Miscellanies 4.7.45

It is not possible, then, to think, as in Aeschylus's Telephus, that “a single path leads to Hades”; the ways that lead there are many, sins that wander in many directions. Aristophanes, it seems, mocking such unbelievers, says: “Come, you men of dim life, like the generation of leaves, feeble, figures of wax, shadowy tribes, powerless, wingless, creatures of a day.” And Epicharmus: “This is the nature of men: puffed-up wineskins.” But to us the Savior has said: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” That is why the apostle explains that “the mind of the flesh is enmity toward God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” And explaining further, so that no one, like Marcion, should ungratefully take creation as evil, he adds: “But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.” And again: “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.” “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him, as fellow heirs of Christ.”