Chapter LXIII.—Conclusion. The Resurrection of the Flesh in Its Absolute Identity and Perfection. Belief of This Had Become Weak. Hopes for Its Refreshing Restoration Under the Influences of the Paraclete.

And so the flesh shall rise again, wholly in every man, in its own identity, in its absolute integrity. Wherever it may be, it is in safe keeping in God’s presence, through that most faithful “Mediator between God and man, (the man) Jesus Christ,”471    1 Tim. ii. 5. who shall reconcile both God to man, and man to God; the spirit to the flesh, and the flesh to the spirit. Both natures has He already united in His own self; He has fitted them together as bride and bridegroom in the reciprocal bond of wedded life. Now, if any should insist on making the soul the bride, then the flesh will follow the soul as her dowry. The soul shall never be an outcast, to be had home by the bridegroom bare and naked.  She has her dower, her outfit, her fortune in the flesh, which shall accompany her with the love and fidelity of a foster-sister. But suppose the flesh to be the bride, then in Christ Jesus she has in the contract of His blood received His Spirit as her spouse. Now, what you take to be her extinction, you may be sure is only her temporary retirement.  It is not the soul only which withdraws from view. The flesh, too, has her departures for a while—in waters, in fires, in birds, in beasts; she may seem to be dissolved into these, but she is only poured into them, as into vessels. And should the vessels themselves afterwards fail to hold her, escaping from even these, and returning to her mother earth, she is absorbed once more, as it were, by its secret embraces, ultimately to stand forth to view, like Adam when summoned to hear from his Lord and Creator the words, “Behold, the man is become as one of us!”472    Gen. iii. 22.—thoroughly “knowing” by that time “the evil” which she had escaped, “and the good” which she has acquired. Why, then, O soul, should you envy the flesh? There is none, after the Lord, whom you should love so dearly; none more like a brother to you, which is even born along with yourself in God. You ought rather to have been by your prayers obtaining resurrection for her: her sins, whatever they were, were owing to you.  However, it is no wonder if you hate her; for you have repudiated her Creator.473    In this apostrophe to the soul, he censures Marcion’s heresy. You have accustomed yourself either to deny or change her existence even in Christ474    Compare the De Carne Christi.—corrupting the very Word of God Himself, who became flesh, either by mutilating or misinterpreting the Scripture,475    See the De Præscript. Hæret. ch. xxxviii. supra, for instances of these diverse methods of heresy. Marcion is mentioned as the mutilator of Scripture, by cutting away from it whatever opposed his views; Valentinus as the corrupter thereof, by his manifold and fantastic interpretations. and introducing, above all, apocryphal mysteries and blasphemous fables.476    See the Adv. Valentinianos, supra. But yet Almighty God, in His most gracious providence, by “pouring out of His Spirit in these last days, upon all flesh, upon His servants and on His handmaidens,”477    Joel ii. 28, 29; Acts ii. 17, 18. [See last sentence. He improves upon St. Peter’s interpretation of this text (as see below) by attributing his own clear views to the charismata, which he regards as still vouchsafed to the more spiritual.] has checked these impostures of unbelief and perverseness, reanimated men’s faltering faith in the resurrection of the flesh, and cleared from all obscurity and equivocation the ancient Scriptures (of both God’s Testaments478    We follow Oehler’s view here, by all means.) by the clear light of their (sacred) words and meanings. Now, since it was “needful that there should be heresies, in order that they which are approved might be made manifest;”479    1 Cor. xi. 19. since, however, these heresies would be unable to put on a bold front without some countenance from the Scriptures, it therefore is plain enough that the ancient Holy Writ has furnished them with sundry materials for their evil doctrine, which very materials indeed (so distorted) are refutable from the same Scriptures. It was fit and proper, therefore, that the Holy Ghost should no longer withhold the effusions of His gracious light upon these inspired writings, in order that they might be able to disseminate the seeds of truth with no admixture of heretical subtleties, and pluck out from it their tares. He has accordingly now dispersed all the perplexities of the past, and their self-chosen allegories and parables, by the open and perspicuous explanation of the entire mystery, through the new prophecy, which descends in copious streams from the Paraclete. If you will only draw water from His fountains, you will never thirst for other doctrine: no feverish craving after subtle questions will again consume you; but by drinking in evermore the resurrection of the flesh, you will be satisfied with the refreshing draughts.

CAPUT LXIII.

Resurget igitur caro, et quidem omnis, et quidem ipsa, et quidem integra. In deposito est ubicumque apud Deum, per fidelissimum sequestrem Dei et hominum Jesum Christum, qui et homini Deum, et hominem Deo reddet, carni spiritum, et spiritui carnem. Utrumque jam in semetipso faederavit, sponsam sponso, et sponsum sponsae comparavit. Nam et si animam quis contenderit sponsam, vel dotis nomine sequetur animam caro. Non erit anima prostituta, ut nuda suscipiatur a sponso: habet instrumentum, habet cultum, habet mancipium suum carnem; ut collactanea comitabitur. Sed 0885C caro est sponsa, quae et in Christo Jesu spiritum sponsum per sanguinem pacta est. Hujus interitum quem putas, secessum scias esse. Non sola anima seponitur; habet et caro secessus suos interim, in aquis, in ignibus, in alitibus, in bestiis. Cum in haec dissolvi videtur, velut in vasa transfunditur. Si etiam ipsa vasa defecerint, cum de illis quoque effluxerit, in suam matricem terram quasi per ambages 0886A resorbetur, ut rursus ex illa repraesentetur Adam , auditurus a Domino: Ecce Adam quasi unus ex nobis factus est: vere tunc compos mali quod evasit, et boni quod invasit. Quid, anima, invides carni? nemo tam proximus tibi, quem post Dominum diligas: nemo magis frater tuus, quae tecum etiam in Deo nascitur. Tu potius illi exorare debueras resurrectionem; per te, si forte, deliquit. Sed nihil mirum si odisti, cujus auctorem quoque respuisti; quam et in Christo, aut negare, aut mutare consuevisti. Proinde et ipsum Sermonem Dei, qui caro factus est, vel stylo vel interpretatione corrumpens, arcana etiam apocryphorum superducens, blasphemiae fabulas. At enim Deus omnipotens, adversus haec incredulitatis et perversitatis ingenia providentissima gratia 0886B sua effundens in novissimis diebus de suo Spiritu in omnem carnem, in servos suos et ancillas (Joel. II, 28, 29), et fidem laborantem resurrectionis carnalis animavit, et pristina instrumenta manifestis verborum et sensuum luminibus, ab omni ambiguitatis obscuritate purgavit. Nam quia haereses esse oportuerat, ut probabiles quique manifestarentur (I Cor., XI, 19); hae autem sine aliquibus occasionibus Scripturarum audere non poterant; idcirco pristina instrumenta quasdam materias illis videntur subministrasse, et ipsas quidem iisdem literis revincibiles. Sed, quoniam nec dissimulare Spiritum Sanctum oportebat, quo minus et ejusmodi eloquiis superinundaret, quae nullis haereticorum versutiis semina subspargerent, imo et veteres eorum cespites vellerent; idcirco jam omnes retro ambiguitates, et quas volunt parabolas, aperta atque perspicua totius sacramenti praedicatione discussit, per novam prophetiam de Paracleto inundantem; cujus si hanseris fontes, nullam poteris sitire doctrinam, nullus te ardor exuret quaestionum; resurrectionem quoque carnis usquequaque potando, refrigerabis.