which is another means instituted by God to cleanse from sin, he who desires to recover the grace of baptism, forfeited by actual mortal guilt, cannot recover lost innocence.
But here the faithful are to be admonished to guard against the danger of becoming more prepense to sin, or slow to repentance, from a presumption that they can have recourse to this plenary power of forgiving sins, which, as we have already said, is unrestricted by time; for as such a propensity to sin, must, manifestly, convict them of acting injuriously and contumaciously to this divine power, and must, therefore render them unworthy of the divine mercy; so, this slowness to repentance must afford great reason to apprehend, lest overtaken by death, they may, in vain, confess their belief in the remission of sins, which their tardiness and procrastination have, deservedly, forfeited. [1]
ARTICLE XI.
"THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY."
THAT this Article supplies a convincing proof of the truth of our faith, is evinced by the circumstance of its not only being proposed, in the Sacred Scriptures, to the belief of the faithful, but also fortified by numerous arguments. This we scarcely find to be the case with regard to the other Articles: a circumstance which justifies the inference that on it, as on its most solid basis, rests our hope of salvation; for according to the reasoning of the Apostle, " If there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again; and if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." [2] The zeal and assiduity, therefore, of the pastor in its exposition should not be inferior to the labour which impiety has expended in fruitless efforts to overturn its truth. That eminently important advantages flow to the faithful from the knowledge of this Article will appear from the sequel.
And, first, that in this Article the resurrection of mankind is called " the resurrection of the body," is a circumstance which deserves attention. The Apostles had for object, (for it is not without its object,) thus to convey an important truth, the immortality of the soul. Lest, therefore, contrary to the Sacred Scriptures, which, in many places, teach the soul to be immortal, [3] any one may imagine that it dies with the body, and that both are to be resuscitated, the Creed speaks only of " the resurrection of the body." The word, " caro," which is used
