Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">15. Let us look also at the declaration in Ezekiel, which\r\nsays, “I shall take away their stony hearts, and will put in\r\nthem hearts of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and\r\nkeep my precepts.”<a id=\"r503\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f503\"><sup>[503]</sup></a> For if God, when He wills, takes away\r\nthe stony hearts, and implants hearts of flesh, so that His\r\nprecepts are obeyed and His commandments are observed, it\r\nis not in our power to put away wickedness. For the taking\r\naway of the stony hearts is nothing else than the taking\r\naway of the wickedness, according to which one is hardened,\r\nfrom him from whom God wills to take it; and the implanting\r\nof a heart of flesh, so that a man may walk in the precepts\r\nof God and keep His commandments, what else is it\r\nthan to become somewhat yielding and unresistent to the\r\ntruth, and to be capable of practising virtues? And if God\r\npromises to do this, and if, before He takes away the stony\r\nhearts, we do not lay them aside, it is manifest that it does\r\nnot depend upon ourselves to put away wickedness; and if\r\nit is not we who do anything towards the production within\r\nus of the heart of flesh, but if it is God’s doing, it will not\r\nbe our own act to live agreeably to virtue, but altogether [the\r\nresult of] divine grace. Such will be the statements of him\r\nwho, from the mere words [of Scripture], annihilates free-will.<a id=\"r504\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f504\"><sup>[504]</sup></a>\r\nBut we shall answer, saying, that we ought to understand\r\nthese passages thus: That as a man, <i>e.g.</i>, who happened\r\nto be ignorant and uneducated, on perceiving his own defects,\r\neither in consequence of an exhortation from his teacher, or\r\nin some other way, should spontaneously give himself up to\r\nhim whom he considers able to introduce<a id=\"r505\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f505\"><sup>[505]</sup></a> him to education\r\nand virtue; and, on his yielding himself up, his instructor\r\npromises that he will take away his ignorance, and implant\r\ninstruction, not as if it contributed nothing to his training,\r\nand to the avoiding of ignorance, that he brought himself to\r\nbe healed, but because the instructor promised to improve\r\nhim who desired improvement; so, in the same way, the\r\nword of God promises to take away wickedness, which it\r\ncalls a stony heart, from those who come to it, not if they\r\nare unwilling, but [only] if they submit themselves to the\r\nPhysician of the sick, as in the Gospels the sick are found\r\ncoming to the Saviour, and asking to obtain healing, and\r\nso are cured. And, let me say, the recovery of sight by the\r\nblind is, so far as their request goes, the act of those who\r\nbelieve that they are capable of being healed; but as respects\r\nthe restoration of sight, it is the work of our Saviour.\r\nThus, then, does the word of God promise to implant knowledge\r\nin those who come to it, by taking away the stony\r\nand hard heart, which is wickedness, in order that one may\r\nwalk in the divine commandments, and keep the divine\r\ninjunctions.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK III.","FROM THE GREEK."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-226"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e678d4c5f9df9dcc09479829bec5c59968186cfa65f37e2e9a821a712cf2273a","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f504","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f504","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f504\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r504\">504</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">ἀπὸ τῶν ψιλῶν ῥητῶν τὸ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν ἀναιρῶν.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f504","text_sha256":"98674e6d4e32b8d6c7d05021a8639a2aae47a16e14a6d0388572d11f32d1a7c5","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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