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CHAPTER 17
THE BONDAGE OF SIN
The union of spirit and matter is very unfortunate for the former. It is deprived thereby, to a very great extent, of its natural attributes and powers. The body is like a prison and curtails the freedom of the soul more mischievously than an earthly prison does. The enemy, that is, matter, pours into the soul with every word, thought or deed, which is concerned not with itself but with the other-than-itself.' This union is termed a bondage of karmas (karmas signifying actions of all kinds, mental, vocal and physical) as defined above.
In combination with matter, the soul is deprived, amongst other things, of its knowledge and the natural joy, and becomes subject to birth and death from which a purified Spirit or Soul is free altogether.
The Christian views on the subject are as follows:
"... flesh... separates and limits the knowledge of those that are spiritual ... for sonls themselves by themselves are equal."(Clement) A.N.C.L. vol. xii. p. 362.
"For bound in this earthly body we apprehend the objects of sense by means of the body."—(Clement) A.N.C.L. vol. xü. p. 224.
"Flis own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his own sins."-Proverbs v. 22.
“The mental acumen of those who are in the body seems to bé blunted by the nature of corporeal matter."-(Origen) A.N.C.L. vol. 1. p. 82.
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