{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">2. Now, of these opinions, let us first discuss that which is\r\nmaintained by some, that there is in us a good and heavenly\r\nsoul, and another earthly and inferior; and that the better\r\nsoul is implanted within us from heaven, such as was that\r\nwhich, while Jacob was still in the womb, gave him the prize\r\nof victory in supplanting his brother Esau, and which in\r\nthe case of Jeremiah was sanctified from his birth, and in\r\nthat of John was filled by the Holy Spirit from the womb.\r\nNow, that which they term the inferior soul is produced, they\r\nallege, along with the body itself out of the seed of the body,\r\nwhence they say it cannot live or subsist beyond the body,\r\non which account also they say it is frequently termed flesh.\r\nFor the expression, “The flesh lusteth against the spirit,”<a id=\"r696\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f696\"><sup>[696]</sup></a>\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_246\">246</span>they take to be applicable not to the flesh, but to this soul,\r\nwhich is properly the soul of the flesh. From these words,\r\nmoreover, they endeavour notwithstanding to make good the\r\ndeclaration in Leviticus: “The life of all flesh is the blood\r\nthereof.”<a id=\"r697\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f697\"><sup>[697]</sup></a> For, from the circumstance that it is the diffusion\r\nof the blood throughout the whole flesh which produces life\r\nin the flesh, they assert that this soul, which is said to be the\r\nlife of all flesh, is contained in the blood. This statement,\r\nmoreover, that the flesh struggles against the spirit, and the\r\nspirit against the flesh; and the further statement, that “the\r\nlife of all flesh is the blood thereof,” is, according to these\r\nwriters, simply calling the wisdom of the flesh by another\r\nname, because it is a kind of material spirit, which is not\r\nsubject to the law of God, nor can be so, because it has\r\nearthly wishes and bodily desires. And it is with respect to\r\nthis that they think the apostle uttered the words: “I see\r\nanother law in my members, warring against the law of my\r\nmind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which\r\nis in my members.”<a id=\"r698\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f698\"><sup>[698]</sup></a> And if one were to object to them that\r\nthese words were spoken of the nature of the body, which\r\nindeed, agreeably to the peculiarity of its nature, is dead, but\r\nis said to have sensibility, or wisdom,<a id=\"r699\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f699\"><sup>[699]</sup></a> which is hostile to God,\r\nor which struggles against the spirit; or if one were to say\r\nthat, in a certain degree, the flesh itself was possessed of a\r\nvoice, which should cry out against the endurance of hunger,\r\nor thirst, or cold, or of any discomfort arising either from\r\nabundance or poverty,—they would endeavour to weaken and\r\nimpair the force of such [arguments], by showing that there\r\nwere many other mental perturbations<a id=\"r700\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f700\"><sup>[700]</sup></a> which derive their\r\norigin in no respect from the flesh, and yet against which the\r\nspirit struggles, such as ambition, avarice, emulation, envy,\r\npride, and others like these; and seeing that with these the\r\nhuman mind or spirit wages a kind of contest, they lay down\r\nas the cause of all these evils, nothing else than this corporal\r\nsoul, as it were, of which we have spoken above, and which\r\nis generated from the seed by a process of traducianism.\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_247\">247</span>They are accustomed also to adduce, in support of their\r\nassertion, the declaration of the apostle, “Now the works of\r\nthe flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness,\r\nlasciviousness, idolatry, poisonings,<a id=\"r701\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f701\"><sup>[701]</sup></a> hatred, contentions,\r\nemulations, wrath, quarrelling, dissensions, heresies, sects,\r\nenvyings, drunkenness, revellings, and the like;”<a id=\"r702\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f702\"><sup>[702]</sup></a> asserting\r\nthat all these do not derive their origin from the habits or\r\npleasures of the flesh, so that all such movements are to be\r\nregarded as inherent in that substance which has not a soul,\r\n<i>i.e.</i> the flesh. The declaration, moreover, “For ye see your\r\ncalling, brethren, how that not many wise men among you\r\naccording to the flesh are called,”<a id=\"r703\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f703\"><sup>[703]</sup></a> would seem to require to\r\nbe understood as if there were one kind of wisdom, carnal\r\nand material, and another according to the spirit, the former\r\nof which cannot indeed be called wisdom, unless there be a\r\nsoul of the flesh, which is wise in respect of what is called\r\ncarnal wisdom. And in addition to these passages they adduce\r\nthe following: “Since the flesh lusteth against the spirit,\r\nand the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the\r\nthings that we would.”<a id=\"r704\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f704\"><sup>[704]</sup></a> What are these things now respecting\r\nwhich he says, “that we cannot do the things that we\r\nwould?” It is certain, they reply, that the spirit cannot be\r\nintended; for the will of the spirit suffers no hindrance. But\r\nneither can the flesh be meant, because if it has not a soul of\r\nits own, neither can it assuredly possess a will. It remains,\r\nthen, that the will of this soul be intended which is capable\r\nof having a will of its own, and which certainly is opposed to\r\nthe will of the spirit. And if this be the case, it is established\r\nthat the will of the soul is something intermediate between\r\nthe flesh and the spirit, undoubtedly obeying and serving that\r\none of the two which it has elected to obey. And if it yield\r\nitself up to the pleasures of the flesh, it renders men carnal;\r\nbut when it unites itself with the spirit, it produces men of\r\nthe spirit, and who on that account are termed spiritual. And\r\nthis seems to be the meaning of the apostle in the words,\r\n“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.”<a id=\"r705\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f705\"><sup>[705]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK III.","CHAPTER IV. ON HUMAN TEMPTATIONS."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-259"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"cf7d88a1c0a173cbc09b16d4e8aa6054fe7e74f358ed934b393ca709b06a76f4","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"1CO","chapter":1,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"1 Cor. i. 26","verse":26,"verse_end":26}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f703","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":"f703","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f703\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r703\">703</a>. </span>1 <abbr title=\"Corinthians\">Cor.</abbr> <abbr title=\"one\">i.</abbr> 26.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f703","text_sha256":"66df85e673ccd6080fcaff117b34493563912ad8c3cf09041455507157fc72e4","verified":false,"work_id":null}