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Chapter VIII.—Virgins, by the Laying Aside of All Carnal Affection, are Imitators of God.

For, if a man be only in name called holy, he is not holy; but he must be holy in everything:  in his body and in his spirit.  And those who are virgins rejoice at all times in becoming like God and His Christ, and are imitators of them.  For in those that are such there is not “the mind352352    Rom. viii. 6 (φρόνημα). of the flesh.”  In those who are truly believers, and “in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells”353353    Rom. viii. 9.—in them “the mind of the flesh” cannot be:  which is fornication, uncleanness, wantonness; idolatry,354354    Lit. “the worship of idols.”  The single word *** sometimes used to express “idolatry” (as in Eph. Syr., opp. tom. i. p. 116), is not found in these epistles. sorcery; enmity, jealousy, rivalry, wrath, disputes, dissensions, ill-will; drunkenness, revelry; buffoonery, foolish talking, boisterous laughter; backbiting, insinuations; bitterness, rage; clamour, abuse, insolence of speech; malice, inventing of evil, falsehood; talkativeness,355355    Lit. “much talking.” babbling;356356    Lit. “empty words.” threatenings, gnashing of teeth, readiness to accuse,357357    The word thus rendered is not in the lexicons, but is well illustrated by Isa. xxix. 21 (“that make a man an offender”), where the Hiphil of חָטָא is used, corresponding to the Aphel of the same root, from which the present word is derived. jarring,358358    The word is used in the Peschito of 1 Tim. vi. 5, to express διαπαρατριβαί (“incessant quarrellings,” Alf.); [R.V., “wranglings.”—R.]. disdainings, blows; perversions of the right,359359    Ex. Conject. Beelen.  The word is not in the lexicons.laxness in judgment; haughtiness, arrogance, ostentation, pompousness, boasting of family, of beauty, of position, of wealth, of an arm of flesh;360360    Or “power.” quarrelsomeness, injustice,361361    Lit. “folly;” but so used in 2 Cor. xii. 13. eagerness for victory; hatred, anger, envy, perfidy, retaliation;362362    Or “returning of evils.” debauchery, gluttony, “overreaching (which is idolatry),”363363    Col. iii. 5. “the love of money (which is the root of all evils);”364364    1 Tim. vi. 10. love of display, vainglory, love of rule, assumption, pride (which is called death, and which “God fights against”).365365    1 Pet. v. 5; Jas. iv. 6.  Every man with whom are these and such like things—every such man is of the flesh.  For, “he that is born of the flesh is flesh; and he that is of the earth speaketh of the earth,”366366    John iii. 6, 31. and his thoughts are of the earth.  And “the mind of the flesh is enmity towards God.  For it does not submit itself to the law of God; for it cannot do so,”367367    Rom. viii. 7. because it is in the flesh, “in which dwells no good,”368368    Rom. vii. 18. because the Spirit of God is 58not in it.  For this cause justly does the Scripture say regarding such a generation as this:  “My Spirit shall not dwell in men for ever, because they are flesh.”369369    Gen. vi. 3.  [This is an example of the vicious method of interpretation, not yet extirpated, which carries Paul’s distinctive use of the term “flesh” back to the Pentateuch, where no ethical sense is necessarily implied.—R.]  “Whosoever, therefore, has not the Spirit of God in him, is none of His:”370370    Rom. vii. 9.  [The Apostle speaks of “the Spirit of Christ.”—R.]  as it is written, “The Spirit of God departed from Saul, and an evil spirit troubled him, which was sent upon him from God.”371371    1 Sam. xvi. 14.


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