righteous as is promised to us in the end; and if they slept not
again by laying aside their bodies, it remains to be seen how Christ
can be understood to be 'the first-born of the dead,' if so many
preceded Him unto that resurrection. Now if reply be made that this
is said by anticipation, so that the monuments be understood to have
been opened by the earthquake while Christ was still hanging on the
cross, but that the bodies of the just did not rise then but after He
had risen, the difficulty still arises--how is it that Peter asserts
that it was predicted not of David but of Christ, that His body would
not see corruption, since David's tomb was in their midst; and thus
he did not convince them, if David's body was no longer there; for
even if he had risen soon after his death, and his flesh had not seen
corruption, his tomb might nevertheless remain. Now it seems hard
that David from whose seed Christ is descended, was not in that
rising of the just, if an eternal rising was conferred upon them.
Also that saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews (11:40) regarding the
ancient just would be hard to explain, 'that they should not be
perfected without us,' if they were already established in that
incorruption of the resurrection which is promised at the end when we
shall be made perfect": so that Augustine would seem to think that
they rose to die again. In this sense Jerome also in commenting on
Matthew (27:52, 53) says: "As Lazarus rose, so also many of the
bodies of the saints rose, that they might bear witness to the risen
Christ." Nevertheless in a sermon for the Assumption [*Ep. ix ad
Paul. et Eustoch.; among the supposititious works ascribed to St.
Jerome] he seems to leave the matter doubtful. But Augustine's
reasons seem to be much more cogent.

Reply Obj. 3: As everything preceding Christ's coming was preparatory
for Christ, so is grace a disposition for glory. Consequently, it
behooved all things appertaining to glory, whether they regard the
soul, as the perfect fruition of God, or whether they regard the
body, as the glorious resurrection, to be first in Christ as the
author of glory: but that grace should be first in those that were
ordained unto Christ.
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FOURTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 53, Art. 4]

Whether Christ Was the Cause of His Own Resurrection?

Objection 1: It seems that Christ was not the cause of His own
Resurrection. For whoever is raised up by another is not the cause of
his