Article 19

In the nineteenth article, the question is raised whether the bodies of the saints will be incorruptible in three ways after the day of judgment; namely, by divine justice, by glory, and by nature (i.e., naturally).

One is not able to find fault with this in regard to the first two points, but as regards the third, one can find fault if it is understood such that nature alone suffices for the incorruption of the human body as if the incorruption of the human body were caused by nature as by an agent. For the power of some created nature does not extend itself to this that it is able to confer incorruptibility upon corruptible things. It was also said above (See article 10.) that according to the order of nature, human bodies and all mixed bodies would be corrupted if the motion of heaven were to cease. The immortality of human bodies after the resurrection will not, therefore, be from the power of nature but from the divine power, through which human bodies will be preserved in being. But it is true that the natural cause of corruption, which is the motion of heaven, will have been taken away. For just as the motion of the heavens is the cause of the generation of mixed bodies, so is it the cause of their corruption. Supposing, therefore, the preservation of human bodies by the divine power, there will not be some agent cause of their corruption. And in this way, one might be able to maintain that such incorruption would be by nature since the natural cause of corruption will have been taken away. In this manner of speaking, one could say the submersion of a ship is due to the helmsman because it is imperiled by his absence.