Does the Resurrection Pertain to the Body or to the Soul?
others be ecclesiastical. But resurrection takes place in no part of these distinctions: for all these things, which we have rehearsed, after a sort are revoked unto nature. But the resurrection of the dead is an act altogether beyond nature. Wherefore it shall be reckoned among those things, which do exceed and surpass the force of nature.
Does the Resurrection Pertain to the Body or to the Soul?
11. Now resteth for us to consider of the subject, wherein it is received. And undoubtedly it is no other thing that is raised up but man, which was by death extinguished. But man (as all men know) consisteth of two parts; to wit, of the soul and of the body. So as it must be considered, whether resurrection pertain to the body or to the soul. To speak properly: bodies do rise again, and not souls; for that is said to rise again, which fell when it had stood up. But souls die not together with the body, but remain alive: and therefore, seeing they fell not, they shall not rise again. And that souls remain alive after they be separated from bodies, the holy scriptures do show: for Christ said unto the apostles; Fear ye not them which kill the body, but the soul they cannot kill. But if souls should be extinguished, together with the bodies, they which destroy the body, would also destroy the soul. Over this, Christ said unto the thief; This day shalt thou be with me in paradise: which would not have been, if the soul had perished with the death of the body.
And when the death of the rich man and of Lazarus is described in the gospel, it is plainly enough expressed, what becomes of men after death: for Lazarus was carried by the ministry of angels, to the bosom of Abraham: but the rich man to the torments in hell. There are also other testimonies agreeable unto this saying, but let these be
sufficient at this time. That resurrection is to be attributed unto bodies, Tertullian also taught in his 5th book against Marcion, and in his book De resurrection carnis: and saith, that many things do rise, which before fell not, as herbs, plants, and such like; but none is said to rise again, but such as fell first, when they had stood before. And he argues from the propriety of the Latin tongue, which makes a difference between Surgere and Resurgere, [the one signifying To rise, and the other, To rise again.] And he saith, that Cadaver, a dead body, was so called à Cadendo, of falling: wherefore he affirmed that the resurrection is not of souls, but of bodies.
12. Moreover, it must be noted that the resurrection of the dead is a certain new birth. For even as in the first birth, a man is brought forth consisting both of body and soul; so in the resurrection, which is a second nativity, he shall be repaired again. In the 19th chapter of Matthew, it is written; In the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in His majesty. Indeed, the regeneration (as concerning the soul) begins now, but it shall be then performed, as touching the body: so as it is a certain new generation. Which I, therefore, say, lest it should be esteemed for a creation, which is not done of things that be extant, but of nothing. However, it is not always taken after this sort in the divine scriptures. Wherefore, the soul shall return, and of her being shall impart unto the body, even as it did before death: and shall not only give a being thereunto, but it shall bring therewith all the properties of man, and shall communicate them thereunto.
Indeed, there shall be some diversity, but yet not concerning the essential beginnings: only the things accidental shall be changed, which may be altered, notwithstanding that one and the selfsame subject still remain. For others be the qualities and affections of children, and others of young men, and old men: yet is the person all one, and even the same man, both in childhood, in youth, and in age.
Thus then we may define the resurrection of the dead; namely, that It
is a new coupling together of the soul unto the body, by the might or power of God, that men may stand wholly in the last day of judgment, and may receive rewards or punishments, according to the state of their former life. By this definition all the kinds of causes are expressed. The form is the Coupling together of the soul and the body: the which also is done so soon as men be borne, and therefore is added New or Done again, namely after death. The efficient cause is showed when we affirm, that it shall be done By the might and power of God. The matter is the Soul and the body, which shall again be joined together. The end also is, That at the last judgment it may be determined of the whole man.
13. Furthermore, it must be considered that there is no small difference between the death of man, which goes before the resurrection of the dead; and that death, whereby brute beasts do perish. For the death of man is called a separation of the soul from the body. For albeit that the body do perish, yet does the soul still remain alive: which happens not in brute beasts, whose death is the destruction of mind and body both together. Whereupon that which Solomon saith in Ecclesiastes, that The end of man and of beasts is all one, is not true, unless it be understood generally; that is to wit, that death happens to both: but the kind of death is not all one, both in the one, and in the other. But of the sentence brought by Solomon, shall be spoken afterward: I made mention of it now because we may understand, that even as between brute beasts and men, is given a sundry respect of death; so, if resurrection also should be granted to them both, the form of the same should not be all one. Wherefore, although it be said of the body, and not of the soul, that it shall rise; yet without the soul, the resurrection shall not be: for the same must of necessity be present. But yet it may after some sort be said of the soul, that it shall rise again in two respects. First, that even as through death it ceases to form and direct the body; and in this