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Translated by Frederick Crombie.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 82
For Scripture testifies that the "devil had already put it into his heart to betray Him." [2568] And therefore Solomon rightly commanded, saying, "Keep thy heart with all diligence." [2569] And the Apostle Paul warns us: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest perhaps we should let them slip." [2570] And when he says, "Neither give place to the devil," [2571] he shows by that injunction that it is through certain acts, or a kind of mental slothfulness, that room is made for the devil, so that, if he once enter our heart, he will either gain possession of us, or at least will pollute the soul, if he has not obtained the entire mastery over it, by casting on us his fiery darts; and by these we are sometimes deeply wounded, and sometimes only set on fire. Seldom indeed, and only in a few instances, are these fiery darts quenched, so as not to find a place where they may wound, i.e., when one is covered by the strong and mighty shield of faith. The declaration, indeed, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places," [2572] must be so understood as if "we" meant, "I Paul, and you Ephesians, and all who have not to wrestle against flesh and blood:" for such have to struggle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, not like the Corinthians, whose struggle was as yet against flesh and blood, and who had been overtaken by no temptation but such as is common to man.
[2568] John xiii. 2.
[2569] Prov. iv. 23.
[2570] Heb. ii. 1.
[2571] Eph. iv. 27.
[2572] Eph. vi. 12.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/principiis.asp?pg=82
