Chapter 6

§ 1.

But God will be glorified in His own creature, moulding it in conformity and correspondence with His own Son.¹ For by the Hands of the Father, i.e., by the Son and the Spirit, Man is made after the Image of God: man, not a part of man. Now the Soul and Spirit may be part of man, but man they cannot be: the Perfect Man being a certain mingling and uniting of the soul, receiving the Spirit of the Father: which mixture is blended also with that flesh, which is moulded according to the Image of God. For which cause the Apostle also saith, We speak wisdom among the Perfect:²—calling those perfect who have received the Spirit of God, and who speak in all languages by the Spirit of God, as he himself used to speak: as we hear brethren in the Church, and those not a few, who have prophetic gifts, and speak by the Spirit in all kinds of tongues, and bring to light the secrets of men as expediency may require, and expound the mysteries of God; such as the Apostle calls also spiritual men: being as they are spiritual in regard of their partaking of the Spirit, but not in regard of any privation or withholding of the flesh, nor as being barely that one thing alone.³ For if one take away the substance of the flesh, i.e., of God’s formation, and consider barely the Spirit itself alone: that which results is no longer the spiritual man, but a spirit of man, or the Spirit of God. But when this Spirit, mingled with the Soul, is united to that which God formed; then by the effusion of the Spirit the spiritual and perfect Man is made: and this is he who was made after the image and likeness of God. If on the other hand the spirit is wanting to the soul, such an one is truly an Animal Man, and as being left carnal, will be imperfect; having indeed the Image in his form, but not assuming the Likeness by the Spirit. But as he is imperfect, so again if any one take away the image, and scorn the form, it can no longer be the man whom he is thinking of, but either some part of man, as we said before, or something else beside man. For neither is the formation of the flesh itself by itself a perfect man, but it is the body of man, and a part of man:—even as the soul for its part is not the man, itself by itself, but it is the soul of man, and a part of man:—nor is the spirit the man, for it is called spirit, and not man:—but the blending and union of all these makes out the perfect Man.

And therefore the Apostle explaining himself, hath delineated the perfect and spiritual Man of salvation, in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, thus speaking,⁴ But may the God of Peace sanctify you to be perfect, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.⁵ Now what cause in the world had he to ask for these three, i.e., soul and body and spirit, entire and perfect perseverance to the coming of the Lord, except he knew that the restoration and union of the three was their only salvation, and that the same for them all? For which cause also he calleth those perfect, who present unto the Lord all three without blame. Perfect then are they, who both have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have kept their souls and bodies without reproach; keeping God’s faith, i.e., their faith towards God and guarding also that righteousness which hath respect unto their neighbour.

§ 2.

Whence also he saith that the Form is the Temple of God: thus speaking,⁶ Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man profane the Temple of God, him shall God destroy.⁷ For the Temple of God is holy: which temple ye are: expressly calling the Body the Temple, in which the Spirit dwelleth.⁸ As also the Lord saith of Himself, Destroy this Temple,⁹ and in three days I will raise it up. And this, it saith, He spake of His own Body. And he regards our bodies as not only a temple, but also as the Temple of Christ,¹⁰ speaking thus to the Corinthians, Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then, taking the members of Christ, make them members of an harlot? speaking thus, not of some other kind of spiritual man, (for it is not he who embraceth the harlot) but our body, i.e., the flesh which perseveres in holiness and purity, he hath affirmed to be the members of Christ; and that when one embraceth an harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot.¹¹ And therefore he said, If any man profane the Temple of God, him shall God destroy.

Well then:¹² to say that the Temples of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and that the Members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but are brought to destruction¹³, how is it not of the greatest blasphemy? But as to the fact, that our bodies are raised up, not by their own substance, but by the Power of God, he saith to the Corinthians,¹⁴ Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord: and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us by His own power.