But further, if the body be of such a kind that its governance is difficult and burdensome — as is this flesh, which decays and weighs down the soul, springing as it does from the propagation of transgression — then the mind is turned away all the more from that vision of the highest heaven; whence it was of necessity to be caught up away from the senses of that same flesh, so that there might be shown to it, in whatever way it could grasp it, that thing. Accordingly, when this body, being now no longer animal but, through the change to come, made spiritual and set equal to the angels, shall have received the perfect measure of its own nature — obeying and commanding, made alive and giving life with so unspeakable an ease — then that which was a burden to it shall be for it a glory.
For assuredly there shall be even then these three kinds of vision; yet by no falsehood shall one thing be taken for another, neither in bodily things nor in things seen in the spirit, and much less in things of the intellect — which, thus set before us and made clear, the mind shall enjoy so fully that these bodily appearances, which we now touch by the sense of the flesh, lie before us with far less evidence. To these bodily appearances many are so given over that they think these alone exist, and reckon that whatever is not of this kind has no being at all.
The wise, however, are so disposed toward these bodily things seen that, although these seem more present to them, they are nonetheless more certain concerning those things which, beyond the appearance of body and beyond the likeness of body, they somehow foresee by understanding — even though they are not able to behold these with the mind as they gaze upon the former by the sense of the body.
But the holy angels both preside over these bodily things, to judge and administer them, yet are not inclined toward them as toward things more present and familiar; and they discern their significative likenesses in the spirit, and handle them, so to speak, with such power that they can even mingle them, by revealing, with the spirits of men; and they behold that unchangeable substance of the Creator in such a way that, by vision and by love, they both set it above all things, and judge of all things according to it, and are directed toward it so as to be moved by it, and out of it direct whatever they do.
Finally, although the apostle was caught up away from the senses of the flesh into the third heaven and paradise, this one thing at least was lacking to him for the full and perfect knowledge of the things that are present to the angels: namely, that he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body. This surely shall not be lacking when, our bodies being received back in the resurrection of the dead, this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality. For all things shall be evident, without any falsehood, without any ignorance, distributed in their proper orders — both bodily and spiritual and intellectual — in a nature made whole and a blessedness made perfect.
I know indeed that some of those who are praised for having treated the holy Scriptures before us in the catholic faith have expounded even in this way what the apostle calls the third heaven: namely, that they would have the differences of the bodily, the animal, and the spiritual man understood here, and that the apostle was rapt to contemplate, with surpassing clarity, that class of incorporeal things — which class even in this life spiritual men love above all other things and long to enjoy. But why I should have preferred to say 'spiritual' and 'intellectual' for what they perhaps called 'animal' and 'spiritual' — so as merely to set down other names for the same things — I have already, in the first parts of this book, discussed sufficiently.
If we have rightly argued these matters according to our small measure, then either the spiritual reader will approve them, or — that he may become spiritual — with the help of the Holy Spirit he will profit something from this reading. But now at last, with this ending, we bring to a close this whole work, which is contained in twelve books.