Psalm 18:8 — the law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls
“The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls” (Psalm 19:7).
Origen. It is to be asked whether it would convert from vice to virtue, or from the perceptible to the intelligible; and perhaps the second; for the former, the commandment is naturally to make a law, namely the evangelical, as those from the nations who have already been taught from the previously mentioned elements, that there is one creator, are taught next also the evangelical law, as it also converted the souls of all the nations into the truth. Because of his boundless love toward us, he passes by neither a fornicator nor a robber, those who have fled his love exceedingly, and have arrived at the extremities of sin.
Greek
18.8 ̔Ο νόμος τοῦ Κυρίου α μωμος, ἐπισ τρέφων ψυχάς. ̓Ωρ. Ζητητέον πότερον ἀπὸ κακίας ἐπι στρέψειεν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν, η ἀπὸ τῶν αἰσθη τῶν ἐπὶ τὰ νοητά· καὶ τάχα τὸ δεύτερον· τὸ γὰρ πρότερον, ἡ ἐντολὴ πέφυκεν ποιεῖν νό μον, τὸν εὐαγγελικὸν δηλονότι, ὡς η δη δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν προειρημένων στοιχείων παιδαγω γηθέντες οἱ ἐξ ἐθνῶν, ε να ει ναι τὸν δημιουρ γὸν, διδάσκονται λοιπὸν καὶ τὸν εὐαγγελικὸν νόμον, ὡς καὶ ἐπέστρεψε τῶν ἐθνῶν ἁπάντων τὰς ψυχὰς εἰς τὴν ἀλήθειαν. –∆ιὰ τὴν ἐνάπειρον περὶ ἡμᾶς ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ, ου τε πόρνον, ου τε λῃστὴν παρατρέχει, τοὺς α γαν αὐτοῦ φυγόντας τὴν ἀγάπην, καὶ εἰς τὰ ε σχατα τῆς ἁμαρτίας φθάσαντας.