Christ, by forgiving our sins, opened the way to our home
Further, when we are on the way, and that not a way that lies
through space, but through a change of affections, and one which
the guilt of our past sins like a hedge of thorns barred against
us, what could He, who was willing to lay Himself down as the
way by which we should return, do that would be still gracious
and more merciful, except to forgive us all our sins, and by
being crucified for us to remove the stern decrees that barred
the door against our return?
The keys given to the Church
He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever
it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
it should loose on earth might be loosed in heaven; that is to
say, that whosoever in the Church should not believe that his
sins are remitted, they should not be remitted to him; but that
whosoever should believe, and should repent, and turn from his
sins, should be saved by the same faith and repentance on the
ground of which he is received into the bosom of the Church.
For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned, falls
into despair, and becomes worse, as if no greater good remained
for him than to be evil, when he has ceased to have faith in
the results of his own repentance.
Bodily and spiritual death and resurrection
Furthermore, as there is a kind of death of the soul, which consists
in the putting away of former habits and former ways of life,
and which comes through repentance, so also the death of the
body consists in the dissolution of the former principle of life.
And just as the soul, after it has put away and destroyed by
repentance its former habits, is created anew after a better
pattern, so we must hope and believe that the body, after that
death which we all owe as a debt contracted through sin, shall
at the resurrection be changed into a better form;--not that
flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom of God (for that is
impossible), but that this corruptible shall put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall put on immortality. And thus the body,
being the source of no uneasiness because it can feel no want,
shall be animated by a spirit perfectly pure and happy, and shall
enjoy unbroken peace.
The resurrection to damnation
Now he whose soul does not die to this world and begin here to
be conformed to the truth, falls when the body dies into a more
terrible death, and shall revive, not to change his earthly for
a heavenly habitation, but to endure the penalty of his sin.
Neither body nor soul extinguished at death
And so faith clings to the assurance, and we must believe that
it is so in fact, that neither the human soul nor the human body
suffers complete extinction, but that the wicked rise again to
endure inconceivable punishment, and the good to receive eternal
life.
God alone to be enjoyed
Among all these things, then, those only are the true objects
of enjoyment which we have spoken of as eternal and unchangeable.
The rest are for use, that we may be able to arrive at the full
enjoyment of the former. We, however, who enjoy and use other
things are things ourselves. For a great thing truly is man,
made after the image and similitude of God, not as respects the
mortal body in which he is clothed, but as respects the rational
soul by which he is exalted in honour above the beasts. And so
it becomes an important question, whether men ought to enjoy,
or to use, themselves, or to do both. For we are commanded to
love one another: but it is a question whether man is to be loved
by man for his own sake, or for the sake of something else. If
it is for his own sake, we enjoy him; if it is for the sake of
something else, we use him. It seems to me, then, that he is
to be loved for the sake of something else. For if a thing is
to be loved for its own sake, then in the enjoyment of it consists
a happy life, the hope of which at least, if not yet the reality,
is our comfort in the present time. But a curse is pronounced
on him who places his hope in man. 21. Neither ought any one
to have joy in himself, if you look at the matter clearly, because
no one ought to love even himself for his own sake, but for the
sake of Him who is the true object of enjoyment. For a man is
never in so good a state as when his whole life is a journey
towards the unchangeable life, and his affections are entirely
fixed upon that. If, however, he loves himself for his own sake,
he does not look at himself in relation to God, but turns his
mind in upon himself, and so is not occupied with anything that
is unchangeable. And thus he does not enjoy himself at his best,
because he is better when his mind is fully fixed upon, and his
affections wrapped up in, the unchangeable good, than when he
turns from that to enjoy even himself. Wherefore if you ought
not to love even yourself for your own sake, but for His in whom
your love finds its most worthy object, no other man has a right
to be angry if you love him too for God's sake. For this is the
law of love that has been laid down by Divine authority: "Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" but, "Thou shalt
love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind:" so that you are to concentrate all your thoughts,
your whole life, and your whole intelligence upon Him from whom
you derive all that you bring. For when He says, "With all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,"
He means that no part of our life is to be unoccupied, and to
afford room, as it were, for the wish to enjoy some other object,
but that whatever else may suggest itself to us as an object
worthy of love is to be borne into the same channel in which
the whole current of our affections flows. Whoever, then, loves
his neighbour aright, ought to urge upon him that he too should
love God with his whole heart, and soul, and mind. For in this
way, loving his neighbour as himself, a man turns the whole current
of his love both for himself and his neighbour into the channel
of the love of God, which suffers no stream to be drawn off from
itself by whose diversion its own volume would be diminished.
Man needs no injunction to love himself and his own body
Those things which are objects of use are not all, however, to
be loved, but those only which are either united with us in a
common relation to God, such as a man or an angel, or are so
related to us as to need the goodness of God through our instrumentality,
such as the body. For assuredly the martyrs did not love the
wickedness of their persecutors, although they used it to attain
the favour of God. As, then, there are four kinds of things that
are to be loved,--first, that which is above us; second, ourselves;
third, that which is on a level with us; fourth, that which is
beneath us,--no precepts need be given about the second and fourth
of these. For, however far a man may fall away from the truth,
he still continues to love himself, and to love his own body.
The soul which flies away from the unchangeable Light, the Ruler
of all things, does so that it may rule over itself and over
its own body; and so it cannot but love both itself and its own
body.
Forever, it thinks it has attained something
very great if it is able to lord it over its companions, that
is, other men. For it is inherent in the sinful soul to desire
above all things, and to claim as due to itself, that which is
properly due to God only. Now such love of itself is more correctly
called hate. For it is not just that it should desire what is
beneath it to be obedient to it while itself will not obey its
own superior; and most justly has it been said, "He who
loveth iniquity hateth his own soul." And accordingly the
soul becomes weak, and endures much suffering about the mortal
body. For, of course, it must love the body, and be grieved at
its corruption; and the immortality and incorruptibility of the
body spring out of the health of the soul. Now the health of
the soul is to cling steadfastly to the better part, that is,
to the unchangeable God. But when it aspires to lord it even
over those who are by nature its equals,-- that is, its fellow-men,--
this is a reach of arrogance utterly intolerable.
No man hates his own flesh, not even those who abuse it
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.
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 fleshy 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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