And I know that He was possessed of a body not only
in His being born and crucified, but I also know that He
was so after His resurrection, and believe that He is so
now. Wlien, for instance. He came to those who were
with Peter, He said to them, " Lay hold, handle Me, and
see that I am not an incorporeal spirit."^ '' For a spirit
hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." 9 And
He says to Thomas, " Reach hither thy finger into the
print of the nails, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust
it into My side ; " '° and immediately they believed that
He was Christ. Wherefore Thomas also says to Him,
" My Lord, and my God." " And on this account also
did they despise death, for it were too little to say, indig-
nities and stripes. Nor was this all ; but also after He
had shown Himself to them, that He had risen indeed,
and not in appearance only, He both ate and drank with
them during forty entire days. And thus was He, with
the flesh, received up in their sight unto Him that sent
Him, being with that same flesh to come again, accom-
panied by glory and power. For, say the [holy] oracles,
" This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen Him go
unto heaven." '^ But if they say that He will come at
the end of the world without a body, how shall those
"see Him that pierced Him," '■♦ and when they recognise
Him, " mourn for themselves ? " '5 For incorporeal beings
have neither form nor figure, nor the aspect '^ of an ani-
mal possessed of shape, because their nature is in itself
simple.