Eccl 3:20

“The resurrection as a fact is not to be rejected because of an exceptional situation. Yet, since all things earthly return and crumble into the earth, I wonder how there can be any doubt even concerning the instances noted. For the most part, the sea itself also casts up on neighboring shores whatever human bodies it has swallowed. And if this were not so, it surely would not be difficult for God to join what has been scattered and to unite again what has been dispersed. Could it be maintained for a moment that God, whom the universe and the silent elements obey and nature serves, did not perform a greater miracle in giving life to clay than in joining it together?”

“[Daniel 7:17-18] "These four great beasts are the four kingdoms which shall arise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High God shall take the kingdom." The four kingdoms of which we have spoken above were earthly in character. "For everything which is of the earth shall return to earth" (Ecclesiastes 3:20). But the saints shall never possess an earthly kingdom, but only a heavenly. Away, then, with the fable about a millennium! (Revelation 20:4-6) "...And they shall possess the kingdom unto eternity, even forever and ever..." If this be taken to refer to the Maccabees, the advocate of this position should explain how the kingdom of the Maccabees is of a perpetual character.”

“"All go to the same place; all originate from dust and return to dust." It is not surprising that there is no distinction in this life between righteous and wicked, nor that none values virtues, but all things occur with uncertain outcome, where nothing seems to differ according to the worthlessness of the body between sheep and men: there is the same birth, common end in death; we proceed similarly towards the light and are equally dissolved into the dust. But there seems to be this difference, that the spirit of man ascends to the heavens, and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth, but from where do we know this for certain? Who can know whether what is hoped is true or false? But he says this, not because he thinks the spirit dies with the body, or that there's one place set aside for beasts and for man, but because before the arrival of Christ all were led equally to the nether regions. Jacob said that he was about to go down to those regions. And Job complains that the pious and impious are held back in the lower world. And the Gospel says that with an abyss blocking the way even Abraham and Lazarus were rich in prayers in the underworld. And in fact before Christ accompanied by a robber opened the wheel of flames, and the fiery rumpias and the gates of paradise, the heavens were closed and the equal unworthiness of the spirits of sheep and of men was abridged. One also seems to be dispersed and the other saved; but there is not much of a difference between dying with the body or being held in the darkness of the underworld. Let us look over these things one by one in paragraphs, and discuss them briefly. ...And though we only differ from beasts in language, though it is shown to us, how we are like the beasts - weak in body. Just as a beast dies, thus man dies, and one breath is for all, and that is the air that we breathe. For he says this: "and one spirit is for both, and there is nothing more for man than for beast." Since lest we think the text refers to the soul he adds: "all are made from earth and return to the earth." But nothing else except the body is made from earth, and quite relevant, regarding the body he continues: "you are earth and to the earth you will return."”

“In order, indeed, that you may have the fullest and clearest assurance that what is the soul is in the usage of the Holy Scriptures also called spirit, the soul of a brute animal has the designation of spirit. And of course cattle have not that spirit which you, my beloved brother, have defined as being distinct from the soul. It is therefore quite evident that the soul of a brute animal could be rightly called "spirit" in a general sense of the term; as we read in the book of Ecclesiastes, "Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, whether it goes upward; and the spirit of the beast, whether it goes downward into the earth?" In like manner, touching the devastation of the deluge, the Scripture testifies, "All flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and every man: and all things which have the spirit of life." Here, if we remove all the windings of doubtful disputation, we understand the term spirit to be synonymous with soul in its general sense. Of so wide a signification is this term, that even God is called "a spirit"; and a stormy blast of the air, although it has material substance, is called by the psalmist the "spirit" of a tempest. For all these reasons, therefore, you will no longer deny that what is the soul is called also spirit. I have, I think, adduced enough from the pages of Holy Scripture to secure your assent in passages where the soul of the very brute beast, which has no understanding, is designated spirit.”

“And he adds the likeness as regards matter: and therefore he says: All things are subject to vanity, namely, because they were made from nothing, therefore they are vain; Romans 8: "The creature was made subject to vanity." He does not say that nothing is the matter, but he means to say that they do not have uncreated matter nor essence, but they have created matter, which he understands by the name of earth. Therefore he says: And all things go to one place, namely to the matter from which they were made. From earth they were made and to earth alike they return, alike, that is, conformably. And thus the likeness in matter is noted: Ecclesiasticus 40: "All things that were made from earth shall return to earth: likewise also all waters shall return to the sea."”