18. All we therefore, who
believe in the Living and True God, Whose Nature, being in the
highest sense good and incapable of change, neither doth any evil,
nor suffers any evil, from Whom is every good, even that which
admits of decrease, and Who admits not at all of decrease in His
own Good, Which is Himself, when we hear the Apostle saying,
“Walk in the Spirit, and perform ye not the lusts of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh: For these are opposed one to another, that ye do not
what ye would.”1864
Far be it from us to believe, what
the madness of the Manichees believes, that there are here shown
two natures or
principles contrary one to another at
strife, the
one
nature of good, the other of
evil. Altogether these two are
both good; both the Spirit is a good, and the
flesh a good: and
man, who is composed of both, one ruling, the other obeying, is
assuredly a good, but a good capable of change, which yet could not
be made
save by a Good incapable of change, by Whom was
created
every good, whether
small or great; but how
small soever, yet made
by What is Great; and how great soever, yet no way to be compared
with the greatness of the
Maker. But in this
nature of man, that is
good, and well formed and ordered by One That is Good, there is now
war, since there is not yet
health. Let the sickness be
healed,
there is
peace. But that sickness fault hath deserved, not
nature
hath had. And this fault indeed through the laver of
regeneration
the
grace of
God hath already remitted unto the
faithful; but under
the
hands of the same
Physician nature as yet striveth with its
sickness. But in such a
conflict victory will be entire soundness;
and that, soundness not for a time, but for ever: wherein not only
this sickness is to come to an end, but also none to arise after
it. Wherefore the just man addresseth his
soul and saith, “
Bless
the
Lord, O my
soul, and
forget not all His returns: Who becometh
propitious to all thy
iniquities, Who healeth all thy
sicknesses.”
1865
He
becometh propitious to our
iniquities, when He pardons
sins: He
heals sicknesses when He restrains
evil desires. He becometh
propitious unto
iniquities by the grant of
forgiveness: He
heals
sicknesses, by the grant of continence. The one was done in
Baptism
to persons confessing; the other is done in the
strife to persons
contending; wherein through His help we are to overcome our
disease. Even now the one is done, when we are heard, saying,
“
Forgive us our
debts;”
1866
but the other, when we are heard,
saying, “Lead us not into
temptation. For every one is
tempted,” saith the
Apostle James, “being drawn away and
enticed by his own
lust.”
1867
And against this fault there is
sought the help of medicine from Him, Who can
heal all such
sicknesses, not by the removal of a
nature that is
alien from us,
but in the renewal of our own
nature. Whence also the
above-mentioned
Apostle saith not, “Every one is tempted” by
lust, but added, “by his own:” that he who hears this may
understand, how he ought to
cry, “I said,
Lord, have
mercy upon
me,
heal my
soul, for I have
sinned against Thee.”
1868
For it
would not have needed healing, had it not
corrupted1869
itself by
sinning, so that its own flesh should lust against it, that is,
itself should be opposed to itself, on that side, wherein in the
flesh it was made sick.
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