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On the Resurrection of the Flesh
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Chapter 17. The Flesh Will Be Associated with the Soul in Enduring the Penal Sentences of the Final Judgment.
ANY UNEDUCATED PERSON WHO AGREES WITH OUR VIEW MAY BE READY TO THINK THAT THE FLESH MUST BE PRESENT AT THE FINAL JUDGMENT FOR THIS REASON ALSO: otherwise, the soul would be unable to suffer pain or enjoy pleasure, since it is not bodily. That is the common opinion. But we maintain here, and we prove in a special treatise on this subject, that the soul is bodily, having its own special kind of solid nature. Because of this, it can both perceive and suffer. That souls even now can suffer torment and receive blessing in Hades, though they are without the body and separated from the flesh, is proved by the case of Lazarus. I have no doubt given my opponent an opportunity to say, "If the soul, then, has a bodily substance of its own, it will have enough ability to suffer and to perceive, and so it will not need the presence of the flesh." No, no, I reply. It will still need the flesh. Not because it cannot feel anything without the help of the flesh, but because it must have that ability together with the flesh. For to the same extent that it has enough power of its own to act, it also has the ability to suffer. But the truth is that, with respect to action, it has a certain degree of inability. By its own nature, it can only think, will, desire, and plan. But to carry out its purpose fully, it looks for the help of the flesh. In the same way, it also needs union with the flesh in order to endure suffering, so that with the flesh's help it may be as fully able to suffer as, without the flesh's help, it was not fully able to act. Now, in the case of those sins such as lust, thought, and desire, which it is able to commit by itself, it immediately pays the penalty for them. No doubt, if these alone were enough to make up full guilt, without needing the addition of outward acts, then the soul by itself would be enough to bear the full responsibility of the judgment, since it would be judged for those things in doing which it alone had enough ability. But acts also are inseparably joined to guilt. And acts are carried out in service by the flesh. Therefore, it is no longer enough for the soul apart from the flesh to be repaid with pleasure or pain for what are actually works of the flesh, although it has a body of its own, and although it has members of its own. These, in the same way, are not enough for its full perception, just as they are also not enough for its complete action. Therefore, just as it has acted in each case, so it suffers in proportion in Hades. It is the first to taste judgment, just as it was the first to lead to the committing of sin. But it is still waiting for the flesh, so that through the flesh also it may pay for its deeds, since it laid on the flesh the carrying out of its own thoughts. In short, this will be the course of that judgment which is delayed until the last great day, so that by the appearance of the flesh the whole process of divine vengeance may be completed. Besides, it is clear to say that there would be no delaying until the end of that punishment which souls are already tasting in Hades, if it were intended for souls alone.
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