Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 8

I have, as it were, won a verdict for the flesh from the common lot of the human condition. Now let us examine the privilege this frivolous, sordid substance enjoys with God on the strength of the Christian name alone—and consider whether it would be enough that no soul can attain salvation unless it has believed while still in the flesh, making the flesh the very hinge of salvation. When God chooses a soul, it is the flesh that makes that choice possible: the flesh is washed so the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed so the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed so the soul may be fortified; the flesh is overshadowed by the laying on of hands so the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ so the soul may be nourished by God. They cannot be divided in reward when their works bind them together. The sacrifices that please God—the soul's struggles, fasts, dry and meager fare, the filthy by-products of this discipline—the flesh restores at its own expense. Virginity and widowhood, the modest concealment of marriage, even the mere knowledge of it—these are offered to God from the goods of the flesh. So tell me: what do you make of it when the flesh is dragged into the arena for the faith, exposed to public hatred, and fights? When it wastes away in prisons, in the most terrible exile from light, in destitution, squalor, stench, and contempt for food—not even sleep is free, bound by the very pallets and torn by the very straw? When it is ripped apart in broad daylight by every engine of torture? When it is finally spent in punishments, forced to repay Christ in kind by dying for him, often on the very same cross, to say nothing of even more atrocious punishments? Nor is it less blessed and glorious: it can owe Christ the Lord so great a debt that it owes him only because it has ceased to owe him; it is more bound, because it is absolved.