Chapter XLIX.—The Same Subject Continued. What Does the Apostle Exclude from the Dead?  Certainly Not the Substance of the Flesh.

We come now to the very gist354    Ad carnem et sanguinem revera. of the whole question: What are the substances, and of what nature are they, which the apostle has disinherited of the kingdom of God? The preceding statements give us a clue to this point also.  He says: “The first man is of the earth, earthy”—that is, made of dust, that is, Adam; “the second man is from heaven”355    1 Cor. xv. 47.—that is, the Word of God, which is Christ, in no other way, however, man (although “from heaven”), than as being Himself flesh and soul, just as a human being is, just as Adam was. Indeed, in a previous passage He is called “the second Adam,”356    Ver. 45. deriving the identity of His name from His participation in the substance, because not even Adam was flesh of human seed, in which Christ is also like Him.357    See De Carne Christi. ch. xvi. “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.”358    1 Cor. xv. 48.Such (does he mean), in substance; or first of all in training, and afterwards in the dignity and worth which that training aimed at acquiring? Not in substance, however, by any means will the earthy and the heavenly be separated, designated as they have been by the apostle once for all, as men. For even if Christ were the only true “heavenly,” nay, super-celestial Being, He is still man, as composed of body and soul; and in no respect is He separated from the quality of “earthiness,” owing to that condition of His which makes Him a partaker of both substances. In like manner, those also who after Him are heavenly, are understood to have this celestial quality predicated of them not from their present nature, but from their future glory; because in a preceding sentence, which originated this distinction respecting difference of dignity, there was shown to be “one glory in celestial bodies, and another in terrestrial ones,”359    1 Cor. xv. 40.—“one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for even one star differeth from another star in glory,”360    Ver. 41. although not in substance. Then, after having thus premised the difference in that worth or dignity which is even now to be aimed at, and then at last to be enjoyed, the apostle adds an exhortation, that we should both here in our training follow the example of Christ, and there attain His eminence in glory:  “As we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly.”361    Ver. 49. We have indeed borne the image of the earthy, by our sharing in his transgression, by our participation in his death, by our banishment from Paradise. Now, although the image of Adam is here borne by is in the flesh, yet we are not exhorted to put off the flesh; but if not the flesh, it is the conversation, in order that we may then bear the image of the heavenly in ourselves,—no longer indeed the image of God, and no longer the image of a Being whose state is in heaven; but after the lineaments of Christ, by our walking here in holiness, righteousness, and truth.  And so wholly intent on the inculcation of moral conduct is he throughout this passage, that he tells us we ought to bear the image of Christ in this flesh of ours, and in this period of instruction and discipline. For when he says “let us bear” in the imperative mood, he suits his words to the present life, in which man exists in no other substance than as flesh and soul; or if it is another, even the heavenly, substance to which this faith (of ours) looks forward, yet the promise is made to that substance to which the injunction is given to labour earnestly to merit its reward. Since, therefore, he makes the image both of the earthy and the heavenly consist of moral conduct—the one to be abjured, and the other to be pursued—and then consistently adds, “For this I say” (on account, that is, of what I have already said, because the conjunction “for” connects what follows with the preceding words) “that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,”362    1 Cor. xv. 50.—he means the flesh and blood to be understood in no other sense than the before-mentioned “image of the earthy;” and since this is reckoned to consist in “the old conversation,”363    See Eph. iv. 22. which old conversation receives not the kingdom of God, therefore flesh and blood, by not receiving the kingdom of God, are reduced to the life of the old conversation. Of course, as the apostle has never put the substance for the works of man, he cannot use such a construction here.  Since, however he has declared of men which are yet alive in the flesh, that they “are not in the flesh,”364    Rom. viii. 9. meaning that they are not living in the works of the flesh, you ought not to subvert its form nor its substance, but only the works done in the substance (of the flesh), alienating us from the kingdom of God. It is after displaying to the Galatians these pernicious works that he professes to warn them beforehand, even as he had “told them in time past, that they which do such things should not inherit the kingdom of God,”365    Gal. v. 21. even because they bore not the image of the heavenly, as they had borne the image of the earthy; and so, in consequence of their old conversation, they were to be regarded as nothing else than flesh and blood. But even if the apostle had abruptly thrown out the sentence that flesh and blood must be excluded from the kingdom of God, without any previous intimation of his meaning, would it not have been equally our duty to interpret these two substances as the old man abandoned to mere flesh and blood—in other words, to eating and drinking, one feature of which would be to speak against the faith of the resurrection: “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.”366    1 Cor. xv. 32. Now, when the apostle parenthetically inserted this, he censured flesh and blood because of their enjoyment in eating and drinking.

CAPUT XLIX.

Ventum est nunc ad carnem et sanguinem revera totius quaestionis, quas substantias, quali conditione exhaeredaverit Apostolus a Dei regno; aeque de antecedentibus discere est. Primus, inquit, homo de terra choicus, id est limacius, id est Adam; secundus homo de coelo, id est sermo Dei, id est Christus; 0865C non alias tamen homo, licet de coelo, nisi quia et ipse caro atque anima, quod homo, quod Adam; nam et supra novissimus Adam dictus , de consortio substantiae commercium nominis traxit; quia nec Adam ex semine caro, quod et Christus. Qualis ergo choicus, tales et choici; qualis coelestis, tales et coelestes. Substantia tales? an primo disciplina, dehinc et dignitate, quam et disciplina captavit? Atquin, substantia nullo modo separabuntur choici atque coelestes, semel ab Apostolo homines dicti. Si enim et Christus solus vere coelestis, imo et supercoelestis, homo tamen, qua caro atque anima, nihilo ex ista substantiarum conditione a choica qualitate discernitur: 0866A proinde et qui coelestes secundum illum, non de substantia praesenti, sed de futura claritate coelestes praedicati intelliguntur; quia et retro, unde distinctio ista manavit de dignitatis differentia, ostensa est alia supercoelestium gloria, alia superterrenorum, et alia solis, alia lunae, alia stellarum; quia et stella a stella differt in gloria, non tamen in substantia. Denique, praemissa differentia dignitatis in eadem substantia et nunc sectandae et tunc capessendae, subjungit etiam exhortationem, ut et hic habitum Christi sectemur ex disciplina, et illic fastigium consequamur ex gloria: Sicut portavimus imaginem choici, portemus etiam imaginem supercoelestis. Portavimus enim imaginem choici per collegium transgressionis, per consortium mortis, per exilium paradisi. Nam 0866B etsi in carne hic portatur imago Adae, sed non carnem monemur exponere . Si non carnem, ergo conversationem, ut proinde et coelestis imaginem gestemus in nobis; non jam dei , nec jam in coelo constituti; sed secundum liniamenta Christi incedentes in sanctitate, et justitia, et veritate. Atque adeo ad disciplinam totum hoc dirigit, ut hic dicat portandam imaginem Christi in ista carne, et in isto tempore disciplinae. Portemus enim praeceptivo modo, dicens, huic tempori loquitur, in quo homo nulla alia substantia est, quam caro et anima; aut si quam aliam, id est, coelestem substantiam haec fides spectat, huic tamen repromissa sit, cui ad illam elaborare mandatur. Cum igitur imaginem et choici et coelestis in conversatione constituat, illam 0866C ejerandam , hanc vero sectandam; dehinc adjungat : Hoc enim dico, id est, propter ea quae supra dixi (conjunctio est enim sensus supplementum antecedentibus reddens), quod caro et sanguis regnum Dei haereditati possidere non possunt; nihil aliud intelligi mandat carnem et sanguinem, quam supradictam imaginem choici: quae si in conversatione censetur vetustatis, conversatio autem vetustatis non capit Dei regnum, proinde caro et sanguis, non capiendo Dei regnum, ad conversationem rediguntur vetustatis . Plane, si nunquam Apostolus pro operibus substantiam posuit, nec hic ita utatur. Si vero in carne adhuc constitutos, negavit 0867A esse in carne, in operibus carnis negans esse, formam ejus subruere non debes, non substantiam, sed opera substantiae alienantis a Dei regno. Quibus etiam ad Galatas manifestatis, praedicere se et praedixisse profitetur (Gal. V), quod qui talia agunt , regnum Dei non sunt haeredidate consecuturi, non portantes scilicet imaginem coelestis, sicut portaverunt choici, ideoque ex vetere conversatione, nihil aliud deputandi , quam caro et sanguis. Nam et si subito in hanc definitionem erupisset Apostolus, eliminandam carnem et sanguinem a Dei regno, sine ullius supra sensus praestructione, nonne duas istas substantias proinde hominem veterem interpretaremur carni et sanguini deditum, id est, esui et potui; cujus sit dicere adversus fidem resurrectionis: 0867B Manducemus et bibamus, cras enim moriemur? Et hoc enim infulciens Apostolus, carnem et sanguinem de fructibus ipsorum, manducandi et bibendi, sugillavit.