'Tis by our follies that so long We hold the earth from Heaven away." Let us then in our teaching reduce our Theology, if I may so say it, to sociology. Let us strive to make clear the moral, not magical, effect of the Divine Passion, thus freeing God from the inability to save His children, where the dogmas of scholastic theory have imprisoned Him in that marvellous, complex, and perplexing edifice of a Theology whose foundation is a substitutionary sacrifice, and whose windows are materialistic theories of the Sacraments. Εἶδος γάρ τι μεταβολῆς, καὶ πάντων ὕστατον, ἡ ἀνάστασις ἥ τε τῶν κατ ̓ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον περιόντων ἔτι πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολή. ATHENAGORAS, On Resurrection, XII. The peculiar doctrine of Christianity is the Resurrection of the body, not the immortality of the soul. EDGAR, The Gospel of a Risen Saviour. Sit if ye will, sit down upon the ground, Yet not to weep and wail, but calmly look around. Whate'er befell, Earth is not hell; Now, too, as when it first began, Life is yet life, and man is man. For all that breathe beneath the heaven's high cope, Joy with grief mixes, with despondence hope. Hope conquers cowardice; joy grief; Or at least, faith unbelief. Though dead, not dead; Not gone, though fled; Not lost, though vanished. In the great Gospel and true creed, He is yet risen indeed; Christ is yet risen. 194 A. H. CLOUGH, Easter Day. ̓Αλλὰ φύσει οὖν τις ἡμῖν, θνητὸς φύσει ἐγένετο ὁ ἄνθρωπος; οὐδαμῶς. τί οὖν ἀθάνατος; οὐδὲ τοῦτο φαμέν. ἀλλὰ ἐρεῖ τίς οὐδὲν οὖν ἐγένετο, οὐδὲ τοῦτο. ἐγὼ μὲν, οὔτε οὖν φύσει θνητὸς ἐγένετο οὔτε ἀθάνατος. εἰ γὰρ ἀθάνατον αὐτὸν ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς ἐπεποιήκει, Θεὸν αὐτὸν ἐπεποιήκει· πάλιν εἰ θνητὸν αὐτὸν πεποιήκει, ἐδόκει ἂν ὁ Θεὸς εἶναι τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ· οὔτε οὖν ἀθάνατον αὐτὸν ἐποίησεν, οὔτε μὴν θνητὸν, ἀλλὰ καθὼς ἐπάνω προειρήκαμεν, δεκτικὸν ἀμφοτέρων· ἵνα ῥέψῃ ἐπὶ τὰ τῆς ἀθανασίας, τηρήσας τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ, μισθὸν κομίσηται παρ' αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀθανασίαν, καὶ γένηται Θεός· εἰ δ ̓ αὖ τραπῆ ἐπὶ τὰ τοῦ θανάτου πράγματα, παρακούσας τοῦ Θεοῦ, αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ αἴτιος ἡ τοῦ θανάτου. THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH, To Autolycus, Bk. II. Sive ergo caro, secundum communem fidem, sive corpus, secundum Apostolum, dicitur quod resurget, ita credendum est, sicut Apostolus definivit, quia quod resurget, in virtute resurget, et in gloria ; et incorruptibile resurget et spiritale corpus; quia corruptio incorruptionem non possidebit. The Preface of Rufinus to St. Pamphilus' Apology for Particularly the Resurrection of our bodies, restoring our perfect manhood to us (a point wholly new to the world, which no Religion had embraced, no reason could descry), was hereby so exemplified, that considering it, we can hardly be tempted to doubt of what the gospel teacheth about it. Dr. ISAAC BARROW, Works, II. 427. 195 |