{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050313.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050313.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050313.htm","text":"Chapter 66.\u2014The Works, Not the Substance, of the \u201cFlesh\u201d Opposed to the \u201cSpirit.\u201d\nNow if we secure even this concession from them, that unbaptized persons may implore the assistance of the Saviour\u2019s grace, this is indeed no slight point against that fallacious assertion of the self-sufficiency of nature and of the power of free will. For he is not sufficient to himself who says, \u201cO wretched man that I am! who shall liberate me?\u201d Nor can he be said to have full liberty who still asks for liberation. [LVI.] But let us, moreover, see to this point also, whether they who are baptized do the good which they would, without any resistance from the lust of the flesh. That, however, which we have to say on this subject, our author himself mentions, when concluding this topic he says: \u201cAs we remarked, the passage in which occur the words, \u2018The flesh lusteth against the Spirit,\u2019 1291 must needs have reference not to the substance, but to the works of the flesh.\u201d We too allege that this is spoken not of the substance of the flesh, but of its works, which proceed from carnal concupiscence,\u2014in a word, from sin, concerning which we have this precept: \u201cNot to let it reign in our mortal body, that we should obey it in the lusts thereof.\u201d 1292","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Nat...","type":"page"}