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| 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. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
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,7311
7311 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,7312 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 this7313 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flesh has been withdrawn from sight, and touch, and memory, it can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 paunch7314
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),7315
7315 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.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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