Chapter XXXIII.—So Much for the Prophetic Scriptures.  In the Gospels, Christ’s Parables, as Explained by Himself, Have a Clear Reference to the Resurrection of the Flesh.

This is evidence enough from the prophetic Scriptures. I now appeal to the Gospels. But here also I must first meet the same sophistry as advanced by those who contend that the Lord, like (the prophets), said everything in the way of allegory, because it is written: “All these things spake Jesus in parables, and without a parable spake He not unto them,”212    Matt. xiii. 34. that is, to the Jews. Now the disciples also asked Him, “Why speakest Thou in parables?”213    Ver. 10. And the Lord gave them this answer: “Therefore I speak unto them in parables: because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not, according to the prophecy of Esaias.”214    Matt. xiii. 13; comp. Isa. vi. 9. But since it was to the Jews that He spoke in parables, it was not then to all men; and if not to all, it follows that it was not always and in all things parables with Him, but only in certain things, and when addressing a particular class. But He addressed a particular class when He spoke to the Jews. It is true that He spoke sometimes even to the disciples in parables. But observe how the Scripture relates such a fact:  “And He spake a parable unto them.”215    See Luke vi. 39; comp. with ver. 20, and other places, especially in this Gospel. It follows, then, that He did not usually address them in parables; because if He always did so, special mention would not be made of His resorting to this mode of address. Besides, there is not a parable which you will not find to be either explained by the Lord Himself, as that of the sower, (which He interprets) of the management of the word of God;216    See Luke viii. 11. or else cleared by a preface from the writer of the Gospel, as in the parable of the arrogant judge and the importunate widow, which is expressly applied to earnestness in prayer;217    See Luke xviii. 1. or capable of being spontaneously understood,218    Such cases of obvious meaning, which required no explanation, are referred to in Matt. xxi. 45 and Luke xx. 19. as in the parable of the fig-tree, which was spared a while in hopes of improvement—an emblem of Jewish sterility.  Now, if even parables obscure not the light of the gospel, how unlikely it is that plain sentences and declarations, which have an unmistakeable meaning, should signify any other thing than their literal sense! But it is by such declarations and sentences that the Lord sets forth either the last judgment, or the kingdom, or the resurrection: “It shall be more tolerable,” He says, “for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.”219    Matt. xi. 22. And “Tell them that the kingdom of God is at hand.”220    Matt. x. 7. And again, “It shall be recompensed to you at the resurrection of the just.”221    Luke xiv. 14. Now, if the mention of these events (I mean the judgment-day, and the kingdom of God, and the resurrection) has a plain and absolute sense, so that nothing about them can be pressed into an allegory, neither should those statements be forced into parables which describe the arrangement, and the process, and the experience of the kingdom of God, and of the judgment, and of the resurrection. On the contrary, things which are destined for the body should be carefully understood in a bodily sense,—not in a spiritual sense, as having nothing figurative in their nature. This is the reason why we have laid it down as a preliminary consideration, that the bodily substance both of the soul and of the flesh is liable to the recompense, which will have to be awarded in return for the co-operation of the two natures, that so the corporeality of the soul may not exclude the bodily nature of the flesh by suggesting a recourse to figurative descriptions, since both of them must needs be regarded as destined to take part in the kingdom, and the judgment, and the resurrection. And now we proceed to the special proof of this proposition, that the bodily character of the flesh is indicated by our Lord whenever He mentions the resurrection, at the same time without disparagement to the corporeal nature of the soul,—a point which has been actually admitted but by a few.

CAPUT XXXIII.

Satis haec de prophetico instrumento: ad Evangelia nunc provoco. Hic quoque occursurus prius eidem astutiae eorum, qui proinde et Dominum omnia in parabolis pronuntiasse contendunt, quia scriptum est: Haec omnia locutus est Jesus in parabolis, et sine parabola non loquebatur ad illos, scilicet Judaeos. Nam et discipuli: Quare, aiunt, in parabolis loqueris? et Dominus: Propterea in parabolis loquor ad eos, ut videntes non videant, et audientes non audiant, secundum 0841B Esaiam. Quod si ad Judaeos in parabolis, jam non ad omnes; si non ad omnes in parabolis , jam non semper, nec omnia parabolae; sed quaedam, cum ad quosdam; ad quosdam autem, dum ad Judaeos, nonnunquam plane et ad discipulos. Sed quomodo referat Scriptura, considera: Dicebat autem et parabolam ad eos; ergo et non parabolam dicebat, quia non notaretur cum parabolam loquebatur, si ita semper loquebatur. Et tamen nullam parabolam non, aut ab ipso invenias edissertatam, ut de seminatore in verbi administratione; aut a commentatore Evangelii praeluminatam, ut judicis superbi, et viduae instantis ad perseverantiam orationis; aut ultro conjectandam, ut arboris fici dilatae in spem, ad instar judaicae infructuositatis. Quod si nec parabolae obumbrant 0841C Evangelii lucem; tanto abest, ut sententiae et definitiones, quarum aperta natura est, aliter quam sonant sapiant. Definitionibus autem et sententiis Dominus edicit, sive judicium, sive regnum Dei, sive resurrectionem: Tolerabilius erit, inquit (Matth. XI), Tyro et Sidoni in die judicii; et (Matth. X): 0842A Dicite illis, quod appropinquaverit regnum Dei; et (Luc. XIV): Retribuetur tibi in resurrectione justorum. Si nomina absoluta sunt rerum, id est, judicii, et regni Dei, et resurrectionis, ut nihil eorum in parabolam comprimi possit; nec ea in parabolas compellantur, quae ad dispositionem , et transactionem, et passionem regni, judicii, et resurrectionis praedicantur; atque ita corporalia defendantur , ut corporalibus destinata, id est, non spiritualia, quia non figurata. Nam et ideo praestruximus , tam corpus animae, quam et carnis, obnoxium esse mercedibus pro communi operatione pensandis, ne corporalitas animae occasionem subministrans figurarum, corporalitatem carnis excludat; cum utramque participem et regni, et judicii, et resurrectionis 0842B oporteat credi. Et nunc eo pergimus, uti corporalitatem carnalem proprie demonstremus a Domino significari in omni resurrectionis mentione, salva animali , quam et ipsam pauci receperunt.