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of the evil one and often drawing the soul out into passionate fantasies, which he said wars against the law of the mind, and another hardened in the flesh by desire according to sin, which he called the law of sin dwelling in the members; on which the evil one, mounting and riding, often incites us, driving us toward injustice and evil deeds. For the law breathed in from without by the evil one and through the senses, like a stream of bitumen, poured 2.497 inside into the soul itself, is strengthened by the law that exists in the flesh according to desire. For it appears that in us ourselves there is the better and the worse, and whenever the better by nature becomes stronger than the worse, the whole mind is carried toward the good; but when the worse prevails, having become dominant, which is said to war against the good in us, man is again led conversely to all kinds of fantasies and worse reasonings. 62. On account of which, indeed, the Apostle prays to be delivered, considering it to be death and destruction, just as the prophet also says, “cleanse me from my secret faults.” Indeed, the words themselves present this, of him saying, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death”? not declaring the body to be death, but the law of sin which, through transgression, lurks in the members of the body and always presents to the soul the death of unrighteousness. He then adds immediately, you see, explaining from what death he longed to be delivered and who his deliverer was: “Thanks be to 2.498 God through Jesus Christ.” For it must be noted that if he meant this body is death, O Aglaophon, as you have supposed, he would not have later taken on Christ as delivering him from such an evil; since what more paradoxical or greater thing have we received from the coming of Christ? And why at all did the apostle speak as if able to be freed from this death by God through the coming of Christ, when it was the lot of all to die even before Christ came into the world? For all were delivered by being separated from their bodies at their departure from this life; but also in like manner all souls, both of the unbelieving and believing, both of the unjust and just, were separated from their bodies on the day of their death. What more then was the apostle eager to receive than the others who lived in unbelief? Or why did he pray to be delivered from the body, which, even if he did not wish it, would certainly have happened to him, just as indeed it is appointed for all to die and for their souls to be separated from their bodies, if indeed he supposed the body to be the death of the soul? So that he is not speaking of this body as death, O Aglaophon, but of the sin that has taken up residence within, through desire in the body, from which God delivered him through the coming of Christ. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death,” so that “he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in us,” “sin in the body having been condemned” for destruction, “that the righteous requirement of the” 2.499 natural “law,” which according to the commandment draws us to the good, might be manifested, being kindled, which, having become weak, since the flesh was overcome by sin, before the coming of Christ was buried by material cares. “For what the natural law within us was powerless to do, in that it was weak” being overcome by the desire residing in the body, God strengthened, by sending his own Son, who had taken on flesh like the flesh of sin, for in truth and

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τοῦ πονηροῦ καὶ εἰς τὰς ἐμπαθεῖς ἐξέλκοντα πολλάκις φαντασίας τὴν ψυχήν, ὃν ἀντιστρατεύεσθαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοὸς ἔφη, καὶ ἕτερον τὸν κατὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐνσκιρρώσαντα ἐν τῇ σαρκί, ὃν ἁμαρτίας νόμον οἰκοῦντα ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἐκάλεσεν· ᾧ ἐπιβαίνων ὁ πονηρὸς καὶ ἐποχούμενος πολλάκις καθ' ἡμῶν ἐγκελεύεται, πρὸς ἀδικίαν ἡμᾶς καὶ πράξεις συνελαύνων κακάς. ὁ γὰρ ἔξωθεν εἰσπνεόμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ νόμος καὶ διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων καθάπερ ἀσφαλτῶδες ῥεῦμα ἔνδον εἰς αὐτὴν ἐκχεό2.497 μενος τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ κατὰ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ὑπάρχοντος κραταιοῦται νόμου. φαίνεται γὰρ ὡς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡμῖν τὸ μὲν βέλτιον τὸ δὲ χεῖρον ὄν, καὶ ὅταν μὲν τὸ βέλτιον φύσει τοῦ χείρονος ἐγκρατέστερον γενηθῇ, φέρεται ὅλος πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ὁ νοῦς· ὅταν δὲ τὸ χεῖρον ἐπιβρίσῃ πλεονάσαν, ὃ ἀντιστρατεύεσθαι τῷ ἐν ἡμῖν λέγεται ἀγαθῷ, ἄγεται πάλιν ἀντιστρόφως πρὸς φαντασίας παντοδαπὰς ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ λογισμοὺς χείρονας. 62. Οὗ δὴ καὶ χάριν ὁ ἀπόστολος εὔχεται ῥυσθῆναι, θάνατον αὐτὸ καὶ ὄλεθρον εἶναι ἡγούμενος, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ ὁ προφήτης «ἀπὸ τῶν κρυφίων μου» λέγων «καθάρισόν με». αὐτὰ γοῦν τὰ ῥήματα τοῦτο παρίστησιν «συνήδομαι γὰρ τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ κατὰ τὸν ἔσω» λέγοντος «ἄνθρωπον, βλέπω δὲ ἕτερον νόμον ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου ἀντιστρατευόμενον τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοός μου καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζοντά με τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τῷ ὄντι ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου. ταλαίπωρος ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος, τίς με ῥύσεται ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου»; οὐ τὸ σῶμα θάνατον ἀποφηνάμενος, ἀλλὰ τὸν νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὸν ἐν τοῖς μέλεσι τοῦ σώματος διὰ τῆς παραβάσεως ἐν ἡμῖν ἐμφωλεύοντα καὶ πρὸς θάνατον ἀεὶ τὸν τῆς ἀδικίας τὴν ψυχὴν ἐμφαντάζοντα. ἐπιφέρει γοῦν εὐθέως, ἀμέλει διαλυόμενος ἀπὸ ποίου θανάτου ἐγλίχετο ῥυσθῆναι καὶ τίς αὐτὸν ὁ ῥυόμενος ἦν· «χάρις τῷ 2.498 θεῷ διὰ Ἱησοῦ Χριστοῦ». προσεκτέον γὰρ ὅτι, εἰ τὸ σῶμα θάνατον τοῦτο, ὦ Ἀγλαοφῶν, ὡς ὑπειλήφατε, ἔλεγεν, οὐκ ἂν τὸν Χριστὸν ὡς ῥυόμενον αὐτὸν ὕστερον ἐκ τοῦ τοιούτου κακοῦ παρελάμβανεν· ἐπεὶ τί παραδοξότερον ἢ πλέον ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς παρουσίας ἐσχήκαμεν; τί δὲ καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος ὅλως, ὡς διὰ τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ δυνάμενος ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου ὑπὸ θεοῦ ἐλευθερωθῆναι τούτου ἐφθέγγετο, ὁπότε πᾶσι καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τὸν Χριστὸν ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὸν κόσμον συνέβαινε θνῄσκειν; ἐρρύοντο γὰρ χωριζόμενοι πάντες τῶν σωμάτων κατὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ βίου τούτου ἔξοδον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως δὲ πᾶσαι αἱ ψυχαί, καὶ αἱ τῶν ἀπίστων καὶ πιστῶν καὶ τῶν ἀδίκων καὶ δικαίων, ἐχωρίζοντο τῶν σωμάτων κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς τελευτῆς. τί οὖν ὁ ἀπόστολος πλέον παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους λαβεῖν τοὺς ἐν ἀπιστίᾳ διατρίψαντας ἐσπούδαζεν; ἢ διὰ τί ῥυσθῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ηὔχετο, ὃ καὶ εἰ μὴ ἤθελε, πάντως ἂν συνέβαινεν αὐτῷ, καθάπερ δὴ καὶ πᾶσι κεῖται τὸ τελευτῆσαι καὶ χωρισθῆναι τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων, εἴ γε θάνατον τὸ σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπετίθετο; ὥστε οὐ τὸ σῶμα τοῦτο, ὦ Ἀγλαοφῶν, θάνατον, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τὴν κατοικήσασαν ἔνδον διὰ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐν τῷ σώματι λέγει, ἧς ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸν διὰ τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐρρύσατο. «ὁ γὰρ νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος τῆς ζωῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ἠλευθέρωσεν ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου τῆς ἁμαρτίας καὶ τοῦ θανάτου», ὅπως «ὁ ἐγείρας Ἰησοῦν ἐκ νεκρῶν διὰ τὸ ἐνοικοῦν αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα ἐν ἡμῖν ζωοποιήσῃ καὶ τὰ θνητὰ σώματα ἡμῶν», «τῆς ἁμαρτίας τῆς ἐν τῷ σώματι κατακριθείσης» πρὸς ἀναίρεσιν, «ἵνα τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ» 2.499 κατὰ τὴν ἐντολὴν πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἡμᾶς ἐφελκομένου φυσικοῦ «νόμου» φανερωθῇ ἐξαφθέν, ὃ ἀσθενῆσαν, τῆς σαρκὸς κεκρατημένης τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, πρὸ τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ ταῖς ὑλικαῖς φροντίσιν ἐπεχώννυτο. «τὸ γὰρ ἀδύνατον τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν φυσικοῦ νόμου, ἐν ᾧ ἠσθένει» ὑπὸ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἡττώμενον τῆς ἐγκειμένης ἐν τῷ σώματι, ὁ θεὸς ἀνερρώσατο, πέμψας τὸν υἱὸν ἑαυτοῦ, τὴν ὁμοίαν τῇ σαρκὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας σάρκα ἀνειληφότα ἀληθείᾳ γὰρ καὶ