LECTURE XVIII. ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH, THE CATHOLIC XVIII. EZEKIEL Xxxvii. 1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. LECT. 1. THE root of all good works is the hope of the Resurrection; for the expectation of recompence nerves the soul to good works. For labourers of every kind are ready to undergo toils, if they see their reward in prospect; but when men weary themselves for nought, their heart as well as their body sinks early. The soldier who expects a prize is ready for war, but no one is forward to die for a king who is indifferent about those who serve under him, and bestows no honours on their toils. In like manner every soul believing in the Resurrection, is, as is natural, careful of itself; but, disbelieving it, abandons itself to perdition. He who believes that his body shall remain to be raised again, is careful of his robe, and defiles it not with fornication; but he who disbelieves the Resurrection, gives himself to fornication, and misuses his own body, as though it were not his own. Faith therefore in the Resurrection of the dead, is a great doctrine and lesson of the Holy Catholic Church; a great and most necessary point gainsayed by many, but surely warranted by v. Cat. the truth. Greeks contradict it, Samaritans disbelieve it, heretics disparage it; the contradiction is manifold, but the truth is uniform. iv. 2. 2. Now Greeks and Samaritans together reason with us thus. The dead man falls, and moulders away, and is all Difficulties of the Resurrection answered. 241 turned into worms; and the worms perish also; so great is the decay and destruction, which is the portion of the body; how then is it to be raised? The shipwrecked are devoured by fishes, which are themselves devoured. Of them who fight with wild beasts, the very bones are ground to powder and consumed by bears and lions. Vultures and ravens feed on the flesh of the unburied dead, and then fly abroad over all the world; from what places then is the body brought together? For of the fowls who have devoured it, some may chance to die in India, some in Persia, some in the land of the Goths; other men again are consumed by fire, and their very ashes scattered by the rain or wind; whence is the body brought together again? 12. 3. To thee, poor feeble man, India is far from the land of (2.) the Goths, and Spain from Persia; but to God who holds the whole earth in the hollow of His hand, all things are near at Isa. 40, hand. Impute not then weakness to God, from a comparison of thy feebleness, but rather dwell on His power. Moreover, does the sun, a small work of God, by one glance of his beams give warmth to the whole world; does the atmosphere, which God has made, encompass all things in the world; and is God then, who is the Creator both of the sun, and of the atmosphere, removed very far off from the earth? Imagine a mixture of seed of different plants; (for as thou art weak as concerning the faith, the examples which I allege are such also;) and that these different seeds are contained in thy single hand; is it then to thee who art a man, a difficult or an easy matter to distinguish what is in thine hand, and to bring each seed together according to its nature, and to assign it to its own kind? Canst thou then distinguish between things in thine hand, and cannot God distinguish between the things in His hand, and assign them their proper place? Consider what I say; is it not impious. to deny it? 4. Further, attend to the very principle of justice, and consider with thyself. Thou hast different sorts of servants: and some are good and some bad; thou honourest therefore the good, and smitest the bad. And if thou art a judge, to the good thou awardest praise, and to the transgressors, punishment. Is then justice by thee observed a mortal man; R XVIII. 242 Resurrection probable from God's justice, and man's expectation, LECT. and with God, who is the ever-enduring King of all, is there no retributive justice? To deny it is impious. For consider what I say. Many murderers die in their beds unpunished; where then is the righteousness of God? Yea, ofttimes a murderer guilty of fifty murders, is beheaded once; how then shall he suffer punishment for the forty and nine? Unless there is a judgment and a retribution after this world, thou chargest God with unrighteousness. Marvel not, however, because of the delay of judgment; no combatant is crowned or disgraced, till the contest is over, and no president of the games ever crowns men while yet striving, but he waits till all the combatants are finished, that then deciding between them, he may dispense the prizes and the chaplets. Even thus God also, so long as the strife in this world lasts, succours the just but partially, but afterwards He assigns to them their rewards fully. (3.) 5. But if, according to thee there is no resurrection of the dead, wherefore condemnest thou the violators of graves? For if the body perishes, and there is no resurrection to be hoped for, why does the violator of the tomb undergo punishment? Thou seest that though thou deny the resurrection with thy lips, there yet abides with thee an indestructible instinct in its behalf? 6. Further, does a tree after it has been cut down blossom again, and shall man not blossom again when cut down? And does the corn sown and reaped remain to the threshing floor, and shall man when reaped from this world not remain for the threshing? And do shoots of vine or other trees, when clean cut off and transplanted, come to life and bear fruit; and shall man then, for whose sake all these are, fall into the earth and not rise again? Comparing efforts, which is greater, to mould in the outset a statue which was not, or to recast it after the same model when fallen to pieces? Cannot God then, who created us out of nothing, raise us again, who are and who decay? But thou believest not what is written of the Resurrection, being a Greek: then from the analogy of nature consider these matters, and understand them from what is seen at this day. Wheat, it may be, or some other kind of grain, is sown; and when it is cast, it dies and rots, and is henceforth useless for food. But that which has from the analogy of vegetation, and of the Phoenix, 243 rotted, springs up in verdure; and that which was cast small, springs up most beautiful. Now wheat was made for us; for wheat and all seeds were not created for themselves, but for our use; are things which were made for us quickened when they die, and do we for whom they were made, not spring up again after our death? 7. The season is now winter, as thou seest; the trees now stand as if they were dead: where are the leaves of the figtree? where are the clusters of the vine? These in winter time are dead, but in the spring green, and when the season is come, there is given them as it were a quickening from a state of death. For God, knowing thine unbelief, works a resurrection year by year in these visible things; that, beholding what happens to things inanimate, thou mayest believe concerning things animate and intelligent. Further, flies and bees are often drowned in water, yet after a while revive; and dormice, after remaining motionless during the winter, are μ restored in the summer, (for to thy low thoughts like ex- γένη. amples are offered,) and shall He who to irrational and despised creatures grants a supernatural life, not vouchsafe it to us, for whose sake He made them? Ep. 1. 8. But the Greeks ask for a yet more evident resurrection, (4.) and say, that even if these creatures are raised, yet that they have not utterly mouldered away; and they require to see distinctly some creature rising again after complete decay. God knew men's unbelief, and provided for this purpose a bird, called a Phoenix. This bird, as Clement writes, and as Clem. many more relate, the only one of its race, going to the land of Rom. the Egyptians at revolutions of five hundred years, shews c. 25. forth the Resurrection; and this, not in desert places, lest the mystery which comes to pass should remain unknown, but in a notable city', that men might even handle what they disbelieve. For it makes itself a nest of frankincense and myrrh and other spices, and entering into this when its years are fulfilled, it evidently dies and moulders away. Then from the mouldering flesh of the dead a worm springs, and this a The existence of the Phoenix is believed by Tertullian, Epiphanius, &c. as well as by Clement; as was till a comparatively late date the doctrine of four elements, or of the motion of the sun round the earth. In like manner the ex- XVIII. 244 from the analogy of man's formation and of the heavenly bodies, LECT, Worm when grown large is transformed into a bird;—and do not disbelieve this, for thou seest the offspring of bees also fashioned thus out of worms, and from eggs which are most moist thou hast seen the wings and bones and sinews of birds issue. Afterwards this Phoenix, becoming fledged and a perfect Phoenix, as was the former one, soars up into the air such as it had died, shewing forth to men a most evident resurrection from the dead. The Phoenix indeed is a wondrous bird, yet it is irrational, nor sings psalms to God; it flies abroad through the sky, but it knows not the Only-begotten Son of God. Is then a resurrection from the dead given unto this irrational creature which knows not its Maker, and to us who ascribe glory to God and keep His commandments, shall there no resurrection be granted? (5.) 9. But since the sign of the Phoenix is remote and uncommon, and men disbelieve our resurrection still, take again the proof of this from what is seen every day. A hundred or two hundred years ago, we all, speakers and hearers, where were we? Know we not the groundwork of the substance of our bodies? Knowest thou not how from weak and shapeless and simple elements we have our beginning, and that from what is simple and weak is shaped the living man? and how that weak element being made flesh is changed into strong nerves, and bright eyes, and sensitive nose, and hearing ears, and speaking tongue, and beating heart, and busy hands, and swift feet, and into members of all kinds? and how weak elements become a shipwright, and a mason, and a masterbuilder, and a craftsman of various arts, and a soldier, and a ruler, and a lawgiver, and a king? Cannot God then, who has made us of rude materials, raise us up when we have fallen into decay? He who frames a body out of what is vile, cannot He raise it again when destroyed? And does not He who fashions that which is not, raise up that which is and is fallen? 10. Take further a manifest proof of the resurrection of the dead, witnessed month by month in the sky and its luminaries. The face of the moon vanishes completely, so that no part of it is any more seen, yet it fills again, and is restored to its former state; and for the perfect demonstration of the matter, the moon at certain revolutions of years suffering eclipse and |