1296Chapter XLI.—Those persons who do not believe in God, but who are
disobedient, are angels and sons of the devil, not indeed by nature, but by
imitation. Close of this book, and scope of the succeeding one.
1299Against Heresies: Book V
1300Preface.
1301Chapter I.—Christ alone is able to teach divine things, and to redeem us: He,
the same, took flesh of the Virgin Mary, not merely in appearance, but actually,
by the operation of the Holy Spirit, in order to renovate us. Strictures on the
conceits of Valentinus and Ebion.
1304Chapter II.—When Christ visited us in His grace, He did not come to what did
not belong to Him: also, by shedding His true blood for us, and exhibiting to
us His true flesh in the Eucharist, He conferred upon our flesh the capacity of
salvation.
1306Chapter III.—The power and glory of God shine forth in the weakness of human
flesh, as He will render our body a participator of the resurrection and of
immortality, although He has formed it from the dust of the earth; He will also
bestow upon it the enjoyment of immortality, just as He grants it this short life
in common with the soul.
1309Chapter IV.—Those persons are deceived who feign another God the Father
besides the Creator of the world; for he must have been feeble and useless, or
else malignant and full of envy, if he be either unable or unwilling to extend
external life to our bodies.
1310Chapter V.—The prolonged life of the ancients, the translation of Elijah and of
Enoch in their own bodies, as well as the preservation of Jonah, of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, in the midst of extreme peril, are clear demonstrations
that God can raise up our bodies to life eternal.
1312Chapter VI.—God will bestow salvation upon the whole nature of man,
consisting of body and soul in close union, since the Word took it upon Him,
and adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, of whom our bodies are, and are
termed, the temples.
1314Chapter VII.—Inasmuch as Christ did rise in our flesh, it follows that we shall
be also raised in the same; since the resurrection promised to us should not be
referred to spirits naturally immortal, but to bodies in themselves mortal.
1316Chapter VIII.—The gifts of the Holy Spirit which we receive prepare us for
incorruption, render us spiritual, and separate us from carnal men. These two
classes are signified by the clean and unclean animals in the legal dispensation.
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