{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Thus the souls of departed saints are not affected by the\r\ndeath which dismisses them from their bodies, because their\r\nflesh rests in hope, no matter what indignities it receives after\r\nsensation is gone. For they do not desire that their bodies be\r\nforgotten, as Plato thinks fit, but rather, because they remember\r\nwhat has been promised by Him who deceives no man, and\r\nwho gave them security for the safe keeping even of the hairs\r\nof their head, they with a longing patience wait in hope of the\r\nresurrection of their bodies, in which they have suffered many\r\nhardships, and are now to suffer never again. For if they did\r\nnot \"hate their own flesh,\" when it, with its native infirmity,\r\nopposed their will, and had to be constrained by the spiritual\r\nlaw, how much more shall they love it, when it shall even\r\nitself have become spiritual! For as, when the spirit serves\r\nthe flesh, it is fitly called carnal, so, when the flesh serves the\r\nspirit, it will justly be called spiritual. Not that it is converted\r\ninto spirit, as some fancy from the words, \"It is sown in corruption,\r\nit is raised in incorruption,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_600_600\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_600_600\">[600]</a> but because it is subject\r\nto the spirit with a perfect and marvellous readiness of\r\nobedience, and responds in all things to the will that has entered\r\non immortality,—all reluctance, all corruption, and all slowness\r\nbeing removed. For the body will not only be better than it\r\nwas here in its best estate of health, but it will surpass the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_545\">[Pg 545]</a></span>\r\nbodies of our first parents ere they sinned. For, though they\r\nwere not to die unless they should sin, yet they used food as\r\nmen do now, their bodies not being as yet spiritual, but animal\r\nonly. And though they decayed not with years, nor drew\r\nnearer to death,—a condition secured to them in God's marvellous\r\ngrace by the tree of life, which grew along with the\r\nforbidden tree in the midst of Paradise,—yet they took other\r\nnourishment, though not of that one tree, which was interdicted\r\nnot because it was itself bad, but for the sake of commending\r\na pure and simple obedience, which is the great virtue\r\nof the rational creature set under the Creator as his Lord. For,\r\nthough no evil thing was touched, yet if a thing forbidden\r\nwas touched, the very disobedience was sin. They were, then,\r\nnourished by other fruit, which they took that their animal\r\nbodies might not suffer the discomfort of hunger or thirst; but\r\nthey tasted the tree of life, that death might not steal upon\r\nthem from any quarter, and that they might not, spent with\r\nage, decay. Other fruits were, so to speak, their nourishment,\r\nbut this their sacrament. So that the tree of life would seem\r\nto have been in the terrestrial Paradise what the wisdom of\r\nGod is in the spiritual, of which it is written, \"She is a tree\r\nof life to them that lay hold upon her.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_601_601\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_601_601\">[601]</a></p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK THIRTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-936"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"3718cfb5ff60e16ae57ebe27651094018bd796a71899ce2c1f56b4e8bb0a2b13","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PRO","chapter":3,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Prov. iii. 18","verse":18,"verse_end":18}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_601_601","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_601_601","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_601_601\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_601_601\"><span class=\"label\">[601]</span></a> Prov. iii. 18.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_601_601","text_sha256":"578f7a0bc6d0fda61591bc298ffe498f41fba1864de2dda0d30d69672919f31a","verified":false,"work_id":null}