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Brother, do you not hear the apostle saying that “our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit in us,” and again that “we are the house of God,” as God also says, that “I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God”? That which is naturally a dwelling place of God, how then could anyone having a mind consider it unworthy to house his own mind in it? And how did God in the beginning house the mind in the body? Did He also do evil? Such words, brother, it is fitting for heretics to say, who say the body is evil and a creation of the evil one. But we think it is evil for the mind to be in fleshly thoughts, but not evil for it to be in the body, since the body is not evil. Therefore, with David, each of those who attend to God throughout life cries out to God: “my soul has thirsted for you, how many ways my flesh for you” and “my heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God”; and with Isaiah, “my belly will sound like a lyre and my inward parts like a bronze wall, which you have renewed” and “because of your fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb the Spirit of your salvation,” in whom trusting we shall not fall, but they will fall who cry out from the earth and who bear false witness against the heavenly words and ways as if they were earthly.

(σελ. 122) For if the apostle also calls the body death, for “who,” he says, “will deliver me from the body of this death?,” but this is because the material and carnal mind is simply body-like; therefore, comparing this to the spiritual and divine, he rightly called it a body, and not simply a body, but the death of a body, and a little earlier he declares this more clearly, that he does not blame the flesh, but the sinful impulse that entered through transgression: “I am,” he says, “sold under sin”; but one who has been sold is not a slave by nature. And again: “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” Do you see that he says not the flesh is evil, but what dwells in it? Therefore, it is this law, the one that is in our members and wars against the law of our mind, that is evil to dwell in the body, but not the mind.

For this reason we, setting ourselves in battle array against this law of sin, drive it out of the body and install the supervision of the mind and through it we legislate for each power of the soul and for the members of the body what is fitting for each; to the senses, what and how much they should perceive, and this work of the law is called self-control; and to the passionate part of the soul we impart the best disposition, and this has received the name of love; but we also improve the rational part through this, sending away whatever opposes the intellect's ascent to God, and we call this part of the law watchfulness. And one who has purified his body through self-control, having made both anger and desire an occasion for virtues through divine love, and has presented a pure mind to God through prayer, acquires and sees in himself the grace promised to the pure in heart. And then he would be able to say this also with Paul, that “God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, (σελ. 124) has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; “but we have,” he says, “this treasure in earthen vessels.” So then, having the paternal light, in the face of Jesus Christ, for the knowledge of the glory of the Holy Spirit, as in earthen vessels, that is, our bodies, shall we restrain it within our own mind inside the body, acting unworthily of the greatness of the mind? And who would say this, not only one who is spiritual, but even one having a mind stripped of divine grace, yet still the mind of a man?

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Ἀδελφέ, οὐκ ἀκούεις τοῦ ἀποστόλου λέγοντος ὅτι «τά σώματα ἡμῶν ναός τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν ἁγίου Πνεύματός ἐστι», καί πάλιν ὅτι «οἶκος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν», ὡς καί ὁ Θεός λέγει, ὅτι «ἐνοικήσω ἐν αὐτοῖς καί ἐμπεριπατήσω καί ἔσομαι αὐτῶν Θεός»; Ὅ τοίνυν οἰκητήριον πέφυκε γίνεσθαι Θεοῦ, πῶς ἄν ἀναξιοπαθήσαι τις νοῦν ἔχων ἐνοικίσαι τόν οἰκεῖον νοῦν αὐτῷ; Πῶς δέ καί ὁ Θεός τήν ἀρχήν ἐνῴκισε τῷ σώματι τόν νοῦν; Ἆρα καί αὐτός κακῶς ἐποίησε; Τούς τοιούτους λόγους, ἀδελφέ, τοῖς αἱρετικοῖς ἁρμόσει λέγειν, οἵ πονηρόν καί τοῦ πονηροῦ πλάσμα τό σῶμα λέγουσιν. Ἡμεῖς δέ ἐν τοῖς σωματικοῖς φρονήμασιν εἶναι τόν νοῦν οἰόμεθα κακόν, ἐν τῷ σώματι δέ οὐχί κακόν, ἐπεί μηδέ τό σῶμα πονηρόν. ∆ιό μετά τοῦ ∆αβίδ τῶν διά βίου τῷ Θεῷ προσανεχόντων ἕκαστος βοᾷ πρός τόν Θεόν˙ «ἐδίψησέ σε ἡ ψυχή μου, ποσαπλῶς σοι ἡ σάρξ μου» καί «ἡ καρδία μου καί ἡ σάρξ ἠγαλλιάσαντο ἐπί Θεόν ζῶντα»˙ καί μετά τοῦ Ἠσαΐου, «ἡ κοιλίαν μου ἠχήσει ὡς κιθάρα καί τά ἐντός μου ὡσεί τεῖχος χαλκοῦν, ὅ ἐνεκαίνισας» καί «διά τόν φόβον σου, Κύριε, ἐν γαστρί ἐλάβομεν Πνεῦμα σωτηρίου σου», ᾧ θαρροῦντες οὐ πεσούμεθα, ἀλλά πεσοῦνται οἱ ἀπό τῆς γῆς φωνοῦντες καί ὡς γηΐνων τῶν ἐπουρανίων ρημάτων καί πολιτειῶν καταψευδόμενοι.

(σελ. 122) Εἰ γάρ καί ὁ ἀπόστολος θάνατον τό σῶμα λέγει, «τίς γάρ με», φησί, «ρύσεται ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου;», ἀλλ᾿ ὡς τοῦ προσύλου καί σωματικοῦ φρονήματος σωματοειδοῦς ὄντος ἀτεχνῶς˙ διό, πρός τό πνευματικόν καί θεῖον παραβάλλων τοῦτο, σῶμα δικαίως ἐκάλεσε, καί οὐχ ἁπλῶς σῶμα, ἀλλά θάνατον σώματος, καί τοῦτο μικρόν ἀνωτέρω τρανότερον δηλῶν ὡς οὐχί τήν σάρκα αἰτιᾶται, ἀλά τήν ἐπεισελθοῦσαν ἁμαρτητικήν ὁρμήν ἐκ παραβάσεως˙ πεπραμένος», φησίν, «εἰμί ὑπό τήν ἁμαρτίαν»˙ ὁ πεπραμένος δέ οὐ φύσει δοῦλος. Καί πάλιν˙ «οἶδα ὅτι οὐκ οἰκεῖ ἐν ἐμοί, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου, ἀγαθόν». Ὁρᾷς ὅτι οὐ τήν σάρκα ἀλλά τό ἐνοικοῦν αὐτῇ φησί κακόν; τοῦτον τοίνυν, τόν ὄντα ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν καί τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοός ἀντιστρατεύομενον νόμον, ἐνοικεῖν τῷ σώματι κακόν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τόν νοῦν.

∆ιά τοῦθ᾿ ἡμεῖς, ἀντιπαραταττόμενοι τούτῳ τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἐξοικίζομεν αὐτόν τοῦ σώματος καί ἐνοικίζομεν τήν ἐπισκοπήν τοῦ νοῦ καί νομοθετοῦμεν δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἑκάστῃ τε δυνάμει τῆς ψυχῆς καί τοῖς τοῦ σώματος μέλεσιν ἑκάστῳ τό προσῆκον˙ ταῖς μέν αἰσθήσεσιν, ὧν τε καί ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἐστίν ἀντιληπτέον, τό ἔργον δέ τοῦ νόμου τοῦτο προσαγορεύεται ἐγκράτεια˙ τῷ δέ παθητικῷ μέρει τῆς ψυχῆς τήν ἀρίστην ἐμποιοῦμεν ἕξιν, ἀγάπην δ᾿ ἔσχεν αὕτη τήν ἐπωνυμίαν˙ ἀλλά καί τό λογιστικόν διά τούτου βελτιοῦμεν, ἀποπεμπόμενοι πᾶν ὅ τι προσίσταται τῇ διανοίᾳ πρός τήν εἰς Θεόν ἀνάνευσιν, καλοῦμεν δέ τουτί τό μόριον τοῦ νόμου τούτου νῆψιν. Ἐγκρατείᾳ δέ τις τό σῶμα καθάρας ἑαυτοῦ, θυμόν τε καί ἐπιθυμίαν ἀφορμήν ἀρετῶν δι᾿ ἀγάπης θείας ποιησάμενος καί νοῦν ἀπειλικρινημένον δι᾿ εὐχῆς παραστήσας τῷ Θεῷ, κτᾶται καί ὁρᾷ ἐν ἑαυτῷ τήν ἐπηγγελμένην χάριν τοῖς κεκαθαρμένοις τήν καρδίαν. Καί τότ᾿ ἄν δυνηθείη καί τοῦτο μετά Παύλου λέγειν, ὅτι «ὁ Θεός ὁ εἰπών ἐκ σκότους φῶς λάμψαι, (σελ. 124) ὅς ἔλαμψεν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν, πρός φωτισμόν τῆς γνώσεως τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐν προσώπῳ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ˙ «ἔχομεν δέ», φησί, «τόν θησαυρόν τοῦτον ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν». Τό γοῦν πατρικόν φῶς, ἐν προσώπῳ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, εἰς τό γνῶναι τήν δόξαν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἔχοντες ἡμεῖς ὡς ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσι, τοῖς σώμασιν, εἰς τόν νοῦν ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ἔνδον τοῦ σώματος καθέξομεν, ἀναξίως τῆς μεγαλοφυΐας πράξομεν τοῦ νοῦ; Καί τίς ἄν τοῦτ᾿ εἴποι, μή ὅτι πνευματικός, ἀλλά καί νοῦν γεγυμνωμένον θείας χάριτος, ἀνθρώπου δ᾿ ὅμως ἔχων;