{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/211/2110391.htm","path":"chr/ecf/211/2110391.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/211/2110391.htm","text":"Of the number of different conflicts and victories through which the blessed Apostle ascended to the crown of the highest combat.\nBut he does not mean that he has only finished the contest of a race when he says \u201cI so run, not as uncertainly\u201d (a phrase which has more particularly to do with the intention of the mind and fervour of his spirit, in which he followed Christ with all zeal, crying out with the Bride, \u201cWe will run after thee for the odour of thine ointments;\u201d 853 and again, \u201cMy soul cleaveth unto thee:\u201d 854 but he also testifies that he has conquered in another kind of contest, saying, \u201cSo fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection.\u201d And this properly has to do with the pains of abstinence, and bodily fasting and affliction of the flesh: as he means by this that he is a vigorous bruiser of his own flesh, and points out that not in vain has he planted his blows of continence against it; but that he has gained a battle triumph by mortifying his own body; for when it is chastised with the blows of continence and struck down with the boxing-gloves of fasting, he has secured for his victorious spirit the crown of immortality and the prize of incorruption. You see the orthodox method of the contest, and consider the issue of spiritual combats: how the athlete of Christ having gained a victory over the rebellious flesh, having cast it as it were under his feet, is carried forward as triumphing on high. And therefore \u201che does not run uncertainly,\u201d because he trusts that he will forthwith enter the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. He \u201cso fights,\u201d that is with fasts and humiliation of the flesh, \u201cnot as one that beateth the air,\u201d that is, striking into space with blows of continence, through which he struck not the empty air, but those spirits who inhabit it, by the chastisement of his body. For one who says \u201cnot as one that beateth the air,\u201d shows that he strikes\u2014not empty and void air, but certain beings in the air. And because he had overcome in this kind of contest, and marched on enriched with the rewards of many crowns, not undeservedly does he begin to enter the lists against still more powerful foes, and having triumphed over his former rivals, he boldly makes proclamation and says, \u201cNow our striving is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against world-rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.\u201d 855","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XI: The Works of John Cassian.: Chapter XVIII. Of the number of different conflicts and victories through which the blessed Apostle ascended to the crown of the highest combat.","type":"page"}