere, de materia potius subjacenti volunt ab illo universitatem dedicatam secundum philosophos. Porro, etsi ita in vero haberetur, cum tamen longe alias substantias, longeque alias species ex reformatione materiae diceretur protulisse, quam fuisset ipsa materia; non minus defenderem ex nihilo eum protulisse, si ea protulerat, quae omnino non fuerant. Quo enim interest, ex nihilo quid proferri, an ex aliquo, dum quod non fuit, fiat? quando etiam non fuisse, nihil sit fuisse. Sic et fuisse e contrario, non nihil est fuisse. Nunc, etsi interest, tamen utrumque mihi applaudit. Sive enim ex nihilo Deus molitus est cuncta, poterit et carnem, in nihilum perductam , exprimere de nihilo. Sive de materia modulatus est alia, poterit et carnem quocumque dehaustam evocare de alio. Et utique idoneus est reficere, qui fecit; quanto plus est fecisse, quam refecisse, 0810A initium dedisse, quam reddidisse, Ita restitutionem carnis faciliorem credas institutione.