Fools And Flesh

Sic stultis estis, ut cum Spiritu coeperitis, nunc carne consummemini? Si sanctum spiritum acceperant Galatae, quomodo stulti erant? Verum statim soluitur, coepisse quidem eos spiritum, sed cum carne consummarentur, spiritum ab eis fuisse sublatum. Unde sine causa passi sunt tanta quae passi sunt. Quod ne sibi post peccatum eveniret, David precatur, dicens: Spiritum Sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. Diligenter attendite quod qui Scripturas iuxta litteram sequitur, consummari carne dicatur. Quamobrem illud quod ad Corinthios scriptum est: in carne viventes, non iuxta carnem militamus, melius sic intelligi potest, ut hi militare dicantur in carne, qui vetus Testamentum humiliter edisserunt. Qui vero sequuntur intelligentiam spiritualem, sint quidem in carne, quia eamdem habeant litteram quam Iudaei, sed non iuxta carnem militent, a carne ad spiritum transcendentes. Quando videritis eum qui primum credit ex Gentibus, et ad Christi aratrum mittit manum, praevio aliquo doctore prudente, sic per Legis iter ad Evangelium pergere, ut omnia illa quae ibi scripta sunt, de sabbato, de azymis, de circumcisione, de victimis, digne Deo intelligat, et deinceps post Evangelii lectionem a Iudaeo aliquo aut Iudaeorum socio persuaderi, ut umbras et allegoriae nubila derelinquens, sic Scripturas interpretetur, ut scriptae sunt: de hoc potestis dicere: sic stultus es, ut cum Spiritu coeperis, nunc carne consummeris? Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber I Cap III Source: Migne PL 26.350a-c

Are you such fools, that having begun in the spirit, you now make an end in the flesh? 1 If the Galatians received the Holy Spirit, how were they fools? Truly this may be quickly resolved, for he had established them in the Spirit, but when they would end in the flesh, the Spirit went from them. Whence without reason they had endured so much. Which lest it happen to him after sin David prayed, saying: 'Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.' 2 Carefully attend that he says that he who follows the Scriptures according to the letter ends in the flesh. As he wrote to the Corinthians: 'Living in the flesh we do not strive according to the flesh, 3 by which one is better able to understand that they are said to fight in the flesh who basely expound the Old Testament. However, they who follow the spiritual understanding, though they are in the flesh, though they have the same letter as the Jews, do not fight according to the flesh, but pass from the flesh to the spirit. If you were to see one who first believed from the nations and put his hand to the plough of Christ, 4 being led by a certain prudent teaching, advancing through the way of the Law to the Gospel, so that all things which are written there, concerning the sabbath, and the unleavened bread, and circumcision, and sacrifices, he might understand in a manner worthy of God, and then later, after reading the Gospel, he is persuaded by some Jew, or an associate of the Jews, so that forsaking the shadows and clouds of allegories, he understands the Scriptures in a literal manner, concerning him would you not be able to say: 'Are you such a fool, that when you have begun in the Spirit, now you end in the flesh?' Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 1, Chap 3 1 Galat 4.32 2 Ps 50.13 3 2 Cor 10.3 4 Lk 9.26