Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
For how absurd — indeed how unjust, and both together how unworthy of God — that one substance should do the work and another be paid the wage: that this flesh should be torn apart in martyrdoms while another is crowned, and conversely that this flesh should wallow in filth while another is condemned! Is it not better to strip away all faith at once from the hope of resurrection, than to trifle with God's seriousness and justice — Marcion raised up in Valentinus's place? — seeing that it is not credible that today's man's mind, memory, or conscience should be wiped out by that transforming garment of immortality and incorruption, leaving the reward and fruit of the resurrection void, and the standing of the divine judgment on both sides empty? If I do not remember that I am the one who earned it, how shall I give glory to God? How shall I sing him a new song, not knowing that I am the one who owes him the thanks? And why is only the flesh's change singled out, and not the soul's along with it, when the soul has presided over the flesh in everything? What sense would it make for the very soul that, in this flesh, ran the whole course of its life, that in this flesh learned God, put on Christ, and sowed the hope of salvation, to reap its harvest in some other, unknown flesh? A most fortunate flesh indeed, to have life come to it free of charge! But if the soul too is not going to be changed, then the soul's resurrection likewise falls away — for it too will not be believed to have risen, unless it is another soul that has risen.