Chapter IV.—Heathens and Heretics Alike in Their Vilification of the Flesh and Its Functions, the Ordinary Cavils Against the Final Restitution of So Weak and Ignoble a Substance.

Hence it is that heretics start at once from this point,27    Of the resurrection of the body. from which they sketch the first draft of their dogmas, and afterwards add the details, being well aware how easily men’s minds are caught by its influence, (and actuated) by that community of human sentiment which is so favourable to their designs. Is there anything else that you can hear of from the heretic, as also from the heathen, earlier in time or greater in extent? Is not (their burden) from the beginning and everywhere an invective against the flesh—against its origin, against its substance, against the casualties and the invariable end which await it; unclean from its first formation of the dregs of the ground, uncleaner afterwards from the mire of its own seminal transmission; worthless,28    Frivolæ. weak, covered with guilt, laden with misery, full of trouble; and after all this record of its degradation, dropping into its original earth and the appellation of a corpse, and destined to dwindle away even from this29    Isto. loathsome name into none henceforth at all—into the very death of all designation? Now you are a shrewd man, no doubt: will you then persuade yourself, that after this flesh has been withdrawn from sight, and touch, and memory, it can never be rehabilitated from corruption to integrity, from a shattered to a solid state, from an empty to a full condition, from nothing at all to something—the devouring fires, and the waters of the sea, and the maws of beasts, and the crops of birds and the stomachs of fishes, and time’s own great paunch30    Gula. itself of course yielding it all up again?  Shall the same flesh which has fallen to decay be so expected to recover, as that the lame, and the one-eyed, and the blind, and the leper, and the palsied shall come back again, although there can be no pleasure in returning to their old condition? Or shall they be whole, and so have to fear exposure to such sufferings? What, in that case, (must we say) of the consequences of resuming the flesh? Will it again be subject to all its present wants, especially meats and drinks?  Shall we have with our lungs to float (in air or water),31    Natandum pulmonibus. and suffer pain in our bowels, and with organs of shame to feel no shame, and with all our limbs to toil and labour?  Must there again be ulcers, and wounds, and fever, and gout, and once more the wishing to die? Of course these will be the longings incident on the recovery of the flesh, only the repetition of desires to escape out of it. Well now, we have (stated) all this in very subdued and delicate phrases, as suited to the character of our style; but (would you know) how great a licence of unseemly language these men actually use, you must test them in their conferences, whether they be heathens or heretics.

CAPUT IV.

Itaque haeretici inde statim incipiunt, et inde praestruunt; dehinc interstruunt, unde sciunt facile capi mentes, de communione favorabili sensuum. An aliud prius vel magis audias tam ab haeretico, quam ab ethnico? Et non protinus, et non ubique convicium carnis, in originem, in materiam, in casum , in omnem exitum ejus? Immundae a primordio ex faecibus terrae, immundioris deinceps ex seminis sui 0799C limo, frivolae, infirmae, criminosae, onerosae, 0800A molestae, et post totum ignobilitatis elogium , caducae in originem terram , et cadaveris nomen, et de isto quoque nomine periturae in nullum inde jam nomen, in omnis jam vocabuli mortem? Hancne ergo vis, sapiens, et visui et contactui et recordatui tuo ereptam, persuadere quod se receptura quandoque sit in integrum de corrupto, in solidum de casso, in plenum de inanito, in aliquid omnino de nihilo? Et utique redhibentibus eam ignibus et undis, et alvis ferarum, et rumis alitum, et lactibus piscium, et ipsorum temporum propria gula? Adeone autem eadem sperabitur quae intercidit, ut claudus, et luscus, et caecus, et leprosus, et paralyticus revertantur, ut redisse non libeat ad pristinum? An integri, ut iterum talia pati timeant? 0800B Quid tum de consequentiis carnis? Rursusne omnia necessaria illi, et imprimis pabula atque potacula, et pulmonibus natandum, et intestinis aestuandum, et pudendis non pudendum, et omnibus membris laborandum? Rursus, ulcera et vulnera, et febris, et podagra , et mors redoptanda ? Nimirum haec erunt vota carnis recuperandae, iterum cupere de ea evadere. Et nos quidem haec aliquanto honestius pro styli pudore. Caeterum, quantum etiam spurciloquii licet illorum in congressibus experiri, tam ethnicorum, quam haereticorum!