Imagine God wholly employed and absorbed in it\u2014in His hand, His eye, His labour, His purpose, His wisdom, His providence, and above all, in His love, which was dictating the lineaments (of this creature). For, whatever was the form and expression which was then given to the clay (by the Creator) Christ was in His thoughts as one day to become man, because the Word, too, was to be both clay and flesh, even as the earth was then. For so did the Father previously say to the Son: \u201cLet us make man in our own image, after our likeness.\u201d And God made man, that is to say, the creature which He moulded and fashioned; after the image of God (in other words, of Christ) did He make him. And the Word was God also, who being in the image of God, \u201cthought it not robbery to be equal to God.\u201d Thus, that clay which was even then putting on the image of Christ, who was to come in the flesh, was not only the work, but also the pledge and surety, of God.
\n…
\nEven if any other material had been available for forming man, it would be requisite that the dignity of the Maker should be taken into consideration, who even by His selection of His material deemed it, and by His management made it, worthy. The hand of Phidias forms the Olympian Jupiter of ivory; worship is given to the statue, and it is no longer regarded as a god formed out of a most silly animal, but as the world\u2019s supreme Deity\u2014 not because of the bulk of the elephant, but on account of the renown of Phidias. Could not therefore the living God, the true God, purge away by His own operation whatever vileness might have accrued to His material, and heal it of all infirmity? Or must this remain to show how much more nobly man could fabricate a god, than God could form a man?
\n— On the Resurrection of the Flesh VI<\/p>\n
Since the soul is, in consequence of its salvation, chosen to the service of God, it is the flesh which actually renders it capable of such service. The flesh, indeed, is washed, in order that the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed (with the cross), that the soul too may be fortified; the flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands, that the soul also maybe illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may fatten on its God. They cannot then be separated in their recompense, when they are united in their service. Those sacrifices, moreover, which are acceptable to God\u2014I mean conflicts of the soul, fastings, and abstinences, and the humiliations which are annexed to such duty\u2014it is the flesh which performs again and again to its own especial suffering.
\n— On the Resurrection of the Flesh VIII<\/p>\n
To recapitulate, then: Shall that very flesh, which the Divine Creator formed with His own hands in the image of God; which He animated with His own afflatus , after the likeness of His own vital vigour; which He set over all the works of His hand, to dwell amongst, to enjoy, and to rule them; which He clothed with His sacraments and His instructions; whose purity He loves, whose mortifications He approves; whose sufferings for Himself He deems precious;\u2014(shall that flesh, I say), so often brought near to God, not rise again? God forbid, God forbid, (I repeat), that He should abandon to everlasting destruction the labour of His own hands, the care of His own thoughts, the receptacle of His own Spirit, the queen of His creation, the inheritor of His own liberality, the priestess of His religion, the champion of His testimony, the sister of His Christ!
\n— On the Resurrection of the Flesh IX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Creation of Man Imagine God wholly employed and absorbed in it\u2014in His hand, His eye, His labour, His purpose, His wisdom, His providence, and above all, in His love, which was dictating the lineaments (of this creature). For, whatever was the form and expression which was then given to the clay (by the Creator) Christ was in His thoughts as one day to become man, because the Word, too, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[121],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tertullian","tag-resurrection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":994,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-the-glory-of-the-resurrected-body\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":0},"title":"Tertullian on the Glory of the Resurrected Body","author":"Nemo","date":"January 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The truth is, it is sown the barest grain, without a husk to cover it, without a spike even in germ, without the protection of a bearded top, without the glory of a stalk. It rises, however, out of the furrow enriched with a copious crop, built up in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":980,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-on-the-flesh-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":1},"title":"Tertullian: On the Flesh of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"January 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Virgin Birth He who was going to consecrate a new order of birth, must Himself be born after a novel fashion, concerning which Isaiah foretold how that the Lord Himself would give the sign. What, then, is the sign? \u201cBehold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.\u201d Accordingly,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":784,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-on-the-divinity-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":2},"title":"Tertullian: On the Divinity of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"January 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"God made the world, and all which it contains, by His Word, and Reason, and Power. ... The Word, and Reason, and Power, by which God made all, have spirit as their proper and essential substratum, in which the Word has in being to give forth utterances, and reason abides\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":913,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-the-prescription-against-heretics\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":3},"title":"Tertullian: The Prescription Against Heretics","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Rule of Faith Now, with regard to this rule of faith\u2014that we may from this point acknowledge what it is which we defend\u2014it is, you must know, that which prescribes the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":944,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-against-marcion\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":4},"title":"Tertullian: Against Marcion","author":"Nemo","date":"January 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"You may, I assure you, more easily find a man born without a heart or without brains, like Marcion himself, than without a body, like Marcion\u2019s Christ. -- Against Marcion IV.X It would have been but right that a new god should first be expounded, and his discipline be introduced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":956,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-christ-as-lord-of-the-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":988,"position":5},"title":"Tertullian: Christ as Lord of the Sabbath","author":"Nemo","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"For although the Creator had forbidden that the manna should be gathered for two days, He yet permitted it on the one occasion only of the day before the Sabbath, in order that the yesterday\u2019s provision of food might free from fasting the feast of the following Sabbath-day. ... 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