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24. No man, then, hates himself. On this point, indeed, no
question was ever raised by any sect. But neither does any man hate
his own body. For the apostle says truly, "No man ever yet hated
his own flesh." And when some people say that they would rather be
without a body altogether, they entirely deceive themselves. For it
is not their body, but its corruptions and its heaviness, that they
hate. And so it is not no body, but an uncorrupted and very light
body, that they want. But they think a body of that kind would be no
body at all, because they think such a thing as that must be a spirit.
And as to the fact that they seem in some sort to scourge their bodies
by abstinence and toil, those who do this in the right spirit do it not
that they may get rid of their body, but that they may have it in
subjection and ready for every needful work. For they strive by a kind
of toilsome exercise of the body itself to root out those lusts that are
hurtful to the body, that is, those habits and affections of the soul
that lead to the enjoyment of unworthy objects. They are not
destroying themselves; they are taking care of their health.
25. Those, on the other hand, who do this in a perverse spirit,
make war upon their own body as if it were a natural enemy. And in
this matter they are led astray by a mistaken interpretation of what
they read: "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other." For
this is said of the carnal habit yet unsubdued, against which the
spirit lusteth, not to destroy the body, but to eradicate the lust of
the body i.e., its evil habit and thus to make it subject to the
spirit, which is what the order of nature demands. For as, after the
resurrection, the body, having become wholly subject to the spirit,
will live in perfect peace to all eternity; even in this life we must
make it an object to have the carnal habit changed for the better, so
that its inordinate affections may not war against the soul. And until
this shall take place, "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the
spirit against the flesh;" the spirit struggling, not in hatred, but
for the mastery, because it desires that what it loves should be
subject to the higher principle; and the flesh struggling, not in
hatred, but because of the bondage of habit which it has derived from
its parent stock, and which has grown in upon it by a law of nature
till it has become inveterate. The spirit, then, in subduing the
flesh, is working as it were to destroy the ill-founded peace of an
evil habit, and to bring about the real peace which springs out of a
good habit. Nevertheless, not even those who, led astray by false
notions, hate their bodies would be prepared to sacrifice one eye,
even supposing they could do so without suffering any pain, and that
they had as much sight left in one as they formerly had in two, unless
some object was to be attained which would overbalance the loss. This
and other indications of the same kind are sufficient to show those who
candidly seek the truth how well-founded is the statement of the
apostle when he says, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh." He
adds too, "but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the
Church."
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