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lest you be seized, O soul, by them, and we will have no ransom to give for you. “For what,” he says, “shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” It would indeed be good, and most welcome, if we did not have those who oppose and fight against us; but since this is impossible, and what we wish we cannot do—for we wish not to have those who draw us out into passions, for it would be to be saved without a struggle—and what we wish does not happen, but what we do not wish—for it is necessary for us to be tested, as I said—let us not give in, O soul, let us not give in to the evil one, “but taking up the full armor of God” which defends and fights for us, “let us put on the breastplate of righteousness and have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel, and in all things let us take up the shield of faith, with which we will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, so that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil,” “and to cast down reasonings and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God;” “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” And I say these things for this reason, that this is the apostle's manner of composition. For it is possible to demonstrate concerning each of the things said in this epistle that it is orthodox and well-consid2.495ered; but it would be a long task to go through each of them in this way. For I have chosen now only to show his type and intention. “For what I wish, I do not do, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not wish, I agree with the law of God that it is good; but now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell,” speaking correctly. For you remember how we defined it in the things before; even if I, hastening to go through everything quickly, am rather slow, the length of my discourse having become longer than I expected, which I must now be eager to complete. For otherwise we will never reach the end of the subject at hand. 60. Therefore we were saying: from the time when man, if you remember, having gone astray, happened to disregard the commandment, from that point, from disobedience, sin, having come into being, came to dwell in him. For thus first strife fell upon us and we were filled with convulsions and alien reasonings, being emptied of the in-breathing of God, but filled with material desire, which the wily serpent breathed into us, when we fell short of the circle of God's command. Wherefore God also devised death for us for the destruction of sin, so that, having sprung up in us immortals, it might not be, as I said, immortal. Whence the apostle, saying “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell,” wishes to declare the sin that came to dwell in us from the transgression through desire, from which indeed, like new shoots and branches, the pleasure-loving reasonings are always formed around us. For there are two kinds of reasonings in us, 2.496 the one being formed from the desire that flatters in the body, which, as I said, came from the inspiration of the material spirit, and the other from that which is according to the commandment, which we received to have as an innate and natural law, which rouses and corrects our reasoning towards the good. Whence, on the one hand, we “delight” in the law of God according to the mind—for this is the inner man—but on the other hand, in the law of the devil according to the desire dwelling in the flesh; for the law “warring against and opposing the law of God,” that is, the impulse toward the good, the desire of the mind, this is what always brings forth passionate and material distractions towards lawlessness, being entirely attractive to pleasures. 61. For Paul seems to me here to be openly positing three laws: one according to the innate good in us, which he also clearly called the law of the mind, and one formed from assault

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ἁρπασθῇς, ὦ ψυχή, πρὸς αὐτῶν, καὶ οὐχ ἕξομεν ὑπὲρ σοῦ δοῦναι λύτρα. «τί γὰρ ἀντικατάλλαγμα δώσει, φησίν, ἄνθρωπος τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ»; καλὸν μὲν οὖν, εἰ μὴ εἴχομεν, ἦν ἂν καὶ χαρμιώτατον, τοὺς ἀντιπράσσοντας ἡμῖν καὶ μαχομένους· ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦτο ἀδύνατον, καὶ ὃ θέλομεν οὐ δυνάμεθα θέλομεν δὲ μὴ ἔχειν τοὺς ἐξέλκοντας ἡμᾶς εἰς πάθη-ἦν γὰρ ἀνιδρωτὶ σωθῆναι-καὶ ὃ θέλομεν τοῦτο οὐ γίγνεται, ἀλλ' ὃ οὐ θέλομεν δεῖ γὰρ ἡμᾶς δοκιμάζεσθαι, ὡς ἔφην, μὴ ἐνδιδῶμεν, ὦ ψυχή, μὴ ἐνδιδῶμεν τῷ πονηρῷ, «ἀλλὰ ἀναλαβόντες τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ θεοῦ» ὑπερασπίζουσαν καὶ προαγωνιζομένην ἡμῶν «ἐνδυσώμεθα τὸν θώρακα τῆς δικαιοσύνης καὶ ὑποδησώμεθα τοὺς πόδας ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, ἐν πᾶσί τε ἀναλάβωμεν τὸν θυρεὸν τῆς πίστεως, ἐν ᾧ δυνησόμεθα πάντα τὰ βέλη τοῦ πονηροῦ τὰ πεπυρωμένα σβέσαι καὶ τὴν περικεφαλαίαν τοῦ σωτηρίου καὶ τὴν μάχαιραν τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστι ῥῆμα θεοῦ, πρὸς τὸ δύνασθαι στῆναι πρὸς τὴν μεθοδείαν τοῦ διαβόλου», «λογισμούς τε καθαιρεῖν καὶ πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ»· «ὅτι μὴ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα». τούτου δὲ ἕνεκα ταῦτα λέγω, ὅτι οὗτος ὁ τρόπος τοῦ ἀποστόλου τῶν συνταγμάτων. πολλὰ μὲν γὰρ ἔστι καὶ περὶ ἑκάστου τῶν ἐν τῇ ἐπιστολῇ ταύτῃ εἰρημένων ἀποδεῖξαι, ὡς ὀρθοδόξως καὶ μεμε2.495 λετημένως ἔχει· ἀλλὰ μακρὸν ἂν εἴη ἕκαστον αὐτῶν οὕτως διελθεῖν. τὸν γὰρ τύπον αὐτοῦ δεῖξαι μόνον καὶ τὴν βούλησιν προῄρημαι νῦν. «οὐ γὰρ ὃ θέλω, τοῦτο πράσσω, ἀλλ' ὃ μισῶ, τοῦτο ποιῶ. εἰ δὲ ὃ οὐ θέλω τοῦτο ποιῶ, σύμφημι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ ὅτι καλός· νυνὶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγὼ κατεργάζομαι αὐτό, ἀλλ' ἡ οἰκοῦσα ἐν ἐμοὶ ἁμαρτία. οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ οἰκεῖ ἐν ἐμοί, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου, τὸ ἀγαθόν», ὀρθῶς λέγων. μέμνησθε γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ὡς ὡριζόμεθα· εἰ καὶ σπεύδων ἐγὼ ταχὺ πάντα διεξελθεῖν μᾶλλον βραδύνω, μακροτέρας μοι τῶν λόγων τῆς περιόδου ἢ προσεδόκησα γεγενημένης, ἣν προθυμητέον δὴ διανῦσαι. ἄλλως γὰρ τοῦ προκειμένου οὔποτε ἥξομεν ἐπὶ τέλος. 60. Οὐκοῦν ἐλέγομεν· ἀφ' οὗ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, εἰ μνημονεύετε, πλανηθέντα τὴν ἐντολὴν ἀθετῆσαι συνέβη, ἐντεῦθεν ἐκ τῆς παρακοῆς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν λαβοῦσαν γένεσιν εἰς αὐτὸν εἰσῳκηκέναι. οὕτως γὰρ πρῶτον στάσις ἐνέπεσε σφαδᾳσμῶν τε καὶ λογισμῶν ἀνοικείων ἐπληρώθημεν, κενωθέντες μὲν τοῦ ἐμφυσήματος τοῦ θεοῦ, πληρωθέντες δὲ ἐπιθυμίας ὑλικῆς, ἣν ὁ πολύπλοκος ἐνέπνευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς ὄφις, βραχυπορησάντων ἡμῶν τῆς παραγγελίας τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν κύκλον. διὸ καὶ τὸν θάνατον ὁ θεὸς πρὸς ἀναίρεσιν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀνεύρατο, ἵνα μὴ ἐν ἀθανάτοις ἡμῖν ἀνατείλασα, ὡς ἔφην, ἀθάνατος ᾖ. ὅθεν ὁ ἀπόστολος «οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ οἰκεῖ ἐν ἐμοί, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου, τὸ ἀγαθόν» λέγων τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς παραβάσεως διὰ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας εἰσοικισθεῖσαν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἁμαρτίαν βούλεται μηνύειν, ἧς δὴ καθάπερ βλαστήματα νέα καὶ κλῶνες οἱ φιλήδονοι περὶ ἡμᾶς ἀεὶ λογισμοὶ συνίστανται. δισσὰ γὰρ ἐν ἡμῖν λογισμῶν γένη, 2.496 τὸ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἐνθωπευούσης ἐν τῷ σώματι συνιστάμενον, ἥτις ἐξ ἐπιπνοίας, ὡς ἔφην, ἐγενήθη τοῦ ὑλικοῦ πνεύματος, τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἐντολήν, ὃν ἔμφυτον ἐλάβομεν ἔχειν καὶ φυσικὸν νόμον, πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ἡμῶν ἐξεγείροντα καὶ ἐπανορθούμενον τὸν λογισμόν. ὅθεν τῇ μὲν νομοθεσίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ κατὰ τὸν νοῦν «συνηδόμεθα» τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος, τῇ δὲ νομοθεσίᾳ τοῦ διαβόλου κατὰ τὴν ἐνοικοῦσαν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐν τῇ σαρκί· ὁ γὰρ νόμος «ἀντιστρατευόμενος καὶ ἀντιπράσσων τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ», οἷον τῇ πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ὁρμῇ, τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ τοῦ νοός, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τοὺς ἐμπαθεῖς ἀναφύων ἀεὶ καὶ ὑλικοὺς πρὸς ἀνομίαν περισπασμούς, παντάπασι πρὸς ἡδονὰς ὢν ἑλκτικός. 61. Τρεῖς γὰρ νόμους ὑποτιθέμενος ἀναφανδὸν ὁ Παῦλος ἐνταῦθά μοι καταφαίνεται· ἕνα μὲν τὸν κατὰ τὸ ἔμφυτον ἐν ἡμῖν ἀγαθόν, ὃν καὶ νόμον σαφῶς νοὸς ἐκάλεσεν, ἕνα δὲ τὸν ἐκ προσβολῆς συνιστάμενον