Chapter 18 [XVII.]—Who May Be Said to Be in the Flesh.

There is a passage which nobody could place against these texts with the similar purpose of showing the impossibility of not sinning: “The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God;”48    Rom. viii. 7, 8. for he here mentions the wisdom of the flesh, not the wisdom which cometh from above: moreover, it is manifest, that in this passage, by the phrase, “being in the flesh,” are signified, not those who have not yet quitted the body, but those who live according to the flesh. The question, however, we are discussing does not lie in this point. But what I want to hear from him, if I can, is about those who live according to the Spirit, and who on this account are not, in a certain sense, in the flesh, even while they still live here,—whether they, by God’s grace, live according to the Spirit, or are sufficient for themselves, natural capability having been bestowed on them when they were created, and their own proper will besides. Whereas the fulfilling of the law is nothing else than love;49    Rom. xiii. 10. and God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts, not by our own selves, but by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.50    Rom. v. 5.

CAPUT XVII.

18. In carne esse qui dicantur. Ignorantiae peccata. Quibus petentibus detur a Dei sapientia. Nec illud quisquam istis pro impossibilitate non peccandi similiter objecerit, quod dictum est: Sapientia carnis inimica est in Deum: legi enim Dei non est subjecta; nec enim potest. Qui autem in carne sunt, Deo placere non possunt (Rom. VIII, 7, 8). Sapientiam quippe carnis dixit, non sapientiam desursum descendentem: et in carne esse, non eos qui nondum de corpore exierunt, sed eos qui secundum carnem vivunt, significatos esse manifestum est. Non autem ibi est quaestio quae versatur. Illud est quod exspecto ab isto audire si possim, eos qui secundum spiritum vivunt, et ob hoc etiam hic adhuc viventes jam quodam modo in carne non sunt, utrum gratia Dei vivant secundum spiritum; an sibi sufficiant, jam data cum creantur possibilitate naturae, et sua propria voluntate: cum plenitudo legis non sit nisi charitas (Id. XIII, 10), et charitas Dei diffusa sit in cordibus nostris, non per nos ipsos, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis (Id. V, 5).