Page:Post-Mediaeval Preachers.djvu/175

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

3. Agility, or capacity for following every impulse of the will.

4. Subtlety, or capacity for penetrating every where.

Of these four conditions of the body the Apostle speaks (1 Cor. xv. 42—44), It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption (impassible); it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power (agile); it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual (subtle) body.

St. Paul takes the figure of a grain of corn, which is sown in corruption, decaying in the earth, but rises in incorruption; and shows that in like manner will the body rise free from corruption.

The body is sown in dishonour; however noble and illustrious it may have been in life, it becomes an object of loathing in the tomb; but it will be raised glorious, radiating light.

The body sown in weakness, unable to resist the attack of decay and the worm, will be vigorous and free on the Resurrection morn, capable of performing any act which the mind can devise.

The body sown an animal or natural body, subject to vegetative processes, and other conditions of nature, at the Resurrection will be free from all these conditions.

Proposition 3. Bodies here deformed, will hereafter be perfected.