On the Lord in our teaching, as if He
265 Were one to raise the soul, as having met
With ruin, and to set her free from death
So that the granted faculty of life
Upon the ground of sole desert (because
She bravely acted), should abide with her;
270 While she who ever shared the common lot
Of toil, the flesh, should to the earth be left,
The prey of a perennial death. Has, then,
The soul pleased God by acts of fortitude?
By no means could she Him have pleased alone
275 Without the flesh. Hath she borne penal bonds?
The flesh sustained upon her limbs the bonds.
Contemned she death? But she hath left the flesh
Behind in death. Groaned she in pain?
The flesh is slain and vanquisht by the wound. Repose
280 Seeks she? The flesh, spilt by the sword in dust,
Is left behind to fishes, birds, decay,
And ashes; torn she is, unhappy one!
And broken; scattered, she melts away.
Hath she not earned to rise? for what could she
285 Have e’er committed, lifeless and alone?
What so life-grudging cause impedes, or else
Forbids, the flesh to take God’s gifts, and live
Ever, conjoined with her comrade soul,
And see what she hath been, when formerly
290 Converted into dust? After, renewed,
Bear she to God deserved meeds of praise,
Not ignorant of herself, frail, mortal, sick.
Contend ye as to what the living might
Of the great God can do; who, good alike
295 And potent, grudges life to none? Was this
Death’s captive? shall this perish vanquished
Which the Lord hath with wondrous wisdom made,
And art? This by His virtue wonderful
Himself upraises; this our Leader’s self
300 Recalls, and this with His own glory clothes
God’s art and wisdom, then, our body shaped
What can by these be made, how faileth it
To be by virtue reproduced? No cause
Can holy parent-love withstand; (lest else
305 Ill’s cause should mightier prove than Power Supreme;)
That man even now saved by God’s gift, may learn
(Mortal before, now robed in light immense
Inviolable, wholly quickened, soul