61. However, before the season comes, those things also are not believed, for every season is not suited for the raising of seeds. Wheat is sown at one time, and comes up at another; at one time the vine is planted, at another the budding twigs begin to shoot, the foliage grows luxuriant, and the grape is formed; at one time the olive is planted, at another time, as though pregnant and loaded with its offspring of berries, it is bent down by the abundance of its fruit. But before its own period arrives for each, the produce is restricted, and that which bears has not the age of bearing in its own power. One may see the mother of all at one time disfigured with mould, at another bare of produce, at another green and full of flowers, at another dried up. Any spot which might wish to be always clothed and never to lay aside the golden dress of its seeds, or the green dress of the meadows, would be barren in itself and unendowed with the gain of its own produce which it would have transferred to others.

62. So, then, even if thou wilt not believe in our resurrection by faith nor by example, thou wilt believe by experience. For many products, as the vine, the olive, and different fruits, the end of the year is the fit time for ripening; and for us also the consummation of the world, as though the end of the year has set the fitting time for rising again. And fitly is the resurrection of the dead at the consummation of the world, lest after the resurrection we should have to fall back into this evil age. For this cause Christ suffered that He might deliver us from this evil world; lest the temptations of this world should overthrow us again, and it should be an injury to us to come again to life, if we came to life again for sin.

63. So then we have both a reason and a time for the resurrection: a reason because nature in all its produce remains consistent with itself, and does not fail in the generation of men alone; a time because all things are produced at the end of the year. For the seasons of the world consist of one year. What wonder if the year be one since the day is one. For on one day the Lord hired the labourers to work in the vineyard, when He said, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?”85    S. Matt. xx. 6.

64. The causes of the beginnings of all things are seeds. And the Apostle of the Gentiles has said that the human body is a seed.86    1 Cor. xv. 43. And so in succession after sowing there is the substance needful for the resurrection. But even if there were no substance and no cause, who could think it difficult for God to create man anew whence He will and as He wills. Who commanded the world to come into being out of no matter and no substance? Look at the heaven, behold the earth. Whence are the fires of the stars? Whence the orb and rays of the sun? Whence the globe of the moon? Whence the mountain heights, the hard rocks, the woody groves? Whence are the air diffused around, and the waters, whether enclosed or poured abroad? But if God made all these things out of nothing (for “He spake and they were made, He commanded and they were created”87    Ps. cxlviii. 5.), why should we wonder that which has been should be brought to life again, since we see produced that which had not been?

65. It is a cause for wonder that though they do not believe in the resurrection, yet in their kindly care they make provision that the human race should not perish,88    The immortality of the soul may be believed by those who deny the resurrection of the body, and was taught by many philosophers amongst the heathen. The resurrection of the body is a matter of divine revelation, and the very highest and best amongst the heathen seem not to have admitted it even as a speculation. and so say that souls pass and migrate into other bodies that the world may not pass away. But let them say which is the most difficult, for souls to migrate, or to return; come back to that which is their own, or seek for fresh dwelling places.

66. But let those who have not been taught doubt. For us who have read the Law, the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Gospel it is not lawful to doubt. For who can doubt when he reads: “And in that time shall all thy people be saved which is written in the book; and many of them that sleep in the graves of the earth shall arise with one opening, these to everlasting life, and those to shame and everlasting confusion. And they that have understanding shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and of the just many shall be as the stars for ever.”89    Dan. xii. 1, 2, 3. Well, then, did he speak of the rest of those that sleep, that one may understand that death lasts not for ever, which like sleep is undergone for a time, and is put off at its time; and he shows that the progress of that life which shall be after death is better than that which is passed in sorrow and pain before death, inasmuch as the former is compared to the stars, the latter is assigned to trouble.

67. And why should I bring together what is written elsewhere: “Thou shalt raise me up and I will praise Thee.” Or that other passage in which holy Job, after experiencing the miseries of this life, and overcoming all adversity by his virtuous patience, promised himself a recompense for present evils in the resurrection, saying: “Thou shalt raise up this body of mine which has suffered many evils.”90    Job xix. 26. Somewhat loosely from the LXX. Isaiah also, proclaiming the resurrection to the people, says that he is the announcer of the Lord’s message, for we read thus: “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, and they shall say in that day.”91    Is. xxv. 8, 9. And what the mouth of the Lord declared that the people should say is set forth later on, where it is written: “Because of Thy fear, O Lord, we have been with child and have brought forth the Spirit of Thy Salvation, which Thou hast poured forth upon the earth. They that inhabit the earth shall fall, they shall rise that are in the graves. For the dew which is from Thee is health for them but the land of the wicked shall perish. Go, O my people, and enter into thy chambers; hide thyself for a little until the Lord’s wrath pass by.”92    Is. xxvi. 18–21 [LXX.].

68. How well did he by the chambers point out the tombs of the dead, in which for a brief space we are hidden, that we may be better able to pass to the judgment of God, which shall try us with the indignation due for our wickednesses. He, then, is alive who is hidden and at rest, as though withdrawing himself from our midst and retiring, lest the misery of this world should entangle him with closer snares, for whom the heavenly oracles affirm by the voices of the prophets that the joy of the resurrection is reserved, and the soundness of their freed bodies procured by the divine deed. And dew is well used as a sign, since by it all vital seeds of the earth are raised to growth. What wonder is it, then, if the dust and ashes also of our failing body grow vigorous by the richness of the heavenly dew, and by the reception of this vital moistening the shapes of our limbs are refashioned and connected again with each other?

69. And the holy prophet Ezekiel teaches and describes with a full exposition how vigour is restored to the dry bones, the senses return, motion is added, and the sinews coming back, the joints of the human body grow strong; how the bones which were very dry are clothed with restored flesh, and the course of the veins and the flow of the blood is covered by the veil of the skin drawn over them. As we read, the reviving multitude of human bodies seems to spring up under the very words of the prophet, and one can see on the widespread plain the new seed shoot forth.

70. But if the wise men of old believed that a crop of armed men sprang up in the district of Thebes from the sowing of the hydra’s teeth, whereas it is certainly established that seeds of one kind cannot be changed into another kind of plant, nor bring forth produce differing from its own seeds, so that men should spring from serpents and flesh from teeth; how much more, indeed, is it to be believed that whatever has been sown rises again in its own nature, and that crops do not differ from their seed, that soft things do not spring from hard, nor hard from soft, nor is poison changed into blood; but that flesh is restored from flesh, bone from bone, blood from blood, the humours of the body from humours. Can ye then, ye heathen, who are able to assert a change, deny a restoration of the nature? Can you refuse to believe the oracles of God, the Gospel, and the prophets, who believe empty fables?

61. Tamen antequam tempus veniat, nec illa creduntur; non enim omne tempus accommodum ad resuscitanda semina. Alio triticum seminatur, alio nascitur: alio vitis inseritur, alio gemmantia sarmenta pubescunt, luxuriat pampinus, uva formatur: alio plantatur olea, alio velut alvo gravis et onusta prole baccarum, fructus sui ubertate curvescit. Ante vero quam suum cuique tempus adveniat, fetura restrictior est: nec generationis aetatem habet in potestate generandi ipsa, quae generat. Nunc informem situ, nunc fetu nudam, nunc virentem floribus, nunc arentem ipsam omnium cernas parentem. Quae utique vellet omnibus se vestire temporibus, nec umquam aurea segetum aut viridantia pratorum indumenta 1332C deponere: ipsa sui egens, et proventuum suorum, quae in alios transfuderit, indotata compendiis.

62. Ergo et nostram resurrectionem et si non credis fide, non credis exemplo, usu es crediturus. Et aliis quidem fructibus, ut viti, oleae, pomisque diversis anni aetas extrema habilis maturandis: nobis quoque mundi consummatio tamquam extremus anni finis accommodam resurgendi praescripsit aetatem. 1333A Et bene in consummatione mundi 1151 resurrectio mortuorum est; ne post resurrectionem in hoc malum nobis esset saeculum recidendum. Ideo enim Christus est passus, ut nos ex hoc malo saeculo liberaret; ne iterum nos hujus saeculi tentamenta subruerent et obesset renasci, si renasceremur ad culpam.

63. Et rationem igitur resurrectionis, et tempus tenemus: rationem quia in omnibus sibi fetibus aeque natura respondet, nec in sola hominum successione degenerat: tempus, quia omnia in anni fine generantur. Mundi tempora annus unus est. Et quid mirum si annus unus est, quando dies una est? Una enim die Dominus operarios conduxit ad vineam, dicens: Quid hic statis tota die otiosi (Matth. XX, 6)?

1333B 64. Causae originum semina sunt. Semen esse corpus humanum gentium Doctor asseruit (I Cor. XV, 42). Est ergo substantia resurgendi, quando est series seminandi. Quod si substantia aut causa non esset, arduum quisquam putaret Deo unde vellet, vel quomodo vellet, homines regenerare, qui mundum ex nulla materia, nulla substantia esse jussit, et factus est? Coelum aspice, terram intuere. Unde stellarum ignes? unde orbis solis et radii? unde lunae globus? unde montium vertices, dura saxorum, nemorosa silvarum? unde vel diffusus aer, vel infusae vel superfusae aquae? Sed si haec omnia Deus fecit ex nihilo (Ipse enim (Psal. CXLVIII, 5) dixit et facta sunt: ipse mandavit, et creata sunt), cur miremur renasci posse, quod fuerit; cum videamus natum 1333C esse, quod non fuit?

65. Illud mirum, quod cum resurrectionem non credant, tamen ne genus pereat hominum, clementi quadam benignitate prospiciunt; et ideo transire ac demigrare in corpora dicunt animas, ne mundus intereat. Sed quid sit difficilius, ipsi asserant, transire animas an redire: sua repetere, an nova quaerere.

66. Sed illi dubitent, qui non didicerunt: nos vero qui legimus Legem, prophetas, apostolos, Evangelium, dubitare fas non est. Quis enim dubitet, cum legit: Et in tempore illo salvabitur omnis plebs tua, quae scripta est in libro: et multi dormientium in terrae fossis, una apertione exsurgent, hi in vitam aeternam, et hi in opprobrium et in confusionem perpetuam: et intelligentes splendebunt ut splendor firmamenti, 1333D et ex justis multi sicut stellae in saecula (Dan. XII, 1 et seq.)? Bene itaque dormientium dixit quietem, 1334A ut intelligas mortem non esse perpetuam, quae somni vice initur ad tempus, et ad tempus excluditur: melioremque profectum vitae ejus ostendit, quae futura post mortem est, quam ejus quae ante mortem 1152 moerore ac dolore transigitur. Siquidem illa stellis comparatur, haec aerumnae addicitur.

67. Nam quid illa contexam, quae alio loco scripta sunt: Suscitabis me et confitebor tibi? Quid etiam illud, quod Job sanctus vitae istius expertus injurias, et adversa omnia patientia virtutis exsuperans, compensationem sibi malorum praesentium de resurrectione promisit dicens: Suscitabis corpus meum hoc, quod multa mala passum est (Job. XIX, 26)? Esaias quoque resurrectionem populis annuntians, Dominici se nuntium dixit esse responsi; sic enim 1334B habes: Os enim Domini locutum est, et dicent die illa (Esai. XXV, 8). Quid igitur os Domini locutum sit populos esse dicturos, in posterioribus declaratur, ubi scriptum est: Propter timorem tuum, Domine, in utero accepimus et parturivimus spiritum salutis tuae, quem effudisti super terram. Cadent qui inhabitant terram, resurgent qui in monumentis sunt (Esai. XXVI, 18): ros enim qui abs te, sanitas est illis, terra vero impiorum peribit. Ambula, populus meus, et intra in recessus tuos. Abscondere aliquantulum, donec transeat ira Dei.

68. Quam bene recessus esse signavit tumulos mortuorum, quibus pauxillulum abscondimur; ut in judicium Dei, quod pro nostris sceleribus jus debitae indignationis assumet, tolerabilius transire possimus! 1334C Vivit igitur qui absconditur et quiescit, quasi e medio se subtrahens et recedens; ne eum arctioribus laqueis mundi hujus involvat aerumna, quibus repositam resurrectionis esse laetitiam, sanitatemque corporum solutorum divino rore reparabilem; coelestia oracula propheticis vocibus pollicentur. Et bene ros significatur, quo genitalia omnia terrarum semina suscitantur. Quid igitur mirum si fatiscentis quoque corporis nostri cineres ac favillae pinguedine coelestis roris exuberant, et accepto humore vitali in compaginem suam membrorum nostrorum habitus reformantur?

69. Docet etiam sanctus Ezechiel propheta, et plena expositione describit, quemadmodum arentibus vigor ossibus refundatur, sensus redeat, motus 1334D accedat, nervisque redeuntibus, corporis compago rigescat humani: quemadmodum nimis arida renatis 1335A ossa visceribus vestiantur, venarumque hiatus, et sanguinis rivulos extentae cutis velamen obducat. In ipsis, dum legimus, propheticis sermonibus humanorum videtur seges corporum rediviva consurgere, atque ipsa spatia diffusa camporum novis videas pullulare seminibus.

70. Quod si veteres sapientes satis hydri dentibus 1153 in regione Thebana inhorruisse armatorum segetem crediderunt: cum utique alterius naturae semina certum sit in naturam verti alteram nequivisse, nec partum suis discordem fudisse seminibus; ut ex serpente homines nascerentur, ut caro ex dentibus gigneretur: quanto magis utique credendum est, quaecumque sunt seminata, in suam naturam resurgere, nec a satione sua segetes discrepare, nec 1335B duris mollia, nec mollibus dura viviscere, nec in sanguinem venena converti; sed carnem de carne, os de ossibus, sanguinem de sanguine, humorem de humore reparari. Potestis ergo, gentiles, reformationem negare naturae, qui mutationem potestis asserere? Potestis non credere oraculis, non Evangelio, non prophetiis, qui fabulis inanibus creditis?