Chapter X.—The body saved, and will therefore rise.
The resurrection is a resurrection of the flesh which died. For the spirit dies not; the
soul is in the body, and without a soul it cannot live. The body, when the soul forsakes it, is
not. For the body is the house of the soul; and the soul the house of the spirit. These three,
in all those who cherish a sincere hope and unquestioning faith in God, will be saved. Con-
sidering, therefore, even such arguments as are suited to this world, and finding that, even
according to them, it is not impossible that the flesh be regenerated; and seeing that, besides
all these proofs, the Saviour in the whole Gospel shows that there is salvation for the flesh,
why do we any longer endure those unbelieving and dangerous arguments, and fail to see
that we are retrograding when we listen to such an argument as this: that the soul is immortal,
but the body mortal, and incapable of being revived? For this we used to hear from Pythagoras
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and Plato, even before we learned the truth. If then the Saviour said this, and proclaimed
salvation to the soul alone, what new thing, beyond what we heard from Pythagoras and
Plato and all their band, did He bring us? But now He has come proclaiming the glad tidings
of a new and strange hope to men. For indeed it was a strange and new thing for God to
promise that He would not keep incorruption in incorruption, but would make corruption
incorruption. But because the prince of wickedness could in no other way corrupt the truth,
he sent forth his apostles (evil men who introduced pestilent doctrines), choosing them
from among those who crucified our Saviour; and these men bore the name of the Saviour,
but did the works of him that sent them, through whom the name itself has been spoken
against. But if the flesh do not rise, why is it also guarded, and why do we not rather suffer
it to indulge its desires? Why do we not imitate physicians, who, it is said, when they get a
patient that is despaired of and incurable, allow him to indulge his desires? For they know
that he is dying; and this indeed those who hate the flesh surely do, casting it out of its in-
heritance, so far as they can; for on this account they also despise it, because it is shortly to
become a corpse. But if our physician Christ, God, having rescued us from our desires,
regulates our flesh with His own wise and temperate rule, it is evident that He guards it from
sins because it possesses a hope of salvation, as physicians do not suffer men whom they
hope to save to indulge in what pleasures they please.871
871 [N.B.—These fragments are probably genuine.]
Chapter X.—The body saved, and will therefore rise.
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Chapter X.—The body saved, and will therefore rise.