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Translated by Frederick Crombie.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 97
The declaration, moreover, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men among you according to the flesh are called," [2627] would seem to require to be understood as if there were one kind of wisdom, carnal and material, and another according to the spirit, the former of which cannot indeed be called wisdom, unless there be a soul of the flesh, which is wise in respect of what is called carnal wisdom. And in addition to these passages they adduce the following: "Since the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things that we would." [2628] What are these things now respecting which he says, "that we cannot do the things that we would?" It is certain, they reply, that the spirit cannot be intended; for the will of the spirit suffers no hindrance. But neither can the flesh be meant, because if it has not a soul of its own, neither can it assuredly possess a will. It remains, then, that the will of this soul be intended which is capable of having a will of its own, and which certainly is opposed to the will of the spirit. And if this be the case, it is established that the will of the soul is something intermediate between the flesh and the spirit, undoubtedly obeying and serving that one of the two which it has elected to obey. And if it yield itself up to the pleasures of the flesh, it renders men carnal; but when it unites itself with the spirit, it produces men of the Spirit, and who on that account are termed spiritual. And this seems to be the meaning of the apostle in the words, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." [2629]
[2627] 1 Cor. i. 26.
[2628] Gal. v. 17.
[2629] Rom. viii. 9.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/principiis.asp?pg=97
