59. How does He then lay down His soul, or take it up again? What is the meaning of this command He received? God could not lay it down, that is, die, or take it up again, that is, come to life. But neither did the body receive the command to take it up again; it could not do so of itself, for He said of the Temple of His body, Destroy this temple and after three days I will raise it up695    St. John ii. 19.. Thus it is God Who raises up the temple of His body. And Who lays down His soul to take it again? The body does not take it up again of itself: it is raised up by God. That which is raised up again must have been dead, and that which is living does not lay down its soul. God then was neither dead nor buried: and yet He said, In that she has poured this ointment upon My body she did it for My burial696    St. Matt. xxvi. 12.. In that it was poured upon His body it was done for His burial: but the His is not the same as Him. It is quite another use of the pronoun when we say, ‘it was done for the burial of Him,’ and when we say, ‘His body was anointed:’ nor is the sense the same in ‘His body was buried,’ and ‘He was buried.’

59. Nec Deus ponit animam, nec corpus resumit.---Et quomodo ponit animam suam, vel positam resumit? vel quae hujus ratio mandati est? Deus ergo nec ponit ad mortem nec resumit ad vitam. Sed nec corpus mandatum ad resumendum habet: quia nec per se resumit. Dictum enim de corporis sui templo est: Solvite templum hoc, et post triduum suscitabo illud (Joan. II, 19). Suscitat ergo templum corporis sui Deus. Et quis ponit animam, ut resumat? Corpus enim non per se resumit, sed per Deum suscitatur. Suscitatur autem quod est mortuum, et nec ponit animam quod vivit. Deus itaque nec mortuus est, nec sepultus est: et tamen ab eo dictum est: Haec enim mittens unguentum hoc in corpus meum, ad sepeliendum me fecit (Matth. XXVI, 12). 0390B Quod in corpus suum missum est, ad sepeliendum eum factum est, et non idem est se esse, suumque esse: et non unum est, ad sepeliendum se fieri, et ungi suum corpus: neque convenit corpus suum esse, seque sepeliri.