{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/001/0010845.htm","path":"chr/ecf/001/0010845.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/001/0010845.htm","text":"1. In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side 4483 (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so \u201cshall He also,\u201d it is said, \u201craise us up by His own power.\u201d 4484 And again to the Romans he says, \u201cBut if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.\u201d 4485 What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be souls? Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal bodies; for God \u201cbreathed into the face of man the breath of life, and man became a living soul.\u201d Now the breath of life is an incorporeal p. 533 thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that the very breath of life is mortal. Therefore David says, \u201cMy soul also shall live to Him,\u201d 4486 just as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other hand, can they say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is there left to which we may apply the term \u201cmortal body,\u201d unless it be the thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed, but not the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power, and to become henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of motion, and to melt away into those [component parts] from which also it derived the commencement of [its] substance. But this event happens neither to the soul, for it is the breath of life; nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not composite, so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of those who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the soul\u2019s departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then, is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says, \u201cHe shall also quicken your mortal bodies.\u201d And therefore in reference to it he says, in the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians: \u201cSo also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption.\u201d 4487 For he declares, \u201cThat which thou sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it die.\u201d 4488\n2. But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, \u201cIt is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory.\u201d 4489 For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes of incorruption? \u201cIt is sown in weakness, it is raised in power:\u201d 4490 in its own weakness certainly, because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the power of God, who raises it from the dead. \u201cIt is sown an animal body, it rises a spiritual body.\u201d 4491 He has taught, beyond all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either with reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then, rising through the Spirit\u2019s instrumentality, they become spiritual bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a perpetual life. \u201cFor now,\u201d he says, \u201cwe know in part, and we prophesy in part, but then face to face.\u201d 4492 And this it is which has been said also by Peter: \u201cWhom having not seen, ye love; in whom now also, not seeing, ye believe; and believing, ye shall rejoice with joy unspeakable.\u201d 4493 For our face shall see the face of the Lord 4494 and shall rejoice with joy unspeakable,\u2014that is to say, when it shall behold its own Delight.\nJohn 20:20, 25.\n532:4484 532:4485 533:4486\nPs. xxii. 31, LXX.\n533:4487 533:4488 533:4489 533:4490 533:4491 533:4492 533:4493 533:4494\nGrabe, Massuet, and Stieren prefer to read, \u201cthe face of the living God;\u201d while Harvey adopts the above, reading merely \u201cDomini,\u201d and not \u201cDei vivi.\u201d","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I: IREN\u00c6US: Chapter VII.\u2014Inasmuch as Christ did...","type":"page"}