liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh 1 shall see my God.” I know this; I am sure of it; I cannot doubt it. But what art thou saying, holy Prophet? Art thou really to rise again? and in thine own flesh? Thou seest that it is already being gnawed by the worms. Art thou to see thy God in that body of thine, which is already corrupting, so that thou hast to scrape off the putrid matter? And is that to happen on the last day, when thou shalt have been long turned into dust and ashes? Perhaps thou art speaking of another skin, another body like the one thou now hast, in which thou shalt see thy God? No, he answers; “Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”[1] I, who am now sitting on this dung hill, shall see my God; these eyes and no others shall look on Him; I shall rise again in this skin of mine, and in no other, in this flesh and no otrier. I know that; I am certain of it. But how art thou so certain of it? Who has taught it thee, since it is not yet written in any law? Reason alone cannot teach such a truth, for it seems contrary to all reason that a body which has once decayed should return to its original form and life again. All the wisdom of the world will cry down this doctrine of the resurrection of the body when it shall be preached, and will declare it impossible. How then canst thou be so certain of it? Truly I am quite certain of it; I know it; I have not learned it in any human school; it is a mystery that God Himself has taught me; that is enough for me to look on it as an indubitable truth. God has indeed set before me countless figures of my approaching resurrection; almost all creatures I see do hardly anything but die and live again; the day dies, as it were in the evening, and comes to life again in the morning; the year dies in winter, and comes to life again in spring; the trees lose their fruit and leaves and die with the year; but in spring they recover their former beauty and life. These and a hundred other natural phenomena place before my eyes the resurrection from the dead; but I am not influenced by those things in my belief. God has revealed it to me, and that i& enough. I know therefore, beyond a possibility of doubt, “that in the last day I
- ↑ Quis mihi tribuat ut scribantur sermones mei? Quis mihi det ut exarentur in libro, stylo ferreo, et plumbi lamina, vel celte sculpantur in silice? Scio enim quod Redemptor meus vivit, et in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum; et rursum circumdabor pelle mea, et in carne mea videbo Deum meum. Quem visurus sum ego ipse, et oculi mei conspecturi sunt, et non alius.—Job xix. 23–37.
