CHAPTER VIII
cence.* (Rom. 7*7^8) He reveals that he himself experienced these desires against his will; for he says 'What I hate, that I do' (Rom. 7:15)^ "by which he means 'I unwillingly have covetous desires.* Sacred authority shows us quite clearly that these passions and appetites are to he counted as sin.
Certainly when the Lord says of the passion of anger, even when it occurs without words or actions, 'Whoever is angry with his brother will be answerable for it at the judgment* (Matt. 5:22), He shows clearly that the blame for such anger is no trifling matter but is of such gravity that it is followed by the condemnation of death. It is as if He had said, 'Whoever does what man ought not to do and what man would not do had he not sinned, ought to be removed from the midst of men.* Furthermore, Paul declares of those who unwillingly experience the desires of the flesh (that is, experience concupiscent desires),
'There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not accord ing to the flesh* (that is, to those who do not consent to the flesh willingly).
(Rom. 8:l) How there is no doubt that he is signifying that condemnation will follow for those who are not in Christ, as often as they feel the desires of the flesh, even if they do not walk according to the flesh. For man was so made that he ought not to feel these desires--just as he ought never (as I said) to feel anger. Anyone who diligently considers what I have said will have no doubt that the men who, because of their own fault, cannot accept the Word of God, will be rightly blamed for it.
CHAPTER VIII
As regards those to whom the grace of Christian faith is given: just as in baptism the original injustice with which they are born is removed, so also in baptism there is forgiven all guilt of inability and of total corruption, which was incurred as a result of the sin of the first parent and through which
God is dishonored. For even though the corruption and the appetites which are the penalty of sin are not immediately erased after baptism, no guilt which was in them before baptism is charged to them after baptism; nor is any trans gression imputed to them except that which they commit by their own will. It appears from this that the corruption and evil which were the penalty of sin and which still remain after baptism, are not in themselves sins. For injustice alone is a sin in itself. Until injustice has been remitted, the things which follow from injustice are considered sins by reason of their cause. For if they had really been sins they would have been blotted out in baptism, where all sins are washed away by the blood of Christ. Moreover, were they properly called sins, they would be sins even in the brute animals. For on account of sin human nature endures these penalties which make it resemble the nature of the brute animals.
There is something else which can be recognized in the first sin of human nature and which we ought greatly to fear. Man is a 'spirit that goes out but does not return.' (Ps. 78:39) For this reason, after he freely falls (we are speaking for the moment only of voluntary sins), there is no way that he can rise up again unless grace uplifts him. Unless he is restrained by God's mercy, his own effort results only in his being plunged down into the bottomless abyss
(or measureless depth) of sin, from one sin to another, in such a way that even the good becomes something hateful to him and something that will mean death for him. Thus it is that the Lord says to the apostles, 'If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.' (John 15:18) And the Apostle says, 'We are a sweet savor to God, among some the savor of death unto death, but among others the savor of life unto life.' (II Cor. 2:15,l6) It is because of this that Scripture says of God, 'To whom He will He shows mercy.