On the Resurrection of the Dead 13

Trusting in these things no less than in what has already happened, and considering our own nature, we are content with the life that is bound up with want and corruption, as befitting the present existence, and we firmly hope for continuance in incorruption. This hope we do not idly make up from human sources, feeding ourselves on false hopes; we have put our trust in a most unfailing pledge, the purpose of the one who created us. According to this purpose he made the human being of an immortal soul and a body, and furnished him with intelligence and an innate law, to preserve and safeguard the gifts he had given that befit an intelligent existence and a rational life. We know well that he would not have fashioned such a living being and furnished it with everything needed for continuance if he did not will that what he made should continue. If, then, the Maker of this universe made the human being to share in an intelligent life, and, having become a beholder of his majesty and of his wisdom in all things, to continue forever in the contemplation of these, according to God's purpose and the nature the human being received, then the cause of his creation guarantees his everlasting continuance, and his continuance guarantees the resurrection, without which the human being would not continue. From what has been said it is clear that the resurrection is plainly shown by the cause of creation and by the purpose of the Maker. Such being the cause for which the human being was brought into this world, it would be fitting to consider next the argument that follows from it naturally or in due sequence. In the order of inquiry, the nature of the human beings created follows the cause of their creation; the just judgment of their Maker upon them follows their nature; and the end of their life follows all of these. Having examined what comes first, we must next consider the nature of human beings.