2. Whence also he says, that this handiwork is "the temple of God,"
thus declaring: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the temple
of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple]
ye are." Here he manifestly declares the body to be the temple in which
the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, "Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake this, however,"
it is said, "of the temple of His body." And not only does he (the apostle)
acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying
thus to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an
harlot?" He speaks these things, not in reference to some other spiritual
man; for a being of such a nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but
he declares "our body," that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity and
purity, to be "the members of Christ;" but that when it becomes one with an
harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot. And for this reason he said, "If
any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy." How then is it not the
utmost blasphemy to allege, that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the
Father dwells, and the members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but are
reduced to perdition? Also, that our bodies are raised not from their own
substance, but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, "Now the body is
not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. But God hath
both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us up by His own power."
