{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050308.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050308.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050308.htm","text":"Chapter 61 [LIII.]\u2014Paul Asserts that the Flesh is Contrary Even in the Baptized.\nNow let us see whether we anywhere read about the flesh being contrary in the baptized also. And here, I ask, to whom did the apostle say, \u201cThe flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye do not the things that ye would?\u201d 1274 He wrote this, I apprehend, to the Galatians, to whom he also says, \u201cHe therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?\u201d 1275 It appears, therefore, that it is to Christians that he speaks, to whom, too, God had given His Spirit: therefore, too, to the baptized. Observe, therefore, that even in baptized persons the flesh is found to be contrary; so that they have not that capacity which, our author says, is inseparably implanted in nature. Where then is the ground for his assertion, \u201cHow can it be that in the case of a baptized person the flesh is contrary to him?\u201d in whatever sense he understands the flesh? Because in very deed it is not its nature that is good, but it is the carnal defects of the flesh which are expressly named in the passage before us. 1276 Yet observe, even in the baptized, how contrary is the flesh. And in what way contrary? So that, \u201cThey do not the things which they would.\u201d Take notice that the will is present in a man; but where is that \u201ccapacity of nature?\u201d Let us confess that grace is necessary to us; let us cry out, \u201cO wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?\u201d And let our answer be, \u201cThe grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!\u201d 1277\nSee the context of Gal. 5.17-21.\n142:1277","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Nat...","type":"page"}