Blood go with this people. Let their bodies be living bodies, and their souls be clean souls.' Provision is also made for special prayer for the sick, and for the blessings of oils and waters for their benefit, and in these connexions we find such expressions as the following: 'Be propitious, Master; assist and heal all that are sick. Rebuke the sicknesses.' 'Grant them to be counted worthy of health.' 'Make them to have perfect health of body and soul.' 'Grant healing power upon these creatures that every power and every evil spirit and every sickness may depart.'
It need scarcely be said that all such references to bodily wants are set in a context which is marked by the simplest and most ardent spiritual devotion. The physical is never allowed to usurp the first place. But it is never forgotten. The early Christians believed that the Life which was offered to them in fellowship with their Lord was to extend to every part of their constitution, to 'spirit and soul and body.'[1]
- ↑ These references to the Liturgies might be supplemented by quotations from the patristic writings, e.g. those of Irenæus, Tertullian, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Gregory of Nyssa. The last named went so far as to make Baptism with faith to be the salvation of the soul, and the partaking of the Eucharist the salvation of the body. See Bishop Gore, The Body of Christ, p. 69; and Bethune Baker, Introduction to the History of Christian Doctrine, pp. 399, 412.
