51. All things, indeed, are believed to be, either because of experience, or on grounds of reason, or from similar instances, or because it is fitting that they be, and each of these supports our belief. Experience teaches us that we are moved; reason, that which moves us must be considered the property of another power; similar instances show that the field has borne crops, and therefore we expect that it will continue to bear them. Fitness, because even where we do not think that there will be results, yet we believe that it is by no means fitting to give up the works of virtue.

52. Each, then, is supported by each. But belief in the resurrection is inferred most clearly on three grounds, in which all are included. These are reason, analogy from universal example, and the evidence of what has happened, since many have risen. Reason is clear. For since the whole course of our life consists in the union of body and soul, and the resurrection brings with it either the reward of good works, or the punishment of wicked ones, it is necessary that the body, whose actions are weighed, rise again. For how shall the soul be summoned to judgment without the body, when account has to be rendered of the companionship of itself and the body?

53. Rising again is the lot of all, but there is a difficulty in believing this, because it is not due to our deserts, but is the gift of God. The first argument for the resurrection is the course of the world, and the condition of all things, the series of generations, the changes in the way of succession, the setting and rising of constellations, the ending of day and night, and their daily succession coming as it were again to life. And no other reason can exist for the fertile temperament of this earth, but that the divine order restores by the dews of night as much of that moisture from which all earthly things are produced, as the heat of the sun dries up by day. Why should I speak of the fruits of the earth? Do they not seem to die when they fall, to rise again when they grow green once more? That which is sown rises again, that which is dead rises again, and they are formed once more into the same classes and kinds as before. The earth first gave back these fruits, in these first our nature found the pattern of the resurrection.

54. Why doubt that body shall rise again from body? Grain is sown, grain comes up again: fruit is sown, fruit comes up again; but the grain is clothed with blossom and husk. “And this mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruption.”79    1 Cor. xv. 53. The blossom of the resurrection is immortality, the blossom of the resurrection is incorruption. For what is more fruitful than perpetual rest? what supplied with richer store than everlasting security? Here is that abundant fruit, by whose increase man’s nature shoots forth more abundantly after death.

55. But you wonder how what has yielded to putrefaction can again become solid, how scattered particles can come together, those that are consumed be made good: you do not wonder how seeds broken up under the moist pressure of the earth grow green. For certainly they too, rotting under contact with the earth, are broken up, and when the fertilising moisture of the soil gives life to the dead and hidden seeds, and, by the vital warmth, as it were breathes out a kind of soul of the green herb. Then by little and little nature raises from the ground the tender stalk of the growing ear, and as a careful mother folds it in certain sheaths, lest the sharp ice should hurt it as it grows, and to protect it from too great heat of the sun; and lest after this the rain should break down the fruit itself escaping as it were from its first cradle and just grown up, or lest the wind should scatter it, or small birds destroy it, she usually hedges it around with a fence of bristling awn.

56. Why should one, then, be surprised if the earth give back those bodies of men which it has received, seeing that it gives life to, raises, clothes, protects, and defends whatsoever bodies of seeds it has received? Cease then to doubt that the trustworthy earth, which restores multiplied as it were by usury the seeds committed to it, will also restore the entrusted deposit of the race of man. And why should I speak of the kinds of trees, which spring up from seed sown, and with revivified fruitfulness bear again their opening fruits, and repeat the old shape and likeness, and certain trees being renewed continue through many generations, and in their endurance overpass the very centuries? We see the grape rot, and the vine come up again: a graft is inserted and the tree is born again. Is there this divine foresight for restoring trees, and no care for men? And He Who has not suffered to perish that which He gave for man’s use, shall He suffer man to perish, whom he made after His own image?

57. But it appears incredible to you that the dead rise again? “Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest, does it not first die that it may be quickened?”80    1 Cor. xv. 36. Sow any dry seed you please, it is raised up. But, you answer, it has the life-juice in itself. And our body has its blood, has its own moisture. This is the life-juice of our body. So that I think that the objection is exploded which some allege that a dry twig does not revive, and then endeavour to argue from this to the prejudice of the flesh. For the flesh is not dry, since all flesh is of clay, clay comes from moisture—moisture from the earth. Then, again, many growing plants, though always fresh, spring from dry and sandy soil, since the earth itself supplies sufficient moisture for itself. Does the earth then, which continually restores all things, fail with regard to man? From what has been said it is clear that we must not doubt that it is rather in accordance with than contrary to nature; for it is natural that all things living should rise again, but contrary to nature that they should perish.

58. We come now to a point which much troubles the heathen, how it can be that the earth should restore those whom the sea has swallowed up, wild beasts have torn to pieces or have devoured. So, then, at last we necessarily come to the conclusion that the doubt is not as to belief in resurrection in general, but as to a part. For, granted that the bodies of those torn in pieces do not rise again, the others do so, and the resurrection is not disproved, but a certain class is an exception. Yet I wonder why they think there is any doubt even concerning these, as though not all things which are of the earth return to the earth, and crumble again into earth. And the sea itself for the most part casts up on neighbouring shores whatever human bodies it has swallowed. And if this were not so, I suppose we are to believe that it would not be difficult for God to join together what was dispersed, to unite what was scattered; God, Whom the universe obeys, to Whom the dumb elements submit and nature serves; as though it were not a greater wonder to give life to clay than to join it together.

59. That bird in the country of Arabia, which is called the Phoenix, restored by the renovating juices of its flesh, after being dead comes to life again: shall we believe that men alone are not raised up again? Yet we know this by common report and the authority of writings,81    Scripturarum. It is impossible to suppose that St. Ambrose here means Holy Scripture, but is referring to such writers as Herodotus, Tacitus, and Pliny. Other Fathers, Tertullian, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Basil, with several more, refer also to the fable of the Phœnix in speaking of the Resurrection. namely, that the bird referred to has a fixed period of life of five hundred years, and when by some warning of nature it knows that the end of its life is at hand, it furnishes for itself a casket of frankincense and myrrh and other perfumes, and its work and the time being together ended, it enters the casket and dies. Then from its juices a worm comes forth, and grows by degrees into the fashion of the same bird, and its former habits are restored, and borne up by the oarage of its wings it commences once more the course of its renewed life, and discharges a debt of gratitude. For it conveys that casket, whether the tomb of its body or the cradle of its resurrection, in which quitting life it died, and dying it rose again, from Ethiopia to Lycaonia; and so by the resurrection of this bird the people of those regions understand that a period of five hundred years is accomplished. So to that bird the five hundredth is the year of resurrection, but to us the thousandth:82    St. Ambrose may have believed that the world would end with a.d. 1000, or possibly a thousand is simply taken as a number signifying completeness, as St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, XX. 7) explains the thousand years of Rev. xx. 1. it has its resurrection in this world, we have ours at the end of the world. Many think also that this bird kindles its own funeral pile, and comes to life again from its own ashes.

60. But perhaps nature if more deeply investigated will seem to give a deeper reason for our belief: let our thoughts turn back to the origin and commencement of the creation of man. You are men and women, you are not ignorant of the things which have to do with human nature, and if any of you have not this knowledge, you know that we are born of nothing. But how small an origin for being so great as we are! And if I do not speak more plainly, yet you understand what I mean, or rather what I will not say. Whence, then, is this head, and that wonderful countenance, whose maker we see not? We see the work, it is fashioned for various purposes and uses. Whence is this upright figure, this lofty stature, this power of action, this quickness of perception, this capacity for walking upright? Doubtless the organs of nature are not known to us, but that which they effect is known. Thou too wast once seed, and thy body is the seed of that which shall rise again. Listen to Paul and learn that thou art this seed: “It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body.”83    1 Cor. xv. 42 ff. Thou also, then, art sown as are other things, why wonderest thou if thou shalt rise again as shall others? But thou believest as to them, because thou seest; thou believest not this, because thou seest it not: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”84    S. John xx. 29.

51. Et quidem omnia aut usu, aut ratione, aut exemplo, aut eo quia decorum sit ea esse, ideo esse creduntur; et ad fidem singula suffragantur. Usus, quia movemur: ratio, quia quod movet, virtutis alterius convenit aestimari: exemplum, quia generavit ager fruges, et ideo generaturum esse praesumimus: decorum, quia et ubi fructum non putamus, decere tamen credimus, ut virtutis opera minime deseramus.

52. Singula igitur singulis astruuntur. Tribus tamen evidentius colligitur resurrectionis fides, quibus omnia comprehenduntur: ratione, universitatis exemplo, testimonio rei gestae; quia plurimi 1328D surrexerunt. Ratio evidens est; quia cum omnis vitae nostrae usus in corporis animaeque consortio sit, resurrectio autem aut boni actus praemium habeat, aut poenam improbi; necesse sit corpus resurgere, cujus actus expenditur. Quomodo enim in judicium 1329A vocabitur anima sine corpore, cum de suo et corporis contubernio ratio praestanda sit?

53. Resurrectio omnibus attributa est: sed ideo difficile creditur, quia non nostrum meritum, sed Dei munus est. Prima igitur resurrectionis fides usus est mundi, rerumque status omnium, generationum series, successionum vices, obitus ortusque signorum, diei et noctis occasus, eorumque quotidie tamquam rediviva successio. Temperamenti quoque genitalis hujus terrae aliter ratio subesse non posset, nisi humoris ipsius quo omnia terrena generantur, quantum diurni solis aestus excoqueret, tantum rore nocturno dispositio divina repararet. Nam quid de fructibus loquar? Nonne tibi videntur occidere, cum decidunt: resurgere, cum revirescunt? 1329B Quod satum est, resurgit: quod mortuum est, resurgit; et in eadem genera, in easdem species reformatur. Hos terra primum reddidit fructus, in his primum natura nostra speciem resurrectionis imitata est.

54. Quid dubitas de corpore corpus resurgere? Granum seritur, granum resurgit: pomum decidit, pomum resurgit; sed flore granum induitur, folliculoque vestitur: Et hoc mortale 1148 oportet induere immortalitatem, et hoc corruptibile induere incorruptionem (I Cor. XV, 53). Flos resurrectionis immortalitas est, flos resurrectionis incorruptio est. Quid enim uberius quiete perpetua? quid locupletius securitate diuturna? Hic est multiplex fructus, cujus proventu pullulat fecundior hominum natura 1329C post mortem.

55. Sed miraris quemadmodum putrefacta solidentur, dispersa coeant, absumpta reparentur, non miraris quemadmodum semina vapore et compressu terrae soluta viridescant. Nam utique etiam ipsa terreno coalitu putrefacta solvuntur, et cum occaecata et mortua soli genitalis succus animaverit, quodam calore vitali spiritum quemdam herbae viridantis exhalant. Deinde paulatim teneram spicae adolescentis aetatem culmo erigit, et vaginis quibusdam natura tamquam sedula mater includit; ne pubescentem glacies adurat aspera, atque a nimio solis defendat ardore: frugem quoque ipsam adhuc quasi primis erumpentem cunabulis, mox adultam ne pluvia decutiat, ne aura dispergat, ne avium minorum 1329D morsus interimat, vallo aristarum sepire consuevit.

1330A 56. Quid igitur miraris si homines, quos acceperit, terra restituat; cum seminum corpora quaecumque susceperit, vivificet, erigat, vestiat, muniat, atque defendat? Desine ergo dubitare quod depositum generis humani terrae fides reddat, quae commendata sibi semina usurario quodam fenore multiplicata restituat. Nam quid de generibus arborum loquar, quae posito surgunt de semine, fructusque resolutos rediviva fecunditate resuscitant, et formae veteri atque imagini suae reddunt, multasque aetates quaedam arborum corpora reparata transmittunt; ut ipsa durando vincant saecula? Putrescere videmus acinum, vitem resurgere: surculus inseritur, arbor renascitur. An de reparandis arboribus divina est providentia, de hominibus nulla cura? Et qui ea quae ad usus hominum dedit, perire non passus est; 1330B hominem perire patietur, quem ad imaginem sui fecit?

57. Sed incredibile tibi videtur, ut mortui reviviscant: Insipiens tu ipse quod seminas, nonne prius moritur, ut vivificetur (Ibid., 36)? Sere quemlibet fructum arentem, resuscitatur. Sed habet succum. Et nostrum corpus habet sanguinem suum, habet humorem suum. Hic nostri succus est corporis. Unde illud quoque explosum arbitror, quod arentem surculum quidam reviviscere negant, idque ad praejudicium carnis derivare nituntur. Non enim caro arida, cum caro omnis e limo sit, limus in humore, humor e terris. Denique multa gignentia quamvis jugi serenitate humo arida arenosaque nascuntur; quoniam ipsa sibi terra humorem sufficit. 1330C 1149 Num igitur in hominibus terra degenerat, quae omnia regenerare consuevit? Unde claret non esse dubitandum quod secundum naturam magis, quam contra naturam est; ex natura enim est resurgere nascentia omnia, contra naturam est interire.

58. Sequitur illud quod gentiles plerumque perturbat, quomodo fieri possit ut quos mare absorbuerit, ferae dilaceraverint, bestiae devoraverint, terra restituat. Quo ita demum veniatur necesse est, ut non de fide resurrectionis, sed de parte dubitetur. Esto enim ut laceratorum corpora non resurgant, resurgunt caeteri: nec resurrectio destruitur, si conditio excipitur. Miror tamen cur vel de his dubitandum putent, quasi non omnia quae ex terris 1330D sunt, in terram redeant, et in terram resolvantur (Eccles. III, 20). Mare quoque ipsum quaecumque 1331A corpora humana demerserit, vicinis exspuit unda plerumque littoribus. Quod ni ita esset, difficile, credo, Deo foret dispersa connectere, dissipata sociare; cui mundus obtemperat, muta obsequuntur elementa, servit natura: quasi non majoris miraculi sit limum animare quam jungere?

59. Avis in regione Arabiae, cui nomen est phoenix, redivivo suae carnis humore reparabilis, cum mortua fuerit, reviviscit; solos non credimus homines resuscitari? Atqui hoc relatione crebra, et scripturarum auctoritate cognovimus memoratam avem quingentorum annorum spatia vitalis usus habere praescripta; eamque cum sibi finem vitae adesse praesaga quadam naturae suae aestimatione cognoverit, thecam sibi de thure et myrrha, et caeteris odoribus 1331B adornare, completoque opere pariter ac tempore, intrare illo, atque emori: ex cujus humore oriri vermem, paulatimque eum in avis ejusdem figuram concrescere, usumque formari, subnixam quoque remigio pennarum, renovatae vitae officia munere pietatis ordiri. Nam thecam illam, vel tumulum corporis, vel incunabulum resurgentis, in qua deficiens occidit, et occidens resurgit, ex Aethiopia in Lycaoniam vehit: atque ita resurrectione avis hujus, locorum incolae completum quingentorum annorum tempus intelligunt. Ergo isti avi quingentesimus resurrectionis annus est, nobis millesimus: illi in hoc saeculo, nobis in consummatione mundi. Plerique etiam opinantur quod avis haec rogum sibi ipsa succendat, et rursus 1150 de 1331C favillis suis et cineribus reviviscat.

60. Sed fortasse natura discretior, fidei quoque discretionem videatur afferre: in originem principiumque hominis procreandi mens nostra redeat. Viri estis, feminae estis quae humana sunt, non ignoratis: et si qui ignoratis, ex nihilo putatis esse, quod nascimur. Quam ex parvo quanti exsurgimus! Et si non exprimimus, intelligitis tamen quid 1332A velimus, vel potius quid nolimus dicere. Unde hoc caput, et vultus iste mirabilis, cujus artificem non videmus, opus videmus, in varia officia ususque formatur? Unde forma erectior, status excelsior, faciendi vis, sentiendi vivacitas, gradiendi facultas? Ignota certe nobis sunt naturae organa, sed nota ministeria. Et tu semen fuisti, et tuum corpus semen est resurrecturi. Audi Paulum, et disce quia semen es: Seminatur in corruptione, surget in incorruptione: seminatur in ignobilitate, surget in gloria: seminatur in infirmitate, surget in virtute, seminatur corpus animale, surget corpus spiritale (I Cor. XV, 42 et seq.). Et tu ergo seminaris ut caetera, quid miraris si resurges ut caetera? Sed illa credis, quia vides: ista non credis, quia non vides: Beati 1332B qui non viderunt, et crediderunt (Joan. XX, 29).