general
notion of friendship: and the Second Objection is to be taken in the
same sense.

Reply Obj. 3: Those who love themselves are to be blamed, in so far
as they love themselves as regards their sensitive nature, which they
humor. This is not to love oneself truly according to one's rational
nature, so as to desire for oneself the good things which pertain to
the perfection of reason: and in this way chiefly it is through
charity that a man loves himself.
_______________________

FIFTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 25, Art. 5]

Whether a Man Ought to Love His Body Out of Charity?

Objection 1: It would seem that a man ought not to love his body out
of charity. For we do not love one with whom we are unwilling to
associate. But those who have charity shun the society of the body,
according to Rom. 7:24: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" and Phil. 1:23: "Having a desire to be dissolved and to be
with Christ." Therefore our bodies are not to be loved out of charity.

Obj. 2: Further, the friendship of charity is based on fellowship in
the enjoyment of God. But the body can have no share in that
enjoyment. Therefore the body is not to be loved out of charity.

Obj. 3: Further, since charity is a kind of friendship it is towards
those who are capable of loving in return. But our body cannot love
us out of charity. Therefore it should not be loved out of charity.

_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i, 23, 26) that
there are four things that we should love out of charity, and among
them he reckons our own body.

_I answer that,_ Our bodies can be considered in two ways: first, in
respect of their nature, secondly, in respect of the corruption of
sin and its punishment.

Now the nature of our body was created, not by an evil principle, as
the Manicheans pretend, but by God. Hence we can use it for God's
service, according to Rom. 6:13: "Present . . . your members as
instruments of justice unto God." Consequently, out of the love of
charity with which we love God, we ought to love our bodies also, but
we ought not to love the evil effects of sin and the corruption of
punishment; we ought rather, by the desire of charity, to long for
the removal of such things.

Reply Obj. 1: The Apostle did not shrink from the society of his
body, as regards the nature of the body, in fact in this respect he
was loth to be deprived thereof, according to 2 Cor. 5:4: "We would
not be unclothed, but clothe