Chapter 38.

Now we must pay attention to how they, like sleepy people, carried away by manifold deceptions, point to the words of the Apostle: "I once lived without the law" (Romans 7:9), and say that the Apostle understood our life before the commandment in the original life before the body, which is shown by the following words: "I am carnal, sold to sin" (v. 14); for a man could not have been made subject to evil, having been sold to it as a result of a crime, if he had not become fleshly; since, according to them, the soul in itself is inaccessible to sin, therefore the Apostle added with intention: "But I am carnal, sold to sin," having said before, "I once lived without law." At such words many at that time were astonished and amazed, but now, when the truth has already been more clearly revealed, they are not only far erroneous, but have also reached the point of extreme blasphemy; Admitting that souls before the commandment lived without a body, and judging that they in themselves are completely inaccessible to sin, they again refuted their teaching, or better than themselves. For they adopt to them the bodies which they received afterwards as a punishment for having sinned before the body, and at the same time they bring disapproval upon themselves, likening the body to fetters and fetters, and saying other nonsense. Meanwhile, as it is said, everything is the opposite. For the soul must exist together with the body before sin; for if the soul in itself is inaccessible to sin, then it would in no way have sinned before the body; and if she has sinned, then she is no longer inaccessible to sin, but rather is easily inclined and easily accessible, and consequently she will sin again, even if she did not receive this body, as she sinned before receiving it. And in general, why would she have received a body later, after committing a sin? And what was her need for a body? If in order to endure torments and sorrows, then why does she, together with the body, luxuriate and debauchery? How is it also autocratic in this world? For it depends on us to correct and sin, and for us to do good and do evil. And can we expect a future judgment after this, in which God will reward each according to his deeds and intentions? Shall we not admit that judgment already exists, if to be born and enter into the body for the soul is to be condemned and to receive retribution, and to die and be separated from the body is to be freed and come to rest, because, in your opinion, it is imprisoned in the body for condemnation and punishment for having sinned before the body? But reasoning has sufficiently and abundantly proved that it is impossible to admit that the body is the place of torment and the bondage of the soul.

Chapter 39.

And so, having proved from the Scriptures themselves that the first created crime consisted of soul and body, we can be satisfied and conclude here the discourse on this subject. Now, in order not to disturb the order of speech, I will examine their doctrine in its main foundations, in order to refute the principles of their arguments by objections. For you can already see, judges, that the words spoken in the Epistle to the Romans, "I once lived without the law," cannot, according to their opinion, indicate the life of the soul before the body, as the words that follow show, even though this famous physician, having torn out the following, strives to change the words of the Apostle to a sense suitable for him, acting in this case not as a physician, but as a child. For instead of preserving the bodily members in their own articulations and connections, so that the whole natural appearance of the body might be intact, he, without paying attention, disfigured the connection of the Scriptures, like the Scythian who mercilessly cuts the limbs of some enemy in order to destroy him. So be it; how, it will be said, did the Apostle understand these words, when you proved that they do not have such a meaning? I would say that he calls the commandment the law. Let it be first of all, according to our assumption, that he called the commandment the law, and at the same time he did not say that the first-created one before the commandment lived without a body, but only without sin. For not much time passed from his creation to the commandment, when he lived without sin, not without a body, but with a body. Soon after the commandment he was expelled, having spent a very short time in paradise. And if anyone, using the following saying, "When we lived according to the flesh, then the sinful passions revealed by the law were at work in our members," thinks that the Apostle rebukes and accuses the flesh, and adds to this what is said about the same thing in other places, namely, that the justification of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, or again: for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit on the things of the spirit; carnal thoughts are death, but spiritual thoughts are life and peace; for the carnal mind is enmity against God; for they do not obey the law of God, nor can they; but ye do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:4-9), then he must be told: Have the Apostle already renounced life and those to whom he wrote this, if in this passage he did not condemn the life according to the flesh, but the flesh, or was he still in the flesh? But that he was not in the flesh when he wrote this cannot be said; for it is evident that he himself was in the flesh, and those to whom he wrote this. If neither he himself was already in the flesh, nor those to whom he writes, then how could he say: when we lived according to the flesh, then the sinful passions revealed by the law were at work in our members? Thus he discusses the life of intemperance, and not of the flesh itself; for he usually calls the man who lives in this way carnal, as well as the natural man who has lost hope of seeing the truth and the light of the sacrament. Let it be said that the soul cannot be saved at all. For it is written: The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, because he considers them foolishness; but the spiritual judge all things (1 Cor. 2:15). Along with the natural, there is also a spiritual man, the spiritual one among those who are saved, and the spiritual one among those who are perishing, and not because the soul perishes, but because something else besides the soul is saved; so here, when he says that those who are carnal and those who are in the flesh perish and cannot please God, he does not try to destroy the flesh, but the life according to the flesh. Further he says: "Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God; and immediately he adds: but ye do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwelleth in you; and a little further: If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. And so, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh to live according to the flesh: for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if ye mortify the works of the flesh by the Spirit, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). Attention should be paid to the Apostle's testimony that it is not the body that is mortified, but the body's striving for voluptuousness.

Chapter 40.

But if they object to this again and say: why then is it said: carnal thoughts are enmity against God: for they do not obey the law of God, neither can they (Romans 8:7), then it must be said that here also they sin. For the Apostle said that it is not the flesh itself that cannot submit to the law of God, but the wisdom of the flesh, which is quite different from the flesh. Thus, if someone were to say: an impurity in ill-refined silver does not submit to the artist in order to make a suitable vessel; for it cannot, because it must first be separated and purified by fire: then by this he would show that it is not silver that can be worked out into a useful vessel, but the admixture of copper and other solid substance found in silver. In the same way, the Apostle, having spoken of the wisdom of the flesh, did not say that the flesh cannot submit to the law of God, but wisdom in the flesh, meaning its striving for intemperance. In other places he sometimes called it the old leaven of wickedness and wickedness, commanding us to cleanse ourselves completely from it (1 Cor. 5:7), sometimes a law that is at war with the law of the mind and captivating (Rom. 7:23). But if he were to say of the flesh itself, that it cannot submit to the law of God, then we, whether we commit debauchery or robbery, or do any other similar works through the body, could not deserve the condemnation of the righteous Judge; for the flesh cannot submit to the law of God. For how could one condemn the body, when it lives in accordance with its inherent nature? In the same way, bodies could not be subjected to the requirements of chastity or virtue, since it is natural for them not to submit to good. For if the nature of the flesh is such that it cannot submit to the law of God, and the law of God is truth and chastity, then it would be absolutely impossible to be either a virgin or an abstinent. But if there are virgins and abstinents, then they abstain evidently because they subdue the body; otherwise it is impossible to refrain from sin. If the body cannot be subject to the law of God, how would John subject his body to purity, or Peter to holiness, or others to righteousness? Why then does Paul say, "And so let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you may obey it in its lusts, and do not give up your members to sin as instruments of iniquity, but present yourselves to God as living from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness?" (Romans 6:12-13) — and again: As you have delivered up your members to be slaves to uncleanness and iniquity to lawless works: so now present your members to slaves of righteousness to holy works? (v. 19)

Chapter 41.

And so the Apostle knew that this outer tabernacle could be corrected and directed to good, so that sins would be put to death in it. Otherwise, how can a person in our situation be enslaved to righteousness, if he does not first subdue the members of his body, so that they no longer obey sin, but righteousness, and does not lead a life worthy of Christ? Sin and non-sin occur through the body, since the soul uses it as an instrument in virtue or vice. And if neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and these works are done and intensified by the medium of the body, — and no one can be justified unless he first abstains from them, but he who is directed to chastity and faith abstains from them,  — it follows from this that the body can submit to the law of God; for the law of God is chastity. For this reason the Apostle said that it is not the flesh that submits to good, but the wisdom of the flesh, as if destroying its very striving for incontinence, as well as the inflamement of the soul to unrighteousness. Arming himself against the intemperance of gluttony, he said that it was necessary to purify oneself, teaching to destroy such desires and passionate desires, and ashaming those who think to spend their lives in such pleasures, which recognize the belly as God (Phil. 3:10), saying: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we will die (1 Cor. 15:32), like insatiable animals, caring only for the food and meals of the past. Having said, "Food is for the belly, and the belly for food," he added, "But God will destroy both; but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God has resurrected the Lord, and He will raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And so shall I take away the members of Christ, that I may make them the members of the harlot? Let it not be! Or do you not know that he who copulates with a harlot becomes one body with her, for it is said, "The two shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). And he who unites with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord. Flee fornication: every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against his own body. Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are God's (1 Cor. 6:13-20).

Chapter 42.

Note that the Apostle said these words because this body can receive the law of God and immortality, if it is cleansed from impure kindlings, without being defiled by lawless incitements of the passions. For what else can cling to the filthy person, draw near to her, and be one flesh with her through the union and mutual communion of the members, if not this external body, by which all these sins are committed, which pertains to copulation and incitement? Flee fornication: every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18). For pride, unbelief, rage, hypocrisy are sins of the soul; but fornication, lust, and debauchery are sins of the body; with them neither the soul can soar to the truth, nor the body can submit to the rules of chastity, but both must lose the kingdom of God. And so, if our bodies, kept in holiness, are the temple of the Spirit who dwells in us (1 Cor. 6:19), if both the Lord dwells in the body, and the members of the body are members of Christ, then the body can submit to the law of God and can inherit the kingdom of God. He who raised Christ from the dead, says the Apostle, will also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you (Romans 8:11), so that this perishable may put on incorruption, and this mortal may put on immortality, and death may be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54). It is not about another body, as you think, that the Apostle was talking here, but about this dying and mortified one, by means of which one can both commit fornication and debauchery.

Chapter 43.

But if they suppose that there is a difference between the body and the flesh, and wish that we also should consent to their reasoning, whereby they consider the body to be something else, as if it were proper to the soul itself, invisible, and the flesh to be the external, the visible, then against this it must be said that not only Paul and the Prophets commonly call this flesh the body, but even the philosophers, in particular, the accuracy of the names is observed. If they want to investigate this scientifically, then in general the flesh is not actually called the whole mass of our bodily temple, but a certain part of the whole, such as bones, nerves, sinews, and the body, the whole. Therefore, physicians who have carefully examined the nature of the body call this visible body the body. And Plato himself recognizes this very thing with the body. Thus, in the Phaedo, Socrates says: "Do we consider death anything other than the detachment of the soul from the body? Does not to die mean that the body, detached from the soul, exists by itself, and the soul, detached from the body, exists by itself?" [16] And does not the blessed Moses (we again turn to the Lord's Scriptures) mean this body, which we also call when he says: "And he that toucheth unclean things shall wash his garments in the time of purification, and shall wash his body with water, and shall be unclean until evening"? (Lev. 14:11:25) What about Job? Is it not this dead body that he also designates with the words: "My body is clothed with worms"? (Job 7:5) And Solomon says: "Wisdom shall not enter into an evil soul, nor shall it dwell in a body enslaved to sin" (Wis. 1:4). And Daniel speaks of the martyrs: "The fire had no power (over their bodies), and the hair of their heads was not singed" (Dan. 3:94). Likewise is the Lord in the Gospel: Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your soul what ye shall eat or drink, nor for your body what ye shall wear. Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matt. 6:25) And the Apostle, with the words: "And so let not sin reign in your mortal body" (Romans 6:12), points to this body in which we are clothed: and again: "But if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies" (Romans 8:11); And again, if the foot says, I do not belong to the body, because I am not the hand; then does it not belong to the body? (1 Cor. 12:15) And again: and not fainting in faith, he did not think that his body, almost a hundred years old, was already dead (Rom. 4:19); also: for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive according to what he did while living in the body (2 Corinthians 5:10); also: in the Epistles he is strict and strong, but in his personal (bodily) presence he is weak, and his speech is insignificant (2 Cor. 10:10); again: I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I do not know, whether out of the body, I do not know) (2 Cor. 12:2); and again: so ought husbands to love their wives as their own bodies (Eph. 5:28); and again: May the God of peace Himself sanctify you in all its fullness, and may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved without blemish at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23). But they, not understanding any of this correctly, thought that the Apostle was in agitation and confusion, as if his thoughts did not have firmness and solidity in words, but turned to and fro and contradicted themselves: as if he were saying that the flesh would be resurrected and would not be resurrected.

Chapter 44.

Therefore, in order not to omit anything from what has been proposed, I will return to the subject again in order to completely defeat the hydra. Having presented in order, as I promised, the other reasons for their perplexity, and having proved what must be said against them, I will then show what the adversary has said in accord with and identical with us concerning the belief in the resurrection of the flesh. And so let us consider what we have previously decided to say about the words of the Apostle. His words, "I once lived without the law," as we have shown at first, signify our former life in the person of our forefathers, in paradise, before the commandment, not without a body, but together with the body; for before the commandment was given, God created man from the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7); and then we lived without lust, completely unaware of the admixtures of irrational lust, which by the fascinating seductions of pleasure induces us to incontinence. For he who has no definite law according to which he must live, nor an independent power of reason, which way of life to choose in order to deserve just praise or blame, is, it must be said, free from all accusation; for such a man cannot desire that which is not forbidden; and if he wishes, he will not be guilty. For desire does not incline to things that are inherent and in our power, but to those which, although inherent in us, are not in our power. How can anyone desire and love that which is not forbidden to him and of which he has no need? Therefore I would not understand the desire, if the law did not say, "Thou shalt not covet" (Romans 7:7). And after the first parents heard: "And of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will die of death (Gen. 2:17) — then they have passion and lust. For he who lusts does not desire what he has, over which he rules, and what he uses, but what is forbidden to him and taken away from him, and which he does not have; Wherefore it is beautifully said, I should not understand the desire, if the law had not said, Thou shalt not covet, that is, if it had not been said, Thou shalt not eat of it. Hence the place and reason for the origin of sin, which deceives and carries me away.