All Things Restored to One Body

You see how he presents these opinions as a kind of secret mystery held by certain persons, of whom, however, he is one, as we have shown over and over again. Only, he uses this figure of speech so that he can escape the charges attached to this mystical gnosis. He will tell us: “You see how the matter stands. You would never think of attributing to me the opinion that all things are in the end to be restored to one condition and made up again into one body. I beg you not to charge this to me. If I say that an opinion is another man’s, let it be another’s. If afterward you find any opinion written down without some ‘other’ person being brought in, you will be right to ascribe it to me.” [a]

What then? Are we to lose the fruit of all the trouble we took earlier on this point? Such is the power of shamelessness. However, let it be as he chooses. I set aside the truth of the matter and accept his own terms; even so he will be convicted. On the matter now in hand I will refer to the second book of these Commentaries, at the passage, “Making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.” After several remarks, he goes on: “The question arises how there can be one hope of our calling, when in the Father’s house there are many dwelling places. To this we reply that the kingdom of heaven is the one hope of our calling, as being the one house of our Father, but that in one house there are many dwelling places, or rooms. For there is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, another of the stars. “But it is certainly possible that there is a deeper meaning: that at the end of the world all things are to be restored to their original condition, and that then we will all be made one body and formed anew into the perfect man, and that in this way the Savior’s prayer will be fulfilled in us: ‘Father, grant that, as you and I are one, so they also may be one in us.’”