We believe, likewise, that the body will rise to glory. For matter must be proportionate to its form, and if the soul, which is the form of the body, be glorified, the body must receive proportionate glory. For it would not be fitting that the glorified soul should be joined to a body not glorified, nor subject in obedience. Therefore, Faith most logically teaches that, by the power of God, the glory of the soul overflows into the body, rendering it agile, completely obedient to the soul, and absolutely perfect. And, since all bodies are made for man, who is their end, faith teaches, likewise, that when man is glorified, the whole world will also be glorified, since things must needs become proportioned to the end for which they are destined. After the resurrection, the body will no longer require sustenance; therefore, the motions of the heavenly bodies will cease; and animals, plants, and all compound substances will be resolved into their elements, purged by fire, and clothed in new and glorious brightness; and we shall be for ever happy with the Lord.
CHAPTER VI.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE DAMNATION OF THE WICKED IS ONE BEFITTING CHRISTIANITY.
As the just deserve the glory of Heaven, the wicked, who have gone aside from God, deserve the lowest place on earth, wherein they and their sins may be punished. There is no injustice in the eternity of punishment inflicted for temporal guilt. Even human law (as in the case of death or lifelong exile), avenges certain crimes by unending punishment. The wicked are justly deprived for all eternity of glory, and punished for ever in hell—not for their passing sins so much as for the malice of their will, which remained obstinately inclined to sin until death. Surely, is it not most reasonable to believe, that they who have preferred temporal pleasure to eternal glory, and would, (had it been possible), have persevered in this choice, should be punished with eternal suffering; the more so as, after this life, they are no longer capable of meriting eternal life? Again, as we have already remarked, it is not the soul alone, but the whole man who acts, and if it be reasonable that the just should be glorified in soul and body, the wicked equally deserve twofold punishment.
There are in hell other torments besides that of fire. But because fire is the most active it is always spoken of as the chief punishment. The bodies of the damned are not consumed by this fire, for the Divine Power enables their souls to preserve these bodies from destruction. But as, by malice, these souls have turned away from their Creator, their bodies are not perfectly subject to them; they are therefore capable of suffering excruciating torments in the fire of hell, though not of being consumed by it.
CHAPTER VII.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD IS, IN NO SENSE, INCREDIBLE, UNSEEMLY, OR UNREASONABLE.
The Christian religion maintains inviolably that God is Man; that His Person subsists in two natures, viz., the Divine Nature and the Human; and that the union between these natures is so perfect that the Person who is God is likewise Man. No parallel to this union can be found in nature, for the simple reason, that no perfect created substance can be united to another substance in such a manner as to become one with it. Even the union between soul and body cannot be compared to the union between the Word and the human nature. The soul is the form of the body; but form is imperfect; and as God is Perfection, the Word cannot be the form of the human nature. Moreover, the Divine Nature and the human are in Christ two perfect substances; and therefore the union between them surpasses understanding. We must not, however, say that this union is impossible. God can do many things beyond the capacity of our intelligence. Then, in the union between the Divine and Human nature, His Divine Majesty suffers no change; but human nature is, by His infinite power, raised to wondrous union with His Person.
Neither can we call this union unseemly or unreasonable. For, from it countless blessings have come to the world, benefits so numerous indeed that we could not attempt to name them all, but must content ourselves with recounting some of them.
First. The Incarnation has been a most powerful means, whereby man may attain happiness. The true beatitude of man consists, as we know, in the vision of the Divine Essence. But, considering the limitations of human intelligence, and the sublimity of the Divine Nature, we might justly have despaired of gaining this supreme happiness. Therefore, God, by uniting in His own Person the Divine with the Human Nature, (a union far surpassing the union between the Divine Essence and the understanding of the blessed), has willed to hold forth to man hopes of attaining to the glory for which he was created. And man, since the Incarnation, has aspired to happiness, with greater ardour than he did before this mystery was accomplished.