26. What then, say they, is the meaning of that penny, which is given in payment to all alike when the work of the vineyard is ended? whether it be to those who have labored from the first hour, or to those who have labored one hour?46    Matt. xx. 9, 10 What assuredly doth it signify, but something, which all shall have in common, such as is life eternal itself, the kingdom of heaven itself, where shall be all, whom God hath predestinated, called, justified, glorified? “For it behoveth that this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.”47    1 Cor. xv. 53 This is that penny, wages for all. Yet “star differeth from star in glory; so also the resurrection of the dead.”48    1 Cor. xv. 41, 42 These are the different merits of the Saints. For, if by that penny the heaven were signified, have not all the stars in common to be in the heaven? And yet, “There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another of the stars.” If that penny were taken for health of body, have not all the members, when we are well, health in common; and, should this health continue even unto death, is it not in all alike and equally? And yet, “God hath set the members, each one of them, in the body, as He would;”49    1 Cor. xii. 18 that neither the whole be an eye, nor the whole hearing, nor the whole smelling: and, whatever else there is, it hath its own property, although it have health equally with all. Thus because life eternal itself shall be alike to all, an equal penny was assigned to all; but, because in that life eternal itself the lights of merits shall shine with a distinction, there are “many mansions” in the house of the Father:50    John xiv. 2 and, by this means, in the penny not unlike, one lives not longer than another; but in the many mansions, one is honored with greater brightness than another.

CAPUT XXVI.

26. Objectio de denario omnibus reddendo, contra diversitatem praemiorum. Quid sibi ergo vult, inquiunt, ille denarius, qui opere vineae terminato aequaliter omnibus redditur; sive iis qui ex prima hora, sive iis qui una hora operati sunt (Matth. XX, 9)? Quid utique, nisi aliquid significat, quod omnes communiter habebunt, sicuti est ipsa vita aeterna, ipsum regnum coelorum, ubi erunt omnes quos Deus praedestinavit, vocavit, justificavit, glorificavit? Oportet enim corruptibile hoc induere incorruptionem, et mortale hoc induere immortalitatem: hic est ille denarius, merces omnium. Stella tamen ab stella differt in gloria; sic et resurrectio mortuorum: haec sunt merita diversa sanctorum. Si enim coelum significaretur illo denario, nonne in coelo esse omnibus est commune sideribus? Et tamen alia est gloria solis, alia gloria lunae, alia stellarum (I Cor. XV, 53, 41, 42). Si denarius ille pro sanitate corporis poneretur, nonne cum recte valemus, omnibus membris communis est sanitas, et ipsa si usque ad mortem permaneat, pariter et aequaliter omnibus inest? Et tamen posuit Deus membra, singulum quodque eorum in corpore prout voluit (Id. XII, 18), ut nec totum sit oculus, nec totum auditus, nec totum odoratus; et quidquid est aliud, habet suam proprietatem, quamvis aequaliter habeat cum omnibus sanitatem. Ita quia ipsa vita aeterna pariter erit omnibus sanctis, aequalis denarius omnibus attributus est; quia vero in ipsa vita aeterna distincte fulgebunt lumina meritorum, multae mansiones sunt apud Patrem (Joan. XIV, 2): ac per hoc in denario quidem non impari, non vivit alius alio prolixius; in multis autem mansionibus honoratur alius alio clarius.