Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/448

420 last trumpet, at the sound of which the wind of revivification shall blow and enter into those who shall be alive, and shall divest them of their grossness, and suddenly, as in the twinkling of an eye, they shall be changed into the likeness of Angels. And it shall likewise enter into the dead, and these also shall rise up incorruptible. Then shall the righteous ascend up into the kingdom of heaven, and shall enter with their into the chamber of the Bridegroom above, and with unspeakable joy shall exult in the visions and revelations which through His light shall shine in upon them. This is true happiness. But, as to the wicked, they shall remain upon the earth in darkness in which none can walk, and shall be consumed with the fire of remorse for those things which they have committed, and because they bartered everlasting bliss for temporal and deceptive enjoyments, and a real possession for the dung of earth. This is the true hell, whose fire is not quenched, and whose worm dieth not.

But as to those who are deceived, and who fancy that everlasting life consists of something corporeal, such as eating, and drinking, and marriage, things which appertain to mortals, our Saviour reproves such when He says: "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels oof [sic] in heaven." Eating and drinking are profitable for the body, because by replacing the humours which go out thence they preserve the person from decay. And marriage, likewise, by raising up one for the one who dies, keeps up the species until the number decreed in the Everlasting Purpose is made up. Then as these two effects will cease, the causes also by which they existed must necessarily cease. Moreover all carnal blessings serve for the warding off of pain; but, as we have before observed, when man exceeds in the use of them they turn into evils. As, for example, meat and drink: one realizes the blessings of these after the pain experienced from hunger and thirst; but used inordinately and greedily, they bring pain and disease, if not death. And so with all the good things of this world; but with spiritual blessings it is not so, for the more one desires and partakes of these, he ever desireth more, as is seen in the case of those who seek after knowledge, science, and wisdom.

But, now, should any doubtingly inquire how bodies can rise