Freedom And Servitude

Cum enim inquit servi essetis peccati, liberi fuistis justitiae. Qualis, quaeso, potest servi addicti esse libertas, nisi quando eum peccare delectat? Liberaliter enim servit, qui sui domini voluntatem libenter facit, ac per hoc ad peccandum liber est, qui peccati servus est. Unde ad juste faciendum liber non erit: nisi a peccato liberatus, esse justitiae coeperit servus. Ipsa vero est vera libertatis, esse justitiae coeperit servus. Ipsa vero est vera libertas, habere recte facti laetitiam: simul et pia servitus, amplecti praecepti obedientiam. Sed ad bene faciendum ista libertas unde erit homini addito et vendito, nisi redimat eum, cujus illa vox est: Si vos Filius liberaverit, tunc vere liberi eritis. Liberi enim a justitia non sunt, nisi arbitrio libertatis; liberi autem a peccato non sunt, nisi gratia Salvatoris. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Caput VI Source: Migne PG 180.610d-611a

For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.... 1 How is it possible, I ask, to be free when enslaved to sin, unless it is a man's delight to sin? He serves freely, who freely performs the will of his master, and because of this he is free for sin who is a slave of sin. Whence a man shall not be free to do what is right unless he has been freed from sin to become a servant of righteousness. This, however, is true freedom, to have joy in acting righteously, and at the same time that service is pious which has embraced the obedience of the commands. But how shall a man bound and sold have this freedom for acting well, unless He frees him whose voice says: 'If the Son has freed you, then truly you are free.' 2 Men are not free from righteousness unless by freedom of the will, and they are not free from sin unless by the grace of the Saviour. William of St Thierry, Commentary on Romans, Chapter 6 1 Rom 6.20 2 Jn 8.36