The Law And Sin

Occasione autem accepta, peccatum per mandatum operatum est in me omnem concupiscentiam. Erat enim et ante peccatum concupiscentia, sed non omnis erat. Fluvius per legem frenatus est, non siccatus. Quae te ducebat obicibus nullis, obruit te, obicibus ruptis. Minor erat, quando tuam movebat libidinem; omnis est, quando transcendit legem. Vis nosse quam magnus sit? Attende quid rupit. Praeceptum Dei dicentis, Non concupisces. Sine lege enim peccatum mortuum erat, id est latebat, non apparebat, omnino tanquam sepultum erat in quibusdam ignorantiae suae tenebris. Ego autem vivebam sine lege aliquando, id est nulla ex peccato morte terrebar, quia non apparebat, cum lex non esset. Vivebam, id est vivere mihi videbat. Sed cum venisset mandatum, peccatum revixit. Eminuit, apparuit; non tamen vixit, sed revixit. Vixerat enim aliquando in paradiso, quando contra datum praeceptum, satis apparebat admissum. Cum autem a nascentibus trahitur, tanquam mortuum sit, latet, donec repugnans justitiae malum ejus prohibitione sentiatur. Cum enim aliud jubetur atque probatur, aliud delectat atque dominatur; peccatum quodammodo in notitia nati homnis revixit, quod in notitia primi facti hominis aliquando vixerat. Revixit, hoc est sentiri coepit: coepit rebellare, coepit apparere. Ego autem mortuus sum, id est praevaricator factus sum, vel quia mortuum me cognovi, vel quia reatus praevaricationis certum mortis supplicium comminavatur: quae ignorabam, cum concupiscentias meas sequerer sine cognitione, quia sine cohibitione. Et inventum est mihi mandatum quod erat ad vitam, si obedieretur, esse ad mortem, dum fit contra mandatum; et non solus peccatum fit sicut prius, sed etiam sciente et praevaricante peccatur. Bene autem mandatum est ad vitam, non concupiscere. Sola enim vera vita est non concupiscere. O vita dulcis et dulcior quam voluptas concupiscentiae. Felix anima, quae hujusmodi delectationibus oblectatur, ubi turpitudine nulla inquinetur, et veritatis serenitate purgetur, scilicet quando delectat lex Dei, et sic delectat, ut omnes lascivae delectationes vincantur. Hoc autem non fit statim cum venit homo ad gratiam, sed concupiscentia tanto fit in proficiente lentior, quanto justitiae fit proficiendo propinquior. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber IV, Cap VII Source: Migne PG 180.615c-616b

Taking the opportunity, sin through the commandment worked in me all covetousness... 1 There was desire before sin, but it was not everything. The flow was bridled by the Law, not dried up, that which had carried you off without any check, rushing over you, bursting through all obstacles. It was little once when it stimulated your lust, it is everything when it passed over to the Law. You wish to know how it becomes great? Attend to how it burst forth. The law of the Lord said, 'You shall not covert.' 2 Without the law sin was dead, that is, it was hidden, it did not appear, indeed it was as if it were buried in a tomb in the darkness of ignorance 'But I was living for a time without the Law.' 3 That is, I was not distressed by mortal sin, because it did not appear when there was no Law. 'I was living,' that is, it seemed to me that I was living. But when the commandment came, sin revived. It became manifest, it appeared, but it did not live, it revived. For it lived once in paradise, when against the commandment given, it appeared overtly by offence. When it is acquired from birth, as death is, it is hidden, until by the opposition of the prohibition of justice the evil is known. For when there is something which is commanded and approved and another thing which desires and dictates, sin, which is as born by knowledge, is revived in a man, because in the knowledge of the first made man it once lived. It revived, that is, it began to be known, it began to revolt, it began to appear. 'And I died,' 3 that is, I became a sinner, or because I knew my death, or because the guilt of the sinner threatened the sure punishments of death, which I had been ignorant of, when I followed my desires without sense, without restraint. 'And there was found in me a commandment to life, ' if he had obeyed it, 'which was to death,' 4 while he acted in opposition to the commandment. And he did not only sin as he had done at first, but now he even sinned with knowledge of trespass. Good indeed is the commandment to life, that one not covert. The only true life is not to covert. O sweet life, even sweeter than the pleasure of desire. Happy soul, which takes joy when it is not defiled by any lust and it is purged for the serenity of truth, that is, what delights the law of God, delights it, so that it it may conquer every delight of lust. But this does not happen instantly to a man, but as much as he has been tardy to advance in lust, so he is nearer to advancing in righteousness. William of St Thierry, Commentary on Romans, Book 4 Chap 7 1 Rom 7.8 2 Exod 20.17 3 Rom 7.9 4 Rom 7.10