Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations… (1817)
“ And hence proceeds the perpetual conflict between reason and passion, in the mind of man.IV. That, on this account, Jesus descended from the upper regions, clothed not with a real, but with a celestial and aerial body, and taught mankind to subdue that body of corruption, which they carry about with them in this mortal life; and by abstinence, fasting, and contemplation, to disengage themselves from the servitude and dominion of that malignant matter, which chained down the soul to low and ignoble pursuits. ”
