ON the other hand, as many as fear God and trust
in His Son's advent, and who through faith do establish the Spirit of God
in their hearts,--such men as these shall be properly called both "pure,"
and "spiritual," and "those living to God," because they possess the Spirit
of the Father, who purifies man, and raises him up to the life of God.
For as the Lord has testified that "the flesh is weak," so [does He also
say] that "the spirit is willing." For this latter is capable of working
out its own suggestions. If, therefore, any one admix the ready inclination
of the Spirit to be, as it were, a stimulus to the infirmity of the flesh,
it inevitably follows that what is strong will prevail over the weak, so
that the weakness of the flesh will be absorbed by the strength of the
Spirit; and that the man in whom this takes place cannot in that case be
carnal, but Spiritual, because of the fellowship of the Spirit. Thus it
is, therefore, that the martyrs bear their witness, and despise death,
not after the infirmity of the flesh, but because of the readiness of the
Spirit. For when the infirmity of the flesh is absorbed, it exhibits the
Spirit as powerful; and again, when the Spirit absorbs the weakness [of
the flesh], it possesses the flesh as an inheritance in itself, and from
both of these is formed a living man,--living, indeed, because he partakes
of the Spirit, but man, because of the substance of flesh.
