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| So Much for the Prophetic Scriptures. In the Gospels, Christ's Parables, as Explained by Himself, Have a Clear Reference to the Resurrection of the Flesh.
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Chapter XXXIII.—So
Much for the Prophetic Scriptures. In the Gospels, Christ’s
Parables, as Explained by Himself, Have a Clear Reference to the
Resurrection of the Flesh.
This is evidence enough from the prophetic
Scriptures. I now appeal to the Gospels. But here also I must first
meet the same sophistry as advanced by those who contend that the Lord,
like (the prophets), said everything in the way of allegory, because it
is written: “All these things spake Jesus in parables, and
without a parable spake He not unto them,”7496
that is, to the Jews. Now the disciples also
asked Him, “Why speakest Thou in parables?”7497
And the Lord gave them this answer:
“Therefore I speak unto them in parables: because they seeing,
see not; and hearing, they hear not, according to the prophecy of
Esaias.”7498
But since it was to
the Jews that He spoke in parables, it was not then to all men; and if
not to all, it follows that it was not always and in all things
parables with Him, but only in certain things, and when addressing a
particular class. But He addressed a particular class when He spoke to
the Jews. It is true that He spoke sometimes even to the disciples in
parables. But observe how the Scripture relates such a fact:
“And He spake a parable unto them.”7499
It
follows, then, that He did not usually address them in parables;
because if He always did so, special mention would not be made of His
resorting to this mode of address. Besides, there is not a parable
which you will not find to be either explained by the Lord Himself, as
that of the sower, (which He interprets) of the management of the word
of God;7500
or else cleared by
a preface from the writer of the Gospel, as in the parable of the
arrogant judge and the importunate widow, which is expressly
applied to earnestness in prayer;7501
or
capable of being spontaneously understood,7502
| 7502 Such cases of obvious
meaning, which required no explanation, are referred to in Matt. xxi. 45 and Luke xx. 19. | as
in the parable of the fig-tree, which was spared a while in hopes of
improvement—an emblem of Jewish sterility. Now,
if even parables obscure not
the light of the gospel, how unlikely it is that plain sentences and
declarations, which have an unmistakeable meaning, should signify any
other thing than their literal sense! But it is by such declarations
and sentences that the Lord sets forth either the last judgment, or the
kingdom, or the resurrection: “It shall be more tolerable,”
He says, “for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for
you.”7503
And “Tell
them that the kingdom of God is at hand.”7504
And again, “It shall be recompensed to you at the resurrection of
the just.”7505
Now, if the mention
of these events (I mean the judgment-day, and the kingdom of God, and
the resurrection) has a plain and absolute sense, so that nothing about
them can be pressed into an allegory, neither should those statements
be forced into parables which describe the arrangement, and the
process, and the experience of the kingdom of God, and of the
judgment, and of the resurrection. On the contrary, things which are
destined for the body should be carefully understood in a bodily
sense,—not in a spiritual sense, as having nothing figurative in
their nature. This is the reason why we have laid it down as a
preliminary consideration, that the bodily substance both of the soul
and of the flesh is liable to the recompense, which will have to be
awarded in return for the co-operation of the two natures, that so the
corporeality of the soul may not exclude the bodily nature of the flesh
by suggesting a recourse to figurative descriptions, since both of them
must needs be regarded as destined to take part in the kingdom, and the
judgment, and the resurrection. And now we proceed to the special proof
of this proposition, that the bodily character of the flesh is
indicated by our Lord whenever He mentions the resurrection, at the
same time without disparagement to the corporeal nature of the
soul,—a point which has been actually admitted but by a
few.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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