[2] “Si bonum est habere corpus incorruptible, quare hoc facturum Deum volumus dasperere?”—Augustinus (Opp. Antwerp, 1700, Th. v. p. 698). [↑]
[3] “Quare dicitur spiritale corpus, nisi quia ad nutum spiritus serviet? Nihil tibi contradicet ex te, nihil in te rebellabit adversus te.... Ubi volueris, eris.... Credere enim debemus talia corpora nos habituros, ut ubi velimus, quando voluerimus, ibi simus.”—Augustinus (l. c. pp. 703, 705). “Nihil indecorum ibi erit, summma pax erit, nihil discordans, nihil montruosum, nihil quod offendat adspectum” (l. c. 707). “Nisi beatus, non vivit ut vult.” (De Civ. Dei, l. 14, c. 25.) [↑]
[4] And their conceptions of God are just as heterogeneous. The pious Germans have a German God, the pious Spaniards a Spanish God, the French a French God. The French actually have the proverb: “Le bon Dieu est Français.” In fact, polytheism must exist so long as there are various nations. The real God of a people is the point d’honneur of its nationality. [↑]
[5] “Ibi nostra spes erit res.”—Augustin. “Therefore we have the first fruits of immortal life in hope, until perfection comes at the last day, wherein we shall see and feel the life we have believed in and hoped for.”—Luther (Th. i. s. 459). [↑]
[6] According to old books of travel, however, there are many tribes which do not believe that the future is identical with the present, or that it is better, but that it is even worse. Parny (Œuv. Chois. t. i. Melang.) tells of a dying negro-slave who refused the inauguration to immortality by baptism in these words: “Je ne veux point d’une autre vie, car peut-être y serais-je encore votre esclave.” [↑]
[7] Ahlwardt (Ossian Anm. zu Carthonn.). [↑]
[8] There everything will be restored. “Qui modo vivit, erit, nec me vel dente, vel ungue fraudatum revomet patefacti fossa sepulchri.”—Aurelius Prud. (Apotheos. de Resurr. Carnis Hum.). And this faith, which you consider rude and carnal, and which you therefore disavow, is the only consistent, honest, and true faith. To the identity of the person belongs the identity of the body. [↑]
[9] “Neque enim post resurrectionem tempus diebus ac noctibus numerabitur. Erit magis una dies sine vespere.”—Joh. Damascen. (Orth. Fidei l. ii. c. 1). [↑]
[10] “Ipsum (corpus) erit et non ipsum erit.”—Augustinus (v. J. Ch. Doederlein, Inst. Theol. Christ. Altorf, 1781, § 280). [↑]