{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050348.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050348.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050348.htm","text":"Chapter VI.\u2014(12.) The Twelfth Breviate.\nXII. \u201cAgain the question arises,\u201d he says, \u201chow it is that man is unable to be without sin,\u2014by his will, or by nature? If by nature, it is not sin; if by his will, then will can very easily be changed by will.\u201d We answer by reminding him how he ought to reflect on the extreme presumption of saying\u2014not simply that it is possible (for this no doubt is undeniable, when God\u2019s grace comes in aid), but\u2014that it is \u201cvery easy\u201d for will to be changed by will; whereas the apostle says, \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 1399 He does not say, \u201cThese are contrary the one to the other, so that ye will not do the things that ye can,\u201d but, \u201cso that ye do not the things that ye would.\u201d 1400 How happens it, then, that the lust of the flesh which of course is culpable and corrupt, and is nothing p. 163 else than the desire for sin, as to which the same apostle instructs us not to let it \u201creign in our mortal body;\u201d 1401 by which expression he shows us plainly enough that that must have an existence in our mortal body which must not be permitted to hold a dominion in it;\u2014how happens it, I say, that such lust of the flesh has not been changed by that will, which the apostle clearly implied the existence of in his words, \u201cSo that ye do not the things that ye would,\u201d if so be that the will can so easily be changed by will? Not that we, indeed, by this argument throw the blame upon the nature either of the soul or of the body, which God created, and which is wholly good; but we say that it, having been corrupted by its own will, cannot be made whole without the grace of God.\n\u1fdd\u0399\u03bd\u03b1 \u03bc\u03b7 \u1f01 \u1f02\u03bd \u03b8\u03b5\u03bb\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5, \u03c4\u03b1\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u1fc6\u03c4\u03b5.\n163:1401","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise Concer...","type":"page"}