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De resurrectione carnis
XXV.
[1] Etiam in Apocalypsi Iohannis ordo temporum sternitur, quem martyrum quoque animae sub altari ultionem et iudicium flagitantes sustinere didicerunt, ut prius et orbis de pateris angelorum plagas suas ebibat, et prostituta illa civitas a decem regibus dignos exitus referat, et bestia antichristus cum suo pseudopropheta certamen ecclesiae inferat, [2] atque ita diabolo in abyssum interim religato primae resurrectionis praerogativa de soliis ordinetur, dehinc et igni dato universalis resurrectionis censura de libris iudicetur. [3] Cum igitur et status temporum ultimorum scripturae notent et totam Christianae spei frugem in exodio saeculi collocent, adparet aut tunc adimpleri totum quodcunque nobis a deo repromittitur, et vacat quod hic iam ab haereticis vindicatur, aut, si et agnitio sacramenti resurrectio est, salva utique illa creditur quae in ultimo praedicatur: [4] et sequitur ut eo ipso quod haec spiritalis vindicetur, illa corporalis praeiudicetur: quia, si nulla tunc adnuntiaretur, merito sola haec et tantummodo spiritalis vindicaretur: cum vero et in ultimum tempus edicitur corporalis agnoscitur, quia non et tunc spiritalis <adnuntiatur. [5] Cur enim iterum> adnuntiaretur resurrectio eiusdem condicionis, id est spiritalis, cum aut nunc eam deceret expungi sine ulla differentia temporum aut tunc sub omni clausula temporum? [6] Ita nobis magis competit etiam spiritalem defendere resurrectionem ab ingressu fidei qui plenitudinem eius agnoscimus in exitu saeculi.
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On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter XXV.--St. John, in the Apocalypse, Equally Explicit in Asserting the Same Great Doctrine.
In the Revelation of John, again, the order of these times is spread out to view, which "the souls of the martyrs" are taught to wait for beneath the altar, whilst they earnestly pray to be avenged and judged: 1 (taught, I say, to wait), in order that the world may first drink to the dregs the plagues that await it out of the vials of the angels, 2 and that the city of fornication may receive from the ten kings its deserved doom, 3 and that the beast Antichrist with his false prophet may wage war on the Church of God; and that, after the casting of the devil into the bottomless pit for a while, 4 the blessed prerogative of the first resurrection may be ordained from the thrones; 5 and then again, after the consignment of him to the fire, that the judgment of the final and universal resurrection may be determined out of the books. 6 Since, then, the Scriptures both indicate the stages of the last times, and concentrate the harvest of the Christian hope in the very end of the world, it is evident, either that all which God promises to us receives its accomplishment then, and thus what the heretics pretend about a resurrection here falls to the ground; or else, even allowing that a confession of the mystery (of divine truth) is a resurrection, that there is, without any detriment to this view, room for believing in that which is announced for the end. It moreover follows, that the very maintenance of this spiritual resurrection amounts to a presumption in favour of the other bodily resurrection; for if none were announced for that time, there would be fair ground for asserting only this purely spiritual resurrection. Inasmuch, however, as (a resurrection) is proclaimed for the last time, it is proved to be a bodily one, because there is no spiritual one also then announced. For why make a second announcement of a resurrection of only one character, that is, the spiritual one, since this ought to be undergoing accomplishment either now, without any regard to different times, or else then, at the very conclusion of all the periods? It is therefore more competent for us even to maintain a spiritual resurrection at the commencement of a life of faith, who acknowledge the full completion thereof at the end of the world.