2 ——

but the slave and servant of immortality; so that the body may be the possession of incorruption, and not incorruption that of the body.

after conquering death by the resurrection, de- comes unbound and free from death and sin, livered it again to incorruption, in order that corruption might not receive the property of incorruption, but incorruption that of corruption. Therefore the apostle answers thus, "For this XIV. If, then, out of such a drop, small, and corruptible must put on incorruption, and this previously without any existence, in its actual mortal must put on immortality." Now the state of moistness, contractedness, and insignificorruptible and mortal putting on immortality, cance, in fact out of nothing, man is brought what else is it but that which is "sown in cor- into being, how much rather shall man spring ruption and raised in incorruption," for the again into being out of a previously existing soul is not corruptible or mortal; but this which man? For it is not so difficult to make anyis mortal and corrupting is of flesh,- in order thing anew after it has once existed and fallen that, "as we have borne the image of the earthy, into decay, as to produce out of nothing that we shall also bear the image of the heavenly?"3 which has never existed. Now, in case we choose For the image of the earthy which we have to exhibit the seminal fluid discharged from a borne is this, "Dust thou art, and unto dust man, and place by it a corpse, each by itself, shalt thou return." But the image of the heav-, which of them, as they both lie exposed to view, enly is the resurrection from the dead, and incorruption, in order that "as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life." 5 But if any one were to think that the earthy image is the flesh itself, but the heavenly image some other spiritual body besides the flesh; let him first consider that Christ, the heavenly man, when He appeared, bore the same form of limbs and the same image of flesh as ours, through which also He, who was not man, became man, that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."6 For if He bore flesh for any other reason than that of setting the flesh free, and raising it up, why did He bear flesh superfluously, as He purposed neither to save it, nor to raise it up? But the Son of God does nothing superfluously. He did not then take the form of a servant uselessly, but to raise it up and save it. For He truly was made man, and died, and not in mere appearance, but that He might truly be shown to be the first begotten from the dead, changing the earthy into the heavenly, and the mortal into the immortal. When, then, Paul says that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," 7 he does not give a disparaging opinion of the regeneration of the flesh, but would teach that the kingdom of God, which is eternal life, is not possessed by the body, but the body by the life. For if the kingdom of God, which is life, were possessed by the body, it would happen that the life would be consumed by corruption. But now the life possesses what is dying, in order that "death may be swallowed up in victory" by life, and the corruptible may be seen to be the possession of incorruption and immortality, while it be

will the spectators think most likely to become a man - that drop, which is nothing at all, or that which has already shape, and size, and substance? For if the very thing which is nothing at all, merely because God pleases, becomes a man, how much rather shall that which has existence and is brought to perfection become again a man, if God pleases? For what was the purpose of the theologian Moses, in introducing, under a mystical sense, the Feast of Tabernacles in the Book of Leviticus? Was it that we may keep a feast to God, as the Jews with their low view of the Scriptures interpret it? as if God took pleasure in such tabernacles, decked out with fruits and boughs and leaves, which immediately wither and lose their verdure. We cannot say so. Tell me, then, what was the object of the Feast of Tabernacles? It was introduced to point to this real tabernacle of ours, which, after it was fallen down to corruption through the transgression of the law, and broken up by sin, God promised to put together again, and to raise up in incorruptibility, in order that we may truly celebrate in His honour the great and renowned Feast of Tabernacles at the resurrection; when our tabernacles are put together in the perfect order of immortality and harmony, and raised up from the dust in incorruption; when the dry bones, according to the most true prophecy, shall hear a voice, and be brought to their joints by God, the Creator and Perfect Artificer, who will then renew the flesh and bind it on, no more with such ties as those by which it was at first held together, but by such as shall be for ever undecaying and indissoluble. For I once saw 10 on Olympus, which is a mountain of Lycia, fire bursting up from the ground spontaneously on the summit of the mountain; and by it was standing an Agnos tree, so flourishing, green, and shady, that one might suppose a

9 Ezek. xxxvii. 4.

10 [See part ii. cap. viii., p. 375, infra. What he testifies may be accepted, at least, as his genuine conviction.]

very roots.

PART II.

THE SECOND DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION.4

never-failing stream of water had nourished its XVI. God, who created all things, and provides growth, rather than what was really the case. and cares for all things, took dust from the For which cause, therefore, though the natures ground, and made our outer man. of things are corruptible, and their bodies consumed by fire, and it is impossible for things which are once of an inflammable nature to remain unaffected by fire; yet this tree, so far from being burnt, is actually more vigorous and green For instance, then, the images of our kings than usual, though it is naturally inflammable, here, even though they be not formed of the and that too when the fire is glowing about its more precious materials - gold or silver — are I certainly cast some boughs of honoured by all. For men do not, while they trees from the adjoining wood on to the place treat with respect those of the far more precious where the fire burst forth, and they immediately material, slight those of a less valuable, but honcaught fire and were burnt to ashes. Now, then, our every image in the world, even though it be tell me why it is that that which cannot bear of chalk or bronze. And one who speaks against even to feel the heat of the sun, but withers up either of them, is not acquitted as if he had only under it unless it be sprinkled with water, is not spoken against clay, nor condemned for having consumed when beset by such fiery heat, but despised gold, but for having been disrespectful both lives and thrives? What is the meaning of towards the King and Lord Himself. The this marvel? God appointed this as an example images of God's angels, which are fashioned of and introduction to the day that is coming, in gold, the principalities and powers, we make to order that we may know more certainly that, His honour and glory. when all things are deluged with fire from heaven, the bodies which are distinguished by chastity and righteousness will be taken up by Him as free from all injury from the fire as from cold water. For truly, O beneficent and bountiful Lord, "the creature that serveth Thee, who art the Maker, increaseth his strength against the unrighteous for their punishment, and abateth his strength for the benefit of such as put their trust in Thee; " and at Thy pleasure fire cools, and injures nothing that Thou determinest to be preserved; and again, water burns more fiercely than fire, and nothing opposes Thine unconquerable power and might. For Thou createdst all things out of nothing; wherefore also Thou changest and transformest all things as Thou wilt, seeing they are Thine, and Thou alone art God.

xv. The apostle certainly, after assigning the planting and watering to art and earth and water, conceded the growth to God alone, where he says, "Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."2 For he knew that Wisdom, the first-born of God, the parent and artificer of all things, brings forth everything into the world; whom the ancients called Nature and Providence, because she, with constant provision and care, gives to all things birth and growth. "For," says the Wisdom of God, "my Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” 3 Now it is on this account that Solomon called Wisdom the artificer of all things, since God is in no respect poor, but able richly to create, and make, and vary, and increase all things.

PART III.

I. FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION.5
1. Read the Book on the Resurrection by
St. Methodius, Bishop and Martyr, of which that
which follows is a selection, that the body is
not the fetter of the soul, as Origen thought,
nor are souls called by the prophet Jeremiah
"fettered" on account of their being within
bodies. For he lays down the principle that
the body does not hinder the energies of the
soul, but that rather the body is carried about
with it, and co-operates in whatever the soul
But how are we to understand
commits to it.
the opinion of Gregory the theologian, and
many others?

6

II. That Origen said that the body was given to the soul as a fetter after the fall, and that previously it lived without a body; but that this body which we wear is the cause of our sins; wherefore also he called it a fetter, as it can hinder the soul from good works.

III. That if the body was given to the soul after the fall as a fetter, it must have been given as a fetter upon the evil or the good. Now it is impossible that it should be upon the good; for no physician or artificer gives to that which has gone wrong a remedy to cause further error, much less would God do so. It remains, then, that it was a fetter upon evil. But surely we see that, at the beginning, Cain, clad in this body, committed murder; and it is evident into

4 From St. John Damascene, Orat. 2, De Imagin., tom. i. p. 389, ed. Paris, 1712.

5 From Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 234.

6 Gregory, surnamed Theologus, commonly known as Gregory Nazianzen,

what wickedness those who succeeded him ran. those who knew how to observe the niceties of The body is not, then, a fetter upon evil, nor indeed a fetter at all; nor was the soul clothed in it for the first time after the fall.

IV. That man, with respect to his nature, is most truly said to be neither soul without body, nor, on the other hand, body without soul; but a being composed out of the union of soul and body into one form of the beautiful. But Origen said that the soul alone is man, as did Plato. v. That there is a difference between man and other living creatures; and to them are given varieties of natural form and shape, as many as the tangible and visible forces of nature produced at the command of God; while to him was given the form and image of God, with every part accurately finished, after the very original likeness of the Father and the only-begotten Son. Now we must consider how the saint states this.

vi. He says that Phidias the statuary, after he had made the Pisæan image of ivory, ordered oil to be poured out before it, that, as far as he could secure it, it might be preserved imperishable.

language, when he says, "I know such a man caught up to the third heaven; and I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, God knoweth, that was caught up into paradise." Here he signifies that he has seen two revelations, having been evidently taken up twice, once to the third heaven, and once into paradise. For the words, "I know such a man caught up," make it certain that he was personally shown a revelation respecting the third heaven. And the words which follow, "And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, God knoweth, that he was caught up into paradise," show that another revelation was made to him respecting paradise. Now he was led to make this statement by his opponent's having laid it down from the apostle's words that paradise is a mere conception, as it is above the heaven, in order to draw the conclusion that life in paradise is incorporeal.3

x. He says that it is in our power to do, or to avoid doing, evil; since otherwise we should not be punished for doing evil, nor be rewarded for doing well; but the presence or absence of evil thoughts does not depend upon ourselves. Wherefore even the sainted Paul says, " For what I would, that do I not, but what I would not, that I do; "4 that is to say, "My thoughts are not what I would, but what I would not." Now he says that the habit of imagining evil is rooted out by the approach of physical death,5 — since it was for this reason that death was appointed by God for the sinner, that evil might not remain for ever.

But what is the meaning of this statement? It is to be noted that it has been made by others of our Fathers as well. What is the meaning, seeing that those who meet death find in it at

VII. He says, as was said also by Athenagoras,' that the devil is a spirit, made by God, in the neighbourhood of matter, as of course the rest of the angels are, and that he was entrusted with the oversight of matter, and the forms of matter. For, according to the original constitution of angels, they were made by God, in His providence, for the care of the universe; in order that, while God exercises a perfect and general supervision over the whole, and keeps the supreme authority and power over all-for upon Him their existence depends — the angels appointed for this purpose take charge of particulars. Now the rest of them remained in the positions for which God made and appointed them; but the devil was insolent, and having the time neither increase nor decrease of sins? conceived envy of us, behaved wickedly in the charge committed to him; as also did those II. who subsequently were enamoured of fleshly charms, and had illicit intercourse with the 1. Read a compendious interpretation of some daughters of men. For to them also, as was the apostolic words from the same discourse. case with men, God granted the possession of their own choice. And how is this to be taken? us see, then, what it is that we have endeavoured VIII. He says that by the coats of skins is sig- of his, "I was alive without the law once," refers to say respecting the apostle. For this saying nified death. For he says of Adam, that when to the life which was lived in paradise before the the Almighty God saw that by treachery he, an law, not without a body, but with a body, by our immortal being, had become evil, just as his de- first parents, as we have shown above; for we ceiver the devil was, He prepared the coats of lived without concupiscence, being altogether skins on this account; that when he was thus, as it were, clothed in mortality, all that was evil in ignorant of its assaults. For not to have a law according to which we ought to live, nor a power him might die in the dissolution of the body. of establishing what manner of life we ought to

IX. He holds that St. Paul had two revelations. For the apostle, he says, does not suppose paradise to be in the third heaven, in the opinion of

[Athenagoras, Plea, cap. xxiv, vol. ii. p. 142, this series.]

A SYNOPSIS OF SOME APOSTOLIC WORDS FROM
THE SAME DISCOURSE."

Let