not quickened, except it die first; and that which them sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be; but bare grain as of wheat, or of some of the rest; but God giveth it a body as he will:" and a little after, " It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption." [1] St. Gregory, calls our attention to many other arguments of analogy tending to the same effect: " The sun," says he, " is every day withdrawn from our eyes, as it were, by dying, and is again recalled, as it were, by rising again: trees lose, and again, as it were, by a resurrection, resume their verdure: seeds die by putrefaction, and rise again by germination." [2]
The reasons, also, adduced by ecclesiastical writers, are well Proved by calculated to establish this truth. In the first place, as the soul is immortal, and has, as part of man, a natural propensity to be son united to the body, its perpetual separation from it must be considered contrary to nature. But as that which is contrary to nature, and offers violence to her laws, cannot be permanent, it appears congruous that the soul should be reunited to the body; and, of course, that the body should rise again. This argument, our Saviour himself employed, when, in his disputation with the Sadducees, he deduced the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soul. [3]
In the next place, as an all-just God holds out punishments to the wicked, and rewards to the good, and as very many of the former depart this life unpunished for their crimes, and of the latter unrewarded for their virtues; the soul should be reunited to the body, in order, as the partner of her crimes, or the companion of her virtues, to become a sharer in her punishments or her rewards. [4] This view of the subject has been admirably treated by St. Chrysostom in his homily to the people of Antioch. [5] To this effect, the Apostle speaking of the resurrection, says, " If in this life only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable." [6] These words of St. Paul cannot be supposed to refer to the misery of the soul, which, because immortal, is capable of enjoying happiness in a future life, were the body not to rise; but to the whole man; for, unless the body receive the due rewards of its labours, those, who, like the Apostles, endured so many afflictions and calamities in this life, should necessarily be " the most miserable of men." On this subject the Apostle is much more explicit in his epistle to the Thessalonians: " We glory in you," says he, " in the Churches of God, that you may be counted worthy of the king dom of God, for which, also, you suffer: seeing it is a just thing with God to repay tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of his power; in a flame of fire, yielding vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." [7]
