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At the return of light therefore, as the old man was forced by our
intense urgency to investigate the depths of the Apostle's subject, he
spoke as follows: As for the passages by which you try to prove that the
Apostle Paul spoke not in his own person but in that of sinners: "For t do
not the good that I would, but the evil which I hate, that I do;" or this:
"But if I do that which I would not, it is no longer I that do it but sin
that dwelleth in me;" or what follows: "For I delight in the law of God
after the inner man, but I see another law in my members opposing the law
of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members;" these passages on the contrary plainly show that they cannot
possibly fit the person of sinners, but that what is said can only apply to
those that are perfect, and that it only suits the chastity of those who
follow the good example of the Apostles. Else how could these words apply
to the person of sinners: "For I do not the good which I would, but the
evil which I hate that I do"? or even this: "But if I do what I would not
it is no longer I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me"? For what sinner
defiles himself unwillingly by adulteries and fornication? Who against his
will prepares plots against his neighbour? Who is driven by unavoidable
necessity to oppress a man by false witness or cheat him by theft, or covet
the goods of another or shed his blood? Nay rather, as Scripture says,
"Mankind is diligently inclined to wickedness from his youth." For to
such an extent are all inflamed by the love of sin and desire to carry out
what they like, that they actually look out with watchful care for an
opportunity of committing wickedness and are afraid of being too slow to
enjoy their lusts, and glory in their shame and the mass of their crimes,
as the Apostle says in censure, and seek credit for themselves out of
their own confusion, of whom also the prophet Jeremiah maintains that they
commit their flagitious crimes not only not unwillingly nor with ease of
heart and body, but with laborious efforts to such an extent that they come
to toil to carry them out, so that they are prevented even by the hindrance
of arduous difficulty from their deadly quest of sin; as he says: "They
have laboured to do wickedly." Who also will say that this applies to
sinners: "And so with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin," as it is plain that they serve God neither with the
mind nor the flesh? Or how can those who sin with the body serve God with
the mind, when the flesh receives the incitement to sin from the heart, and
the Creator of either nature Himself declares that the fount and spring of
sin flows from the latter, saying: "From the heart proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, etc." Wherefore it is
clearly shown that this cannot in any way be taken of the person of
sinners, who not only do not hate, but actually love what is evil and are
so far from serving God with either the mind or the flesh that they sin
with the mind before they do with the flesh, and before they carry out the
pleasures of the body are overcome by sin in their mind and thoughts.
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