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| Concerning the law of God and the law of sin.
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Chapter
XXII.—Concerning the law of God and the law of
sin.
The Deity is good and more than good, and so is
His will. For that which God wishes is good. Moreover the
precept, which teaches this, is law, that we, holding by it, may walk
in light2632
: and
the transgression of this precept is sin, and this continues to exist
on account of the assault of the devil and our unconstrained and
voluntary reception of it2633
. And
this, too, is called law2634
.
And so the law of God, settling in our mind, draws it
towards itself and pricks our conscience. And our conscience,
too, is called a law of our mind. Further, the assault of the
wicked one, that is the law of sin, settling in the members of our
flesh, makes its assault upon us through it. For by once
voluntarily transgressing the law of God and receiving the assault of
the wicked one, we gave entrance to it, being sold by ourselves to
sin. Wherefore our body is readily impelled to it. And so
the savour and perception of sin that is stored up in our body, that is
to say, lust and pleasure of the body, is law in the members of our
flesh.
Therefore the law of my mind, that is, the
conscience, sympathises with the law of God, that is, the precept, and
makes that its will. But the law of sin2635
, that is to say, the assault
made through the law that is
in our members, or through the lust and inclination and movement of the
body and of the irrational part of the soul, is in opposition to the
law of my mind, that is to conscience, and takes me captive (even
though I make the law of God my will and set my love on it, and make
not sin my will), by reason of commixture2636
| 2636 Text,
κατὰ
ἀνάκρασιν.
Variants, ἀνάκρισιν,
ἀνάκλισιν.
The old translation is ‘secundum anacrasin,’ i.e.
‘contractionem, refusionem per laevitatem
voluptatis:’ Faber has ‘secundum contradictionem per
suadelam voluptatis.’ The author’s meaning is that
owing to the conjunction of mind with body, the law of sin is mixed
with all the members. | : and through the softness of
pleasure and the lust of the body and of the irrational part of the
soul, as I said, it leads me astray and induces me to become the
servant of sin. But what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh (for He assumed flesh but not sin) condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us
who walk not after the flesh but in the Spirit2637
. For the Spirit helpeth our
infirmities2638
and affordeth
power to the law of our mind, against the law that is in our
members. For the verse, we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession with groanings that
cannot be uttered2639
, itself teacheth
us what to pray for. Hence it is impossible to carry out the
precepts of the Lord except by patience and prayer.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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