Chapter V.—Some Considerations in Reply Eulogistic of the Flesh. It Was Created by God. The Body of Man Was, in Fact, Previous to His Soul.

Inasmuch as all uneducated men, therefore, still form their opinions after these common-sense views, and as the falterers and the weak-minded have a renewal of their perplexities occasioned by the selfsame views; and as the first battering-ram which is directed against ourselves is that which shatters the condition of the flesh, we must on our side necessarily so manage our defences, as to guard, first of all, the condition of the flesh, their disparagement of it being repulsed by our own eulogy. The heretics, therefore, challenged us to use our rhetoric no less than our philosophy. Respecting, then, this frail and poor, worthless body, which they do not indeed hesitate to call evil, even if it had been the work of angels, as Menander and Marcus are pleased to think, or the formation of some fiery being, an angel, as Apelles teaches, it would be quite enough for securing respect for the body, that it had the support and protection of even a secondary deity.  The angels, we know, rank next to God.  Now, whatever be the supreme God of each heretic, I should not unfairly derive the dignity of the flesh likewise from Him to whom was present the will for its production. For, of course, if He had not willed its production, He would have prohibited it, when He knew it was in progress. It follows, then, that even on their principle the flesh is equally the work of God. There is no work but belongs to Him who has permitted it to exist. It is indeed a happy circumstance, that most of their doctrines, including even the harshest, accord to our God the entire formation of man.  How mighty He is, you know full well who believe that He is the only God. Let, then, the flesh begin to give you pleasure, since the Creator thereof is so great. But, you say, even the world is the work of God, and yet “the fashion of this world passeth away,”32    1 Cor. vii. 31. as the apostle himself testifies; nor must it be predetermined that the world will be restored, simply because it is the work of God. And surely if the universe, after its ruin, is not to be formed again, why should a portion of it be? You are right, if a portion is on an equality with the whole. But we maintain that there is a difference. In the first place, because all things were made by the Word of God, and without Him was nothing made.33    John i. 3. Now the flesh, too, had its existence from the Word of God, because of the principle,34    Formam. that here should be nothing without that Word.  “Let us make man,”35    Gen. i. 26. said He, before He created him, and added, “with our hand,” for the sake of his pre-eminence, that so he might not be compared with the rest of creation.36    Universitati. And “God,” says (the Scripture), “formed man.”37    Gen. i. 27. There is undoubtedly a great difference in the procedure, springing of course from the nature of the case. For the creatures which were made were inferior to him for whom they were made; and they were made for man, to whom they were afterwards made subject by God.  Rightly, therefore, had the creatures which were thus intended for subjection, come forth into being at the bidding and command and sole power of the divine voice; whilst man, on the contrary, destined to be their lord, was formed by God Himself, to the intent that he might be able to exercise his mastery, being created by the Master the Lord Himself. Remember, too, that man is properly called flesh, which had a prior occupation in man’s designation: “And God formed man the clay of the ground.”38    Limum de terra: Gen. ii. 7. He now became man, who was hitherto clay. “And He breathed upon his face the breath of life, and man (that is, the clay) became a living soul; and God placed the man whom He had formed in the garden.”39    Gen. ii. 7, 8. So that man was clay at first, and only afterwards man entire. I wish to impress this on your attention, with a view to your knowing, that whatever God has at all purposed or promised to man, is due not to the soul simply, but to the flesh also; if not arising out of any community in their origin, yet at all events by the privilege possessed by the latter in its name.40    It having just been said that flesh was man’s prior designation.

CAPUT V.

Igitur quoniam et rudes quique de communibus adhuc sensibus sapiunt, et dubii et simplices per eosdem sensus denuo inquietantur; et ubique primus 0800C iste in nos aries temperatur, quo carnis conditio quassatur; necessario et a nobis carnis primum conditio 0801A munietur. Vituperationem laudatione depellas . Ita nos rhetoricari quoque provocant haeretici, sicut etiam philosophari. Futile et frivolum illud corpusculum , quod malum denique appellare non horrent, etsi angelorum fuisset operatio, ut Menandro et Marco placet; etsi ignei alicujus exstructio, aeque angeli, ut Apelles docet; sufficeret ad auctoritatem carnis secundae divinitatis patrocinium. Angelos post Deum novimus. Jam nunc, quisquis ille summus Deus haeretici cujusque est, non immerito ab ipso quoque deducerem carnis dignitatem, a quo voluntas producendae ei adfuisset. Utique enim prohibuisset fieri, quam fieri scisset, si fieri noluisset. Ita et secundum illos, aeque caro Dei res. Nihil operis non ejus est, qui passus est esse. Bene autem, 0801B quod plures et duriores quaeque doctrinae totam hominis figulationem Deo nostro cedunt. Quantus hic sit, satis nosti, qui unicum credidisti. Incipiat jam tibi caro placere, cujus artifex tantus est. Sed et mundus, inquis, Dei opus est, et tamen praeterit habitus hujus mundi, Apostolo quoque auctore (I Cor. VII): nec idcirco restitutio mundi praejudicabitur , quia Dei opus est. Et utique si universitas irreformabilis post decessum, quid portio? Plane, si portio universitati adaequatur. Ad distantiam enim provocamus. Primo quidem, quod omnia sermone Dei facta sunt, et sine illo nihil. Caro autem et sermone Dei constitit propter formam, ne quid sine sermone: Faciamus enim hominem, ante praemisit. Et amplius, manu, propter praelationem, ne universitati compararetur. 0801C Et finxit, inquit, Deus hominem. Magnae sine dubio differentiae ratio, pro conditione scilicet rerum. Minora enim quae fiebant, eo cui fiebant. Siquidem homini fiebant, cui mox a Deo addicta sunt. Merito igitur, ut famula, jussu et imperio, et sola vocabili potestate universa processerant. Contra, homo, ut dominus eorum, in hoc ab ipso Deo exstructus est, ut dominus esse posset, dum sit a Domino. 0802A Hominem autem memento carnem proprie dici, quae prior vocabulum hominis occupavit: Et finxit Deus hominem limum de terra. Jam homo, qui adhuc limus. Et insufflavit in faciem ejus flatum vitae; et factus est homo, id est limus, in animam vivam. Et posuit Deus hominem, quem finxit, in paradiso. Adeo homo figmentum primo, dehinc totus. Hoc eo commendarim, uti quicquid omnino homini a Deo prospectum atque promissum est, non soli animae, verum et carni scias debitum; ut si non ex consortio generis, certe vel ex privilegio nominis.