spirit, make war upon their own body as if it were a natural
CHAP. XXIY.] KO MAN HATES HIS OWN BODY. 21 no body, but an uncorriipted 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 J the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are con-
For this is said of the carnal
trary the one to the other."
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 epirit, wliich 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 struq-o'linrr not in hatred, but because of the bondaofe of habit which it has derived from its parent stock, and whicli 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 whicli springs out of a good liabit.
Nevertheless, not evciu tliose who, led astray by false notions, liate their bodies would be prepared to sacrifice one eye, even
1 Gal. V. 17.