Chapter X: Internal and External Sins; Sins of Heart, Mouth, and Works, § 32.
CHAPTER X: ON INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SINS;
ALSO ON SINS OF THE HEART, MOUTH, AND WORKS
Some sins are internal; some are external.
§ 32. We shall join the fifth and sixth divisions: some sins are internal, and some are external. Some are sins of the heart (namely, the internal sins); some, of the mouth and of work (that is, the external sins). Matt. 15:19: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy.”
Augustine (Enchirid. ad Laurent., ch. 64): “Active sins are committed by the heart, mouth, and in works.”
Lactantius (Instit., bk. 6, ch. 13): “No one can be without sin as long as he is burdened with the cloak of the flesh, whose weakness lies under the dominion of sin in three ways: in deeds, words, and thoughts.”
Gregory (on 1 Kings 13): “Every sin is committed by thinking, speaking, or doing.”
Bernard (Parv. serm. 30, col. 444): “There is an old [condition] in heart, mouth, and body: we have sinned in these three ways by thought, word, and deed. Within the heart are fleshly and worldly desires, that is, the love of flesh and of the world. Similarly, there are two old [conditions] in the mouth: arrogance and lawlessness. There are also two in the body: disgraceful and criminal acts. These are all the image of the old man.”
The two kinds of internal sins.
§ 33. In some way, external sins are recognized even by those who have not been reborn, since they make their own ugliness obvious. But the internal sins of the heart are removed and hidden from the recognition of people not yet reborn and become manifest only under the light of the divine Law.
Yet there are two kinds of internal sins: some are suggestions of the flesh, such as corrupt thoughts and the first stirrings of concupiscence to which consent and delight have not yet yielded; but some are the delights of the flesh, when we encourage the corrupt stirrings of concupiscence and take pleasure in them and even think about bringing the desires of the flesh to completion. Even reason in some way recognizes that thoughts of the latter kind are sins. But the fact that thoughts of the former kind—that is, suggestions of the flesh—are sins cannot be known except by the light of the divine Law and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we shall investigate two questions about them: First, should the desires of the flesh be classed under original sin or actual sins? Second, are they truly and properly called sins, especially in the reborn?
Do suggestions of the flesh belong to original sin or to actual sin?
§ 34. Dr. Chemnitz (Loci, part 2, ch. 8, members 3 and 4, p. 630) carefully explains the first question:
It must be observed that thoughts sometimes pertain to original sin, as when they are merely suggestions, and sometimes to actual sin, namely, when they signify deliberation or intent, as 1 Cor. 13:5: “Love does not think evil” (for, originally speaking, it is not free from evil thoughts). John 11:53: “They thought how to kill Christ,” etc. Concupiscence is original sin, but actual sin happens in this way according to Scripture: by living in evil concupiscence (Col. 3:5), by being obedient to desires (Rom. 6:12), by being driven by various desires (2 Tim. 3:6).
Page 633:
Because original sin is defined as a lack of original righteousness and as the corrupt habit or sinful inclination of human powers toward evil, this distinction can most correctly be taught and understood: besides the lack and inclining habit, anything in the man which erupts into some act conflicting with the Law of God is called actual sin, whether this act happens because of the omission of a due work or by the commission of an undue work. The ancients teach these grades of sin: (1) the kindling or inherent depravation which also includes a failure; (2) suggestions of thoughts and affections, that is, when original depravation stirs itself up by some inclination; (3) delight; (4) consent; (5) the deed itself. Of these grades, the first two pertain to original sin, and the other three, to actual sin.
Those are the words of Dr. Chemnitz.
§ 35. Most correctly do Dr. Luther (Assert. 3) and Dr. Chemnitz discuss these points against the Scholastics, who argue that original sin is an idle evil, a quiescent kindling, and a torpid quality. Nevertheless, since these inclinations are, strictly speaking, actions, but especially because the apostle bears clear witness in Rom. 7:8: “Indwelling sin wrought in me every concupiscence,” it will not be absurd nor, in fact, foreign to the opinion of Dr. Luther and Dr. Chemnitz to assign even these first stirrings of concupiscence to actual sins in some way. Therefore attend to the following theorems.
(1) In the case of adults, original and actual sins cohere in such a way that it is not easy to show a contentious person the mathematical point (so to speak) at which they are distinguished. (2) Original evil is not an idle thing nor a torpid quality. (3) But in original sin there are always actual sins because the kindling is something living and perpetually moving. (4) Original sin is like a cause; actual sin is like the effect. All this was said by Chemnitz with just the same words.
Therefore, since the corrupt stirrings of concupiscence are the proper, perpetual, and inseparable effect of original sin, and they flow forth by emanation, thus they must be assigned by us to original sin, though by logical precision they nevertheless belong to actual sins, indeed their definition properly fits them.
Lombard (Sent., 2, dist. 30, letter G): “Original sin, since it is not actual [sin], is not an act or movement of soul or body. For if it is an act of soul or body, then surely it is actual sin. But it is not actual, and therefore it is not an act or movement.” [Lombard again] (letter H, on the basis of Augustine, Sermon 45 de tem.): “Concupiscence is vice because it makes a little child expert in coveting and causes an adult to be one who covets.” Therefore let us say that the stirrings of corrupt concupiscence with respect to the (regenerate) mind are passions,1 whence they are called παθήματα (Gal. 5:24); and with respect to the flesh are actions, whence they are called ἐπιθυμίαι [“desires”].
1 That is, both the feeling of desire and something suffered passively.