{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">But since the subject of discussion on which we have\r\nentered is one of great profundity, which it is necessary to\r\nconsider in all its bearings,<a id=\"r707\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f707\"><sup>[707]</sup></a> let us see whether some such\r\npoint as this may not be determined: that as it is better for\r\nthe soul to follow the spirit when the latter has overcome\r\nthe flesh, so also, if it seem to be a worse course for the\r\nformer to follow the flesh in its struggles against the spirit,\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_249\">249</span>when the latter would recall the soul to its influence, it may\r\nnevertheless appear a more advantageous procedure for the\r\nsoul to be under the mastery of the flesh than to remain\r\nunder the power of its own will. For, since it is said to be\r\nneither hot nor cold, but to continue in a sort of tepid condition,\r\nit will find conversion a slow and somewhat difficult\r\nundertaking. If indeed it clung to the flesh, then, satiated\r\nat length, and filled with those very evils which it suffers\r\nfrom the vices of the flesh, and wearied as it were by the\r\nheavy burdens of luxury and lust, it may sometimes be converted\r\nwith greater ease and rapidity from the filthiness of\r\nmatter to a desire for heavenly things, and [to a taste for]\r\nspiritual graces. And the apostle must be supposed to have\r\nsaid, that “the spirit contends against the flesh, and the flesh\r\nagainst the spirit, so that we cannot do the things that we\r\nwould” (those things, undoubtedly, which are designated as\r\nbeing beyond the will of the spirit, and the will of the flesh),\r\nmeaning (as if we were to express it in other words) that it is\r\nbetter for a man to be either in a state of virtue or in one of\r\nwickedness, than in neither of these; but that the soul, before\r\nits conversion to the spirit, and its union with it,<a id=\"r708\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f708\"><sup>[708]</sup></a> appears\r\nduring its adherence to the body, and its meditation of carnal\r\nthings, to be neither in a good condition nor in a manifestly\r\nbad one, but resembles, so to speak, an animal. It is better,\r\nhowever, for it, if possible, to be rendered spiritual through\r\nadherence to the spirit; but if that cannot be done, it is\r\nmore expedient for it to follow even the wickedness of the\r\nflesh, than, placed under the influence of its own will, to retain\r\nthe position of an irrational animal.</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-261"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"a26ca917029b102b63f3c4c166550fd0a7cb1bfe077efb5474b4b3e8c866033b","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f708","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":"f708","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f708\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r708\">708</a>. </span><span lang=\"la\">Priusquam—unum efficiatur cum eo.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f708","text_sha256":"12f5a355626e2b649f4f8e14c8eb9bcee6e9393fa12dc00795b89cfa5f7b7df8","verified":false,"work_id":null}