22. Thou hast learned, beloved, the nature
of the soul, as far as there is time at present: now do thy best
to receive the doctrine of the body also. Suffer none of those
who say that this body is no work of God See iv. 18.: for they who believe that the body is
independent of God, and that the soul dwells in it as in a strange
vessel, readily abuse it to fornication On the impure practices
of the Manichees, see vi. 33, 34.. And yet what fault have they found in
this wonderful body? For what is lacking in comeliness? And
what in its structure is not full of skill? Ought they not to
have observed the luminous construction of the eyes? And how the
ears being set obliquely receive the sound unhindered? And how
the smell is able to distinguish scents, and to perceive
exhalations? And how the tongue ministers to two purposes, the
sense of taste, and the power of speech? How the lungs placed out
of sight are unceasing in their respiration of the air? Who
imparted the incessant pulsation of the heart? Who made the
distribution into so many veins and arteries? Who skilfully
knitted together the bones with the sinews? Who assigned a part
of the food to our substance, and separated a part for decent
secretion, and hid away the unseemly members in more seemly
places? Who when the human race must have died out, rendered it
by a simple intercourse perpetual?