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| Chapter XVI. What is the body of sin.
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Chapter XVI.
What is the body of sin.
This then is that body of
death from which we cannot escape, pent in which those who are perfect,
who have tasted “how gracious the Lord is,”2279
daily feel with the prophet “how
bad for himself and bitter it is for a man to depart from the Lord his
God.”2280
This is the
body of death which restrains us from the heavenly vision and drags us
back to earthly things, which causes men while singing Psalms and
kneeling in prayer to have their thoughts filled with human figures, or
conversations, or business, or unnecessary actions. This is the body of
death, owing to which those, who would emulate the sanctity of angels,
and who long to cling continually to God, yet are unable to arrive at
the perfection of this good, because the body of death stands in their
way, but they do the evil that they would not, i.e., they are dragged
down in their minds even to the things which have nothing to do with
their advance and perfection in virtue. Finally that the blessed
Apostle might clearly denote that he said this of saintly and perfect
men, and those like himself, he in a way points with his finger to
himself and at once proceeds: “And so I myself,” i.e., I
who say this, lay bare the secrets of my own not another’s
conscience. This mode of speech at any rate the Apostle is familiarly
accustomed to use, whenever he wants to point specially to himself, as
here: “I, Paul, myself beseech you by the mildness
and modesty of Christ;”
and again: “except that I myself was not burdensome to
you;” and once more: “But be it so: I myself did not burden
you;” and elsewhere: “I, Paul, myself say unto you: if ye
be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing;” and to the
Romans: “For I could wish that I myself were Anathema from Christ
for my brethren.”2281
| 2281 Bible:Rom.9.3">2 Cor. x. 1; xii. 13, 16; Gal. v. 2; Rom.
ix. 3. | But it cannot
unreasonably be taken in this way, that “And so I myself”
is expressly said with emphasis, i.e., I whom you know to be an Apostle
of Christ, whom you venerate with the utmost respect, whom you believe
to be of the highest character and perfect, and one in whom Christ
speaks, though with the mind I serve the law of God, yet with the flesh
I confess that I serve the law of sin, i.e., by the occupations of my
human condition am sometimes dragged down from heavenly to earthly
things and the height of my mind is brought down to the level of care
for humble matters. And by this law of sin I find that at every moment
I am so taken captive that although I persist in my immovable longing
around the law of God, yet in no way can I escape the power of this
captivity, unless I always fly to the grace of the
Saviour.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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