ET SYM

34

Spiritual fie. Resurrection of the Flesh.

DEFIDE the soul; finally, the body itself, since it is visible, is that which in us is last. But all this creature groaneth and is in Rom. 8, travail until now: yet hath the spirit given its first fruits",

BOLO.

22.

25.

9.

3.

14.

in that it hath believed in God, and is now of a good will. This spirit is also called the mind, of which the Apostle says, Rom. 7, With the mind I serve the Law of God. Who also in another Rom. 1, place saith, God is my witness, Whom I serve in my spirit. But the soul, when it yet seeks after fleshly goods, is called the flesh. For a certain part of it resists the spirit, not by nature, but by custom of sins. Whence it is said, With the mind I serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Which custom hath been changed into nature according to our mortal generation by the sin of the first man. And therefore it is written, And we some time were by Eph. 2, nature children of wrath, that is, of vengeance, whereby it hath been brought to pass that we serve the law of sin. But the nature of the soul is then perfected when it is subdued unto its own spirit, and when it follows the spirit, the spirit following God. Therefore the carnal man perceiveth not 1 Cor. 2, the things which belong unto the Spirit of God. But not so speedily is the soul subdued unto the spirit unto good works, as the spirit unto God unto true faith and good will: but at times its natural impulse is more slowly checked, whereby it falls away unto things carnal and temporal. But since it also is cleansed, being established in its own nature through the rule of the spirit, which is its head, unto which, its head, Christ is a Head; we must not despair of the restoration of the body also unto its proper nature, but certainly not so speedily as the soul, just as the soul not so speedily as the 1 Cor. spirit; but in a fit season at the last trumpet, when the dead shall rise again uncorrupted, and we shall be changed. And therefore we believe also in THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH; not only because the soul is restored, which now by reason of fleshly affections is called flesh; but this visible flesh also, which is by nature lesh, whose name the soul hath received, not by reason of its nature, but of its fleshly affections: therefore this visible flesh, which is properly called so, we must without doubting believe that it will rise again. For

15, 52.

53.

Ben. has spiritûs, Yet hath it given the first fruits of the spirit.'

6

P 4 Mss. and resists,' omitting' for a certain part of it.'

35

ET SYM

BOLO.

The Body shall rise fitted for a heavenly state. the Apostle Paul seems to point out this itself' as if with the DEFIDE finger, when he says, It behoveth that this corruptible put on incorruption. For when he says, This, he, as it were, points Team. his finger towards it. But that which is visible may be pointed at by the finger: since the soul also might have been called corruptible; for itself is corrupted by moral vices. And when we read, And that this mortal put on immortality, the same visible flesh is meant, because at it from time to time there is, as it were, a finger pointed. For the soul too, as it is called corruptible by reason of moral vices, so may it also be called mortal. That is, it is the death of the soul to fall away from God; which its first sin in Paradise is contained in the Sacred Writings.

15, 39.

24. Therefore the body will rise again according to the Christian Faith, which cannot deceive. Which if it seem to any one incredible, he regards what the flesh now is, but considers not what it will be: because in that time of angelic change, it will be no longer flesh and blood, but only body'. For the Apostle speaking of the flesh, says, The flesh of 1 Cor. cattle is one, the flesh of birds another, of fishes another, of 40. creeping things another; and there are bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial. 6 For he says not, and flesh celestial:' but he says, both celestial and terrestrial bodies.' For all flesh is also body, but all body is not also flesh: first, in those things terrestrial, since wood is body, but not flesh: but to man or cattle there belongs both body and flesh but in things celestial no flesh, but bodies simple and bright, which the Apostle calls spiritual; but some call ethereal. And therefore that which he says, Flesh and blood shall not1 Cor. inherit the kingdom of God, contradicts not the resurrection 15, 50. of the flesh; but declares what that will one day be, which is now flesh and blood. Into which sort of nature whosoever believes not that this flesh can be changed; he must be led step by step unto the faith. For if you demand of him whether earth can be changed into water; by reason of the nearness, it seems not to him to be incredible. Again, if you demand whether water can be changed into air; he answers,

9 cf. Eccles. x. 12. ἀρχὴ ὑπερηφανίας, ἀνθρώπου ἀφισταμένου ἀπὸ Κυρίου. LXX. " initium superbiæ hominis, apostare a Deo." Vulg.

See the passage from his Retractations quoted at the beginning of the treatise.

36 Eternal Life. The Creed why learned by novices.

DEFIDE that neither is this absurd; for they are near one another. ETSYM-And if the question be asked concerning air, whether it can

BOLO.

15,

52.

be changed into an ethereal, that is, celestial, body; already the very nearness persuades. What therefore he allows may be done by these steps, that earth be changed into ethereal body, why does he not believe that, when there is added thereto the will of God, whereby a human body was able to walk upon the waters, it may be done most speedily, as it is 1 Cor. said, in the twinkling of an eye, without any such steps, just as generally smoke is changed into flame with wonderful quickness. For our flesh is certainly of earth; but philosophers, (by whose arguments most frequently the resurrection of the flesh is opposed, in that they assert that there cannot exist any terrestrial body in heaven,) allow that any body whatever may be turned and changed into all bodies. After that this resurrection of the body shall have taken place, being set free from the condition of time, we shall enjoy throughly ETERNAL LIFE with love ineffable, and stedfastness without corruption. For then that shall take place which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory, where is, O Death, thy sting? where is, O Death, thy strife?

1 Cor.

15, 54.

55.

25. This is the Faith which in the Creed is given unto Christian novices in few words to hold. Which few words are known to the faithful, that by believing they may be made subject unto God, having been made subject may live rightly, by living rightly may cleanse their heart, with a cleansed heart may understand what they believe.

• al.' The body being set free, &c. shall enjoy.'

S. AUGUSTINE

OF

FAITH AND WORKS.

S. Aug. Retract. ii. 38, mentions this work as written soon after that De Spiritu et Litera,' i. e. at the beginning of A.D. 413. "At that time were sent me by some lay Brethren, studious however of the Divine oracles, some writings which so sever Christian Faith from good works as to maintain that without it one could not, but without them one could attain eternal life. In answer to whom I wrote a book entitled ' De Fide et Operibus.' In which I have set forth not only how they should live that are by the grace of God regenerate, but also what sort of persons should be admitted to the laver of Regeneration."

Some have thought the ' writings' mentioned were St. Jerome's on Isaiah or on St. Paul's Epistles, but St. Jerome does not go to the length of holding what is here refuted. Ab. from Ben.

ET OPE

1. Ir is the judgment of certain, that all men without DEFIDE distinction are to be admitted to the laver of regeneration, RIBUS. which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, even although they shalli. be unwilling to change an evil and shameful life, rendered notable by sins and scandalous crimes, and shall even declare and make open profession, that they will continue therein. For instance, if any one is joined to a harlot, that he be not first charged to leave her, and then to come to be baptized; but even continuing with her, and confidently purposing, or even professing, that he will so continue, that he be admitted and baptized, and be not hindered in becoming a member of Christ, even although he shall continue to be a member of an harlot; but that he be afterwards taught how evil this is, 1 Cor. 6, and when now he hath been baptized, be instructed concerning the change of his manner of life for the better. For they think it a perversion, and out of due order, first to teach how a Christian ought to live, and after to have him baptized. But it is their opinion that the Sacrament of Baptism ought to go first, that there may follow after teaching concerning the life and morals: which if he shall be willing to hold and guard, he will do what is for his interest; but if he shall be unwilling, retaining the Christian Faith, without which he would perish for ever, let him continue in what sin or

15.

11-15.

38 Somewould Baptize men in known sin, rather than not at all.

DEFIDE impurity soever he will, that he will be saved as if through 1 Cor. 3, fire, as one who hath built upon the foundation, which is Christ, not gold, silver, precious stones, but wood, hay, stubble; that is, not righteous and chaste ways of life, but unrighteous and shameless.

9.

2. But they seem to have been moved thus to dispute, as concerned at those not being admitted to Baptism, who have put away their wives and married others, or of females who have put away their husbands, and been married to others; because of these the Lord Christ without any doubt testifies, Mat. 19, that they are, not marriages, but adulteries. For whereas they could not deny that to be adultery, which the Truth, without leaving place for evasion, affirms to be adultery; and (yet) wished to forward them toward their receiving Baptism, whom they saw to be so caught in a snare of this sort, as that, if they were not admitted to Baptism, they would choose to live, or even to die, without any Sacrament, rather than to burst the bond of adultery, and be set free; they were by a certain human sense of pity moved in such wise to undertake their cause, as to judge that all, together with them, men of evil and scandalous lives, even unrebuked by any prohibition, uncorrected by any instruction, unchanged by any penitence, were to be admitted to Baptism; thinking that unless it were done, they would perish for ever; but that, if it were done, even should they continue in those evil things, they would be saved through fire.

ii.

3. In answer to whom, this first I say, that no one so understand those declarations of the Scriptures, which either point to as present, or speak of beforehand as future, the mingling of the good and evil in the Church, as to believe that severity of discipline, or the diligent keeping of it, is to be altogether loosed and set aside; not so taught by those Scriptures, but deceived by his own imagination. For neither, because Moses, the servant of God, endured most patiently that mingling in the first People, did he therefore not take vengeance on many even with the sword. And Numb. Phinees, the priest, thrust through with the avenging sword 25, 5-8. the adulterers whom he found together. Which very thing it was signified was to be done by degradations and excommunications at this time, when in the discipline of the Church the visible sword was to lie by. Nor, because the