22 I say not, therefore, with what error, but with what utter madness, do the Manichees attribute our flesh to some, I know not what, fabled “race of darkness,” which they will have has had its own nature without any beginning ever evil: whereas the true teacher exhorts men to love their own wives by the pattern of their own flesh, and exhorts them unto this very thing by the pattern also of Christ and the Church. Lastly, we must call to mind the whole place itself of the Epistle of the Apostle, relating greatly unto the matter in hand.
“Husbands,” says he, “love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of the water in the word: that He might set forth unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it may be holy and unspotted. So,” says he, “husbands also ought to love their own wives, as their own bodies. Whoso loves his own wife, loves himself.” Then he added, what we have already made mention of, “For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it, and cherishes it; as also Christ the Church.” What says the madness of most impure impiety in answer to these things?
What say ye in answer to these things, you Manichees; ye who wish to bring in upon us, as if out of the Epistles of the Apostles, two natures without beginning, one of good, the other of evil: and will not listen to the Epistles of the Apostles, that they may correct you from that sacrilegious perverseness? As ye read, “The flesh lusts against the spirit,” and, “There dwells not in my flesh any good;” so read ye, “No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as also Christ the Church.” As ye read, “I see another law in my members, opposed to the law of my mind;” so read ye, “As Christ loved the Church, so also ought men to love their own wives, as their own bodies.”
Be not ye crafty in the former witnesses of Holy Scripture, and deaf in this latter, and you shall be correct in both. For, if you receive the latter as right is, you will endeavor to understand the former also as truth is.
Source: On Continence (New Advent)