Chapter 8. On the Joy the Senses of Touch Axd Taste Will Have.

ON the sense of taste theologians write, that the blessed will not use earthly food; but yet that this sense will have a certain pleasure, lest it should appear to be super fluous ; but this pleasure will be suitable to

the state and condition of the just. On the sense of touch, all agree that it will be possessed in heaven, since the bodies of the blessed can certainly be touched, being true and animated bodies, according to the words of our Lord : "Handle and see : for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have."

But we do not wish to enter on those points which are disputed in the schools. We believe, however, that the sense of touch will derive no small pleasure from the perpetual beauty of the body endowed with glorified properties, of which St. Paul speaks in his First Epistle to the Corinthians: "It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory. It is sown^ in weakness, it shall rise in power. It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body," cfec. (chap, xv.) , Of these four endowments or privileges of a glorified body, that concerning its splen dour relates to the sense of sight, as we have already mentioned; the other three seem properly to relate to the sense of touch. For as, when the body is attacked with any disorder, or receives a wound which is mortal, it is the sense of touch that suffers ; so also, when the body is in health, the same sense rejoices. Greatly, therefore, will the sense of touch rejoice in heaven, when, after the resurrection, the bodies of the blessed will be immortal and impassible, and, consequently, endowed with perpetual health. What would not

men give, and especially princes, if, during their whole life, they could be free from the gout, the head-ache, or any other pains? What then will be the joy in heaven, from which not only death, but every disease and sorrow will be far removed ! Wherefore, those endowments by which a corruptible body will rise incorruptible, and that which is infirm will become impassible, relate to the sense of touch. The endowments of agility and subtility, by which what is corporal will be spiritual, seem also to relate to the same sense. It will be a spiritual and glorified body ; not because it will not have truly flesh and bones, but because it will be so subject to the spirit, that, by the mere nod of the soul, it will be able without difficulty to move with the greatest velocity, to ascend and descend, to go and to return, to penetrate any place, as if it were not a body but a spirit. As, therefore, the sense of touch suffers when a heavy body is forced to ascend upwards, or to be moved from place to place quickly; so, on the contrary, it rejoices when the body without labour either ascends or passes quickly from place to place. Behold, then, from what a servitude of corruption the " blessed" will be free, when they will no more stand in need of horses, or chariots, or arms, or servants, or any other thing; but their bodies will of themselves go wherever they wish, and everywhere be free from danger, even in the midst of armed forces. 12

Would that those who cannot enjoy spiri tual delights because they have a vitiated taste, would at least consider these corpo ral endowments, which are so excellent and desirable, and seek after them ! And thus they might be induced gradually to ascend higher; and by these steps, they would at length, by the divine assistance, reach unto eternal joys.