which we are now cloathed, shall rise again." Whereunto Marinus replies "that it was an opinion very easy to be confuted, both by scripture and reason." From which foundations, he proceeds to draw several arguments against it; and from the latter, he makes great use of 1 Cor. xv. 50. "this I say now, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God;" and of the 38th verse of the same chapter, "but God giveth to every one a body as seemeth him good:" upon which he remarks, that it is not said, that this body shall arise again; but it must necessarily be understood of another, because it is said that God giveth that body to every one as seemeth him good;" which body they affirmed to be a spiritual, heavenly one, void of all gross, corporeal, or fleshly matter.

The followers also of Origen were reputed to be maintainers of the same opinion, affirming, as St. Jerom writes, "that after the resurrection our bodies shall be thin, airy, and subtil, losing the present fleshly substance which now they have:" a full account of which doctrine of Origen's, is epitomized from his writings by Methodius, wherein it appears to have been this, that the very same bodies, flesh and blood wherein we now live, shall not arise and see the kingdom of God, but Ee

that in lieu thereof the Almighty will at the last day give unto us other bodies, which shall be thin, subtil, and spiritual, free from the material and fleshly substance whereof they are now composed.

Now against the abettors of this notion, and to prevent the equivocating evasions, this article was expressed by the resurrection of the flesh, and not of the body: according unto which, the general explication given by the fathers hereof, is, that hereby is professed our belief, that there shall be a resurrection of the same body that now we have,

Ruffinus was accused of being too favorable to this tenet of Origen's; upon which account, it is observable, that in his short confession of faith, extant in his preface to the apology of Eusebius bishop of Cæsarea, for Origen; he thus paraphrases this article; "we do not say, that the resurrection of the flesh shall be by a trick, as some calumniate us; but we believe, that this very flesh in which we now live, shall rise again: we do not say one thing for another, neither any other body besides this flesh; whether therefore we say the body shall rise again, we speak it according to the apostle, who made use of this word; or, whether we say the flesh, we confess it accor ding to the tradition of the creed: For it is the foolish invention of calumny, to think an hu

man body to be different from flesh; for, whether we say it is flesh according to the common faith, or a body according to the apostle, that shall rise again, so must we believe, as the apostle hath defined it." And for the same reason in the creed, which he sent to pope Anastasius, to justify himself from the accusation of heresy, he thus expresses his assent to this article; "we confess the resurrec tion of our flesh shall be whole and perfect, of this our flesh wherein we now live: for we do not say, as some do slander us, that another shall arise instead of this, but that it shall be this very same, without the loss of any of its members, or the defect of any part of the body, unto which nothing of its nature shall be wanting, except corruption."

To the same purpose, Gennadius Massiliensis writes on this article, "there shall be a resurrection of all dead men; and if that which falls is said to rise again, then our flesh shall truly rise again, as it truly fell; and it shall not be, according to Origen, a change of bodies, that is, a new body instead of the flesh; but the same corruptible flesh, which fell both of just and unjust, shall arise incorruptible, that it may be capable according to its merits, either to suffer eternal pain, or to abide in everlasting glory,"

The same explication is likewise given hereof by Epiphanius," that we shall arise with this body, and with this soul, with our whole man, that every man may receive what he hath done:" as also by the author of the explanation of the creed to Damasus, wrongfully attributed to St. Jerom, "that we shall be raised with the very same members which now we have.”

But here it must be observed, that although the fathers designed by this article to declare the resurrection of the self-same body; yet they always understood, that the qualities thereof should be changed and altered; that from mortal and corruptible, it should be immortal and incorruptible, and as it may be called become a spiritual body, that is, have no need of the supports of meat and drink for its reparation and sustenance; for at that time, saith St. Austin, the glorified bodies," shall not only not be, such as they are now in their greatest health and vigor, but also not such as Adam's sinless body was in Paradise; which, although it would not have died if he had not sinned, yet he must have sustained it with meat and drink, his earthly body being yet animal, and not spiritual; but, then the man shall not be earthly, but heavenly; not as if he should not have the same earthly body,

"but because through the heavenly gift, by the change of its qualities, not by the loss of its nature, he shall be fitted to inhabit in heaven" So that, although they affirmed by this article, that the same flesh and blood should still remain at the resurrection, yet they held withal, that the properties and qualities thereof should be changed, as St Austin writes in his exposition hereof, "that this same visible flesh, which is properly called flesh, shall arise; for the apostle Paul doth seem to point at it as it were with his finger, when he saith, for this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality:" and yet a little farther on in the same place, he saith," that those raised bodies shall be simple and shining, whom the apostle calls spiritual," or, as he expresseth it in another place," the bodies of the saints shall arise without any defect or deformity, as well as without any corruption, heaviness or difficulty," being by the change of their properties fitted and prepared for life everlasting; which is the next and last clause of the creed to be enquired into.

Wherein it may be observed in the first place, that it was variously placed in the primitive creeds, as in a creed of Cyprian's it stands thus before the article of the church,