Commentarii in epistulam ad Romanos (I.1-XII.21) (in catenis) i 1 set apart for the gospel of God. Thirdly, one must see set apart for the gospel of

 he should object to these things, whether it is possible for things not to happen which God foreknew would happen in such a way we will say that it i

 to God, so that he might not be under the 'woe,' he was not silent but preached the gospel. And these things he saw who set him apart from his mother'

 commanded Joab to number the people the second is represented by he sent upon them the fierceness of anger, wrath and indignation, a sending of evil

 similar to that and have made themselves worthy of nothing gloomy but of that in which one ought to rejoice. Therefore the gospel is theirs, along wit

 of God is not characterized by entrusting books and letters, but by knowing the mind within them and the mysteries stored therein. For according to so

 His mouth is full of bitterness and deceit. Then what follows is this: Their feet are swift to shed blood and you will seek this in Isaiah, or in the

 secondly to the spiritual. But if the same law is received according to some, if it is manifested without law it is not testified by the law, but if i

 to be justified or through faith, just as from a man is better understood insofar as it is from a man, <or> through a woman insofar as it is th

 owed by God eternal life, but His gift for he says, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, it should not be thought tha

 heirs of the law, faith is made void. In the list of the gifts given according to the proportion of faith, faith is also included for Paul says after

 kingdom of the heavens or kingdom of God. For these things, insofar as human nature is concerned, are beyond hope, but insofar as the power of God and

 belonging to God himself. (Of Origen) [For not only do we await immortal life, but also in the present life, having been reconciled to God, we glory,

 to death. As if someone for the sake of an example, being free, gives himself as a slave to the general of the enemies, so that by being with him he m

 to sin, just as apart from the law sin was dead, not coming from ever having been alive to the state of being dead. But the divine apostle also shows

 the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The distinction is good, 'wages' being applied to sin, but 'g

 of the epistle it is possible to take from the [phrase] Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that A

 of truth by the spirit in the prophets and by the word of Christ in the apostles, is in many places confused also by its phrasing and is not spoken as

 on the earth by the Word, but before the law and the coming of the commandment it lived, being dead. <And here someone has rendered the natural law, s

 of the law of sin and of death, he speaks thus: for just as virtue by its own nature is strong, so also is evil and the things from it weak and powerl

 I will pray with the spirit, he says, and I will pray with the mind also. 49 viii 31, 32 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us,

 in which one dies to sin, and in some way by our life which is hidden with Christ in God. And angels too wish to separate us from the love of God whic

Commentarii in epistulam ad Romanos (I.1-XII.21) (in catenis) i 1 set apart for the gospel of God. Thirdly, one must see "set apart for the gospel of God;" and in the letter to the Galatians the apostle says such things about himself: "But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, was pleased to reveal his Son in me." But those who do not understand the one predestined from God's foreknowledge being the cause of the foreknown things coming to be seize upon such expressions; and through these they think to introduce the idea of those who are saved by constitution and nature. And some even do away with what is in our power because of such sayings, making use also of the phrase stated in the Psalms, "the sinners were estranged from the womb." Now, it is easy to respond to this by asking about the following phrase; for it is written, "the sinners were estranged from the womb, they went astray from the belly, they spoke lies; their poison is like the poison of a serpent." And we shall ask those who take their stand on this phrase as if it were clear, whether the sinners who were estranged from the womb, as soon as they came out of their mother's belly, went astray and erred from the saving way, having themselves been active in this. But how did the sinners who were estranged from the womb go astray from the belly and speak lies? For they certainly will not show that as soon as they were born they uttered an articulate sound, speaking some falsehood. But if we pay attention to what is said before about predestination in the epistle under examination, we will be able, having demolished the things that pull the more simple-minded toward the acceptance of the doctrine that accuses God of injustice, to make a defense concerning him who sets apart from the mother's womb and sets apart for the gospel of God the servant of Jesus Christ, Paul, a called apostle. The sayings are as follows: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose; because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; and those whom he justified, these he also glorified." Let us therefore attend to the order of what is said. God justifies having first called, as he would not have justified those whom he had not called; and he calls having predestined before the calling, as he would not have called those whom he had not predestined; and for him the beginning of the calling and of the justification is not the predestination; for if this were the beginning of what follows, then those who introduce the absurd argument concerning nature would most persuasively prevail. But prior to predestination is foreknowledge; for "those whom he foreknew," he says, "he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." Therefore, God, having gazed beforehand at the series of future events, and having perceived the inclination of the free will of certain ones toward piety, and the impulse toward it after the inclination, and how they will give themselves wholly to living according to virtue, he foreknew them, knowing the present things and foreknowing the future things; and those whom he thus foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. There is therefore a certain Son of God, being the image of the invisible God, and of him there is an image, the so-called image of the Son of God; which we believe to be the human soul which the Son of God assumed, which became through virtue an image of the image of God. And to this, which we think to be the image of the image [of the Son] of God, God predestined to become conformed those whom he predestined on account of his foreknowledge about them. Therefore, the foreknowledge of God is not to be burdened with being the cause of future events; but because it was going to happen according to the own impulses of the doer, for this reason he foreknew, knowing all things before their coming into being; and as one knowing all things before their coming into being, he foreknew and predestined certain ones to be conformed to the image of his Son, but others he saw as estranged. But if anyone

Commentarii in epistulam ad Romanos (I.1-XII.21) (in catenis) i 1 ἀφωρισμένος εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ. Τρίτον ἔστιν ἰδεῖν τὸ ἀφωρισμένος εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ· καὶ ἐν τῇ πρὸς Γαλάτας ὁ ἀπόστολος περὶ ἑαυτοῦ τοιαῦτά φησιν· ὅτε δὲ εὐδόκηεν ὁ θεό, ὁ ἀφορία με ἐκ κοιλία μητρό μου, ἀποκαλύψαι τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν ἐμοί. ἐπιλαμβάνονται δὲ τῶν τοιούτων λέξεων οἱ μὴ συνιέντες τὸν ἐκ προγνώσεως θεοῦ προωρισμένον αἴτιον τυγχάνοντα τοῦ γίνεσθαι τὰ προγινωσκόμενα· καὶ οἴονται διὰ τούτων εἰσάγειν τοὺς ἐκ κατασκευῆς καὶ φύσεως σωζομένους. τινὲς δὲ καὶ τὸ ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων ἀναιροῦσι ῥητῶν, συγχρώμενοι καὶ τῷ ἀπηλλοτριώθηαν οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρα ἐν ψαλμοῖς εἰρημένῳ. πρὸς μὲν οὖν τοῦτο εὐχερῶς ἔστιν ἀπαντῆσαι, ἐρωτῶντας περὶ τῆς ἑξῆς λέξεως· γέγραπται γὰρ ἀπηλλοτριώθηαν οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρα, ἐπλανήθηαν ἀπὸ γατρό, ἐλάληαν ψευδῆ· θυμὸ αὐτοῖ κατὰ τὴν ὁμοίωιν τοῦ ὄφεω. καὶ πευσόμεθά γε τῶν ὡς σαφεῖ τῇ λέξει ἐπιβαινόντων, εἰ οἱ ἀπαλλοτριωθέντες ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας ἅμα τῷ ἐξελθεῖν ἀπὸ γαστρὸς τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῶν ἐπλανήθησαν καὶ τῆς σωζούσης ὁδοῦ ἐσφάλησαν, αὐτοὶ εἰς τοῦτο ἐνεργήσαντες. πῶς δὲ οἱ ἀπαλλοτριωθέντες ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας ἀπὸ γαστρὸς ἐπλανήθησάν τε καὶ ἐλάλησαν ψευδῆ; οὐ γὰρ δὴ δείξουσιν ὅτι ἅμα τῷ γεννηθῆναι ἔναρθρον φωνὴν προήκαντο, ψευδῆ τινὰ προφερόμενοι. ἀλλ' εἰ προσέχομεν τοῖς προτεταγμένοις τοῦ προορισμοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐξεταζομένῃ ἐπιστολῇ λεγομένοις, δυνησόμεθα, τὰ περι σπῶντα τοὺς ἁπλουστέρους πρὸς παραδοχὴν τοῦ ἀδικίαν κατηγοροῦντος κατὰ τοῦ θείου δόγματος καθελόντες, ἀπολογήσασθαι περὶ τοῦ ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς ἀφορίζοντος καὶ εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ ἀφορίζοντος τὸν δοῦλον Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ κλητὸν ἀπόστολον Παῦλον. οὕτω δὲ ἔχει τὰ ῥητά· οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖ ἀγαπῶι τὸν θεὸν πάντα υνεργεῖ εἰ ἀγαθόν, τοῖ κατὰ πρόθειν κλητοῖ οὖιν· ὅτι οὓ προέγνω, καὶ προώριεν υμμόρφου τῆ εἰκόνο τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, εἰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοῖ ἀδελφοῖ· οὓ δὲ προώριεν, τούτου καὶ ἐκάλεεν· καὶ οὓ ἐκάλεεν, τούτου καὶ ἐδικαίωεν· οὓ δὲ ἐδικαίωεν, τούτου καὶ ἐδόξαεν. πρόσχωμεν οὖν τῇ τάξει τῶν λεγομένων. δικαιοῖ ὁ θεὸς καλέσας πρότερον, οὐκ ἂν δικαιώσας οὓς μὴ ἐκάλεσεν· καλεῖ δὲ πρὸ τῆς κλήσεως προορίσας, οὐκ ἂν καλέσας οὓς μὴ προώρισεν· καὶ ἔστιν αὐτῷ ἀρχὴ τῆς κλήσεως καὶ τῆς δικαιώσεως οὐχ ὁ προορισμός· οὗτος γὰρ εἰ ἦν ἀρχὴ τῶν ἑξῆς, κἂν πιθανώτατα ἐκράτουν οἱ παρεισάγοντες τὸν περὶ φύσεως ἄτοπον λόγον· ἀνωτέρω δέ ἐστι τοῦ προορισμοῦ ἡ πρόγνωσις· οὓ γὰρ προέγνω, φησί, καὶ προώριεν υμμόρφου τῆ εἰκόνο τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ. προενατενίσας οὖν ὁ θεὸς τῷ εἱρμῷ τῶν ἐσομένων, καὶ κατανοήσας ῥοπὴν τοῦ ἐφ' ἡμῖν τῶνδέ τινων ἐπὶ εὐσέ βειαν καὶ ὁρμὴν ἐπὶ ταύτην μετὰ τὴν ῥοπήν, καὶ ὡς ὅλοι ἑαυτοὺς ἐπιδώσουσι τῷ κατ' ἀρετὴν ζῇν, προέγνω αὐτούς, γινώσκων μὲν τὰ ἐνιστάμενα προγινώσκων δὲ τὰ μέλλοντα· καὶ οὓς οὕτω προέγνω, προώρισεν συμμόρφους ἐσομένους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ. ἔστιν οὖν τις ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, εἰκὼν τυγχάνων τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, καὶ τούτου εἰκὼν ἡ λεγομένη εἰκὼν τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ· ἥντινα νομίζομεν εἶναι ἣν ἀνέλαβεν ψυχὴν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνθρωπίνην, γενομένην διὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ θεοῦ εἰκόνα. ταύτης δέ, ἣν οἰόμεθα εἰκόνος εἰκόνα εἶναι [τοῦ υἱοῦ] τοῦ θεοῦ, συμμόρφους προώρισεν γενέσθαι ὁ θεός, οὓς διὰ τὴν περὶ αὐτῶν πρόγνωσιν προώρισεν. οὐ γομιστέον τοίνυν εἶναι τῶν ἐσομένων αἰτίαν τὴν πρόγνωσιν τοῦ θεοῦ· ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ ἔμελλεν γίνεσθαι κατ' ἰδίας ὁρμὰς τοῦ ποιοῦντος, διὰ τοῦτο προέγνω, εἰδὼς τὰ πάντα πρὸ γενέσεως αὐτῶν· καὶ ὡς εἰδὼς τὰ πάντα πρὸ γενέσεως αὐτῶν τούσδε μέν τινας προέγνω καὶ προώρισεν συμμόρφους ἐσομένους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἄλλους δὲ εἶδεν ἀπηλλοτριωμένους. ἐὰν δέ τις