Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Romans 7:23
There are 54 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 395, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2567 (In-Text, Margin)
... est, in came mea, bonum;” legant æ, quæ prius dicta sunt; et ea, quæ consequuntur. Prius enim dixit: “Sed inhabitarts in me peccatum;” propter quod consentaneum erat dicere illud: “Non habitat in came mea bonum.” Consequenter subjunxit: “Si autem quod nolo, hoc ego facio, non utique ego id operor, sed quod inhabitat in me peccatum:” quod “repugnans,” inquit, “legi” Dei et “mentis meæ, captivat me in lege peccati, quæ est in membris meis. Miser ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore morris hujus?”[Romans 7:23-24] Et rursus (nunquam enim quovis modo juvando defatigatur) non veretur veluti concludere: “Lex enim spiritus liberavit me a lege peccati et morris:” quoniam “per Filium Dens condemnavit peccaturn in carne, ut justificatio legis impleatur in nobis, qui ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 459, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
The Divine Power Shown in Christ's Incarnation. Meaning of St. Paul's Phrase. Likeness of Sinful Flesh. No Docetism in It. Resurrection of Our Real Bodies. A Wide Chasm Made in the Epistle by Marcion's Erasure. When the Jews are Upbraided by the Apostle for Their Misconduct to God; Inasmuch as that God Was the Creator, a Proof is in Fact Given that St. Paul's God Was the Creator. The Precepts at the End of the Epistle, Which Marcion Allowed, Shown to Be in Exact Accordance with the Creator's Scriptures. (HTML)
If the Father “sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,” it must not therefore be said that the flesh which He seemed to have was but a phantom. For he in a previous verse ascribed sin to the flesh, and made it out to be “the law of sin dwelling in his members,” and “warring against the law of the mind.”[Romans 7:23] On this account, therefore, (does he mean to say that) the Son was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might redeem this sinful flesh by a like substance, even a fleshly one, which bare a resemblance to sinful flesh, although it was itself free from sin. Now this will be the very perfection of divine power to effect the salvation ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 579, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
It is the Works of the Flesh, Not the Substance of the Flesh, Which St. Paul Always Condemns. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7595 (In-Text, Margin)
... are living in the flesh, but walking after the Spirit, it is no longer the flesh which is an adversary to salvation, but the working of the flesh. When, however, this operativeness of the flesh is done away with, which is the cause of death, the flesh is shown to be safe, since it is freed from the cause of death. “For the law,” says he, “of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death,” —that, surely, which he previously mentioned as dwelling in our members.[Romans 7:23] Our members, therefore, will no longer be subject to the law of death, because they cease to serve that of sin, from both which they have been set free. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 584, footnote 13 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
The Session of Jesus in His Incarnate Nature at the Right Hand of God a Guarantee of the Resurrection of Our Flesh. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7669 (In-Text, Margin)
... death, which profits so largely by the works of the flesh and blood—from all inheritance of incorruption. For a little afterwards, he has described what is, as it were, the death of death itself: “Death,” says he, “is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin”—here is the corruption; “and the strength of sin is the law” —that other law, no doubt, which he has described “in his members as warring against the law of his mind,”[Romans 7:23] —meaning, of course, the actual power of sinning against his will. Now he says in a previous passage (of our Epistle to the Corinthians), that “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” In this way, then, it is that corruption shall not inherit ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 338, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
On Human Temptations. (HTML)
... “the life of all flesh is the blood thereof,” is, according to these writers, simply calling the wisdom of the flesh by another name, because it is a kind of material spirit, which is not subject to the law of God, nor can be so, because it has earthly wishes and bodily desires. And it is with respect to this that they think the apostle uttered the words: “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.”[Romans 7:23] And if one were to object to them that these words were spoken of the nature of the body, which indeed, agreeably to the peculiarity of its nature, is dead, but is said to have sensibility, or wisdom which is hostile to God, or which struggles ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 340, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
On Human Temptations. (HTML)
... is the wisdom of the flesh to be understood, or the expression, that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.” They generally connect with these the expression, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.” For what cries unto the Lord is not properly the blood which was shed; but the blood is said improperly to cry out, vengeance being demanded upon him who had shed it. The declaration also of the apostle, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,”[Romans 7:23] they so understand as if he had said, That he who wishes to devote himself to the word of God is, on account of his bodily necessities and habits, which like a sort of law are ingrained in the body, distracted, and divided, and impeded, lest, by ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 372, footnote 7 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)
Part III. (HTML)
A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)
III. For the apostle here sets forth clearly, as I think, three laws: One in accordance with the good which is implanted in us, which clearly he calls the law of the mind. One the law which arises from the assault of evil, and which often draws on the soul to lustful fancies, which, he says,” wars against the law of the mind.”[Romans 7:23] And the third, which is in accordance with sin, settled in the flesh from lust, which he calls the “law of sin which dwells in our members;” which the Evil One, urging on, often stirs up against us, driving us to unrighteousness and evil deeds. For there seems to be in ourselves one thing which is better and another which is worse. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 372, footnote 8 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)
Part III. (HTML)
A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)
III. For the apostle here sets forth clearly, as I think, three laws: One in accordance with the good which is implanted in us, which clearly he calls the law of the mind. One the law which arises from the assault of evil, and which often draws on the soul to lustful fancies, which, he says,” wars against the law of the mind.” And the third, which is in accordance with sin, settled in the flesh from lust, which he calls the “law of sin which dwells in our members;”[Romans 7:23] which the Evil One, urging on, often stirs up against us, driving us to unrighteousness and evil deeds. For there seems to be in ourselves one thing which is better and another which is worse. And when that which is in its nature better is about to become more ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 372, footnote 10 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)
Part III. (HTML)
A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)
... imaginations. On account of which the apostle prays to be delivered from it, regarding it as death and destruction; as also does the prophet when he says, “Cleanse Thou me from my secret faults.” And the same is denoted by the words, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:22-24] By which he does not mean that the body is death, but the law of sin which is in his members, lying hidden in us through the transgression, and ever deluding the soul to the death of unrighteousness. And he immediately adds, clearly showing from ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 451, footnote 8 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book XII. (HTML)
Why Jesus Called Them an Adulterous Generation. The Law as Husband. (HTML)
And He called them, indeed, “an evil generation,” because of the quality arising from evil which had been produced in them, for wickedness is voluntary evil-doing, but “adulterous” because that when the Pharisees and Sadducees left that which is figuratively called man, the word of truth or the law, they were debauched by falsehood and the law of sin. For if there are two laws, the law in our members warring against the law of the mind, and the law of the mind,[Romans 7:23] we must say that the law of the mind—that is, the spiritual—is man, to whom the soul was given by God as wife, that is, to the man who is law, according to what is written, “A wife is married to a man by God;” but the other is a paramour of the soul which is subject ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 452, footnote 7 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book XII. (HTML)
Why Jesus Called Them an Adulterous Generation. The Law as Husband. (HTML)
... free from the law, so that she is no adulteress though she be joined to another man.” But this very saying, “So then while her husband liveth, she shall be called an adulteress,” we have brought forward, wishing clearly to show why in answer to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were tempting Him and asking Him to show them a sign from heaven, He said not only “a wicked generation,” but an “adulterous” generation. In a general way, then, the law in the members which wars against the law of the mind,[Romans 7:23] as a man who is an adulterer, is an adulterer of the soul. But now also every power that is hostile, which gains the mastery over the human soul, and has intercourse with it, commits adultery with her who had a bridegroom given to her by God, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 121, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. (HTML)
Of the Causes Which Alienate Us from God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 651 (In-Text, Margin)
... long while. In vain did I “delight in Thy law after the inner man,” when “another law in my members warred against the law of my mind, and brought me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” For the law of sin is the violence of custom, whereby the mind is drawn and held, even against its will; deserving to be so held in that it so willingly falls into it. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death” but Thy grace only, through Jesus Christ our Lord?[Romans 7:22-24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 381, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Continence. (HTML)
Section 6 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1822 (In-Text, Margin)
... “I know,” saith he, “that there dwelleth not in me, that is in my flesh, good. For to will lieth near to me, but to accomplish good I find not.” For now good can be done, so far as that there be no assent given unto evil lust: but good will be accomplished, when the evil lust itself shall come to an end. And also the same teacher of the Gentiles cries aloud, “I take pleasure together with the law of God after the inner man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.”[Romans 7:22-23]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 388, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Continence. (HTML)
Section 22 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1888 (In-Text, Margin)
... out of the Epistles of the Apostles, two natures without beginning, one of good, the other of evil: and will not listen to the Epistles of the Apostles, that they may correct you from that sacrilegious perverseness? As ye read, “The flesh lusteth against the spirit,” and, “There dwelleth not in my flesh any good;” so read ye, “No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ the Church.” As ye read, “I see another law in my members, opposed to the law of my mind;”[Romans 7:23] so read ye, “As Christ loved the Church, so also ought men to love their own wives, as their own bodies.” Be not ye crafty in the former witnesses of Holy Scripture, and deaf in this latter, and ye shall be correct in both. For, if ye receive the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 121, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Disputation of the Second Day. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 248 (In-Text, Margin)
... voluntarily, but by the doing of that which is not subject to the law of God. For it likewise follows that "the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; so that ye may not do the things that ye will." Again: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin and of death. Therefore I am a miserable man; who shall deliver me from the body of this death, unless it be the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"[Romans 7:23-25] "through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world?"
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 32, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
From the Epistle to the Romans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 355 (In-Text, Margin)
... not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:14-25] Let them, who can, say that men are not born in the body of this death, that so they may be able to affirm that they have no need of God’s grace through Jesus Christ in order to be delivered from the body of this death. Therefore he adds, a few ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 51, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
No One Righteous in All Things. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 530 (In-Text, Margin)
... was, we are not told; but we know that he was a just man; we know, too, that in the endurance of terrible afflictions and trials he was great; and we know that it was not on account of his sins, but for the purpose of demonstrating his righteousness, that he had to bear so much suffering. But the language in which the Lord commends Job might also be applied to him who “delights in the law of God after the inner man, whilst he sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind;”[Romans 7:22-23] especially as he says, “The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” Observe how he too after the inward man is separate from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 59, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Man’s State Before the Fall. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 593 (In-Text, Margin)
... own servant the flesh, along with that feeling of confusion and trouble to itself which it certainly failed to inflict upon God by its own disobedience to Him; for God is put to no shame or trouble when we do not obey Him, nor are we able in any wise to lessen His very great power over us; but we are shamed in that the flesh is not submissive to our government,—a result which is brought about by the infirmity which we have earned by sinning, and is called “the sin which dwelleth in our members.”[Romans 7:23] But this sin is of such a character that it is the punishment of sin. As soon, indeed, as that transgression was effected, and the disobedient soul turned away from the law of its Lord, then its servant, the body, began to cherish a law of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 94, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Passage in Romans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 819 (In-Text, Margin)
... dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ out Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:7-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 110, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
Mercy and Pity in the Judgment of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1055 (In-Text, Margin)
... he says, “and forget not all His recompenses.” Observe, he does not say blessings, but recompenses; be cause He recompenses evil with good. “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities:” this is done in the sacrament of baptism. “Who healeth all thy diseases:” this is effected by the believer in the present life, while the flesh so lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, that we do not the things we would; whilst also another law in our members wars against the law of our mind;[Romans 7:23] whilst to will is present indeed to us but not how to perform that which is good. These are the diseases of a man’s old nature which, however, if we only advance with persevering purpose, are healed by the growth of the new nature day by day, by the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 114, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
Although Perfect Righteousness Be Not Found Here on Earth, It is Still Not Impossible. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1115 (In-Text, Margin)
... respect even now in a man, not that righteousness only which is of faith, but that also in accordance with which we shall by and by have to live for ever in the very vision of God. For if he should now wish even that this corruptible in any particular man should put on incorruption, and to command him so to live among mortal men (not destined himself to die) that his old nature should be wholly and entirely withdrawn, and there should be no law in his members warring against the law of his mind,[Romans 7:23] —moreover, that he should discover God to be everywhere present, as the saints shall hereafter know and behold Him,—who will madly venture to affirm that this is impossible? Men, however, ask why He does not do this; but they who raise the question ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 142, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
Concerning What Grace of God is Here Under Discussion. The Ungodly Man, When Dying, is Not Delivered from Concupiscence. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1279 (In-Text, Margin)
... God’s grace alone delivers them, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not of course from the substance of the body, which is good; but from its carnal offences, from which a man is not liberated except by the grace of the Saviour,—not even when he quits the body by the death of the body. If it was this that the apostle meant to declare, why had he previously said, “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?”[Romans 7:23] Behold what damage the disobedience of the will has inflicted on man’s nature! Let him be permitted to pray that he may be healed! Why need he presume so much on the capacity of his nature? It is wounded, hurt, damaged, destroyed. It is a true ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
'This Body of Death,' So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1286 (In-Text, Margin)
... sacrament of baptism? Is it because of past sins, in order that they may be forgiven, since they cannot be undone? Well, suppose you acquit and release a man on these terms, he must still utter the old cry; for he not only wants to be mercifully let off from punishment for past offences, but to be strengthened and fortified against sinning for the time to come. For he “delights in the law of God, after the inward man; but then he sees another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind.”[Romans 7:22-23] Observe, he sees that there is, not recollects that there was. It is a present pressure, not a past memory. And he sees the other law not only “warring,” but even “bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which is ”(not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
'This Body of Death,' So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1287 (In-Text, Margin)
... offences, but to be strengthened and fortified against sinning for the time to come. For he “delights in the law of God, after the inward man; but then he sees another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind.” Observe, he sees that there is, not recollects that there was. It is a present pressure, not a past memory. And he sees the other law not only “warring,” but even “bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which is ”(not which was) “in his members.”[Romans 7:23] Hence comes that cry of his: “O wretched man that I am! who shall liberate me from the body of this death?” Let him pray, let him entreat for the help of the mighty Physician. Why gainsay that prayer? Why cry down that entreaty? Why shall the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 165, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
The Commandment of Love Shall Be Perfectly Fulfilled in the Life to Come. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1423 (In-Text, Margin)
... with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” For while there remains any remnant of the lust of the flesh, to be kept in check by the rein of continence, God is by no means loved with all one’s soul. For the flesh does not lust without the soul; although it is the flesh which is said to lust, because the soul lusts carnally. In that perfect state the just man shall live absolutely without any sin, since there will be in his members no law warring against the law of his mind,[Romans 7:23] but wholly will he love God, with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind which is the first and chief commandment. For why should not such perfection be enjoined on man, although in this life nobody may attain to it? For we do not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 192, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Same Continued. Pelagius Acknowledges the Doctrine of Grace in Deceptive Terms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1663 (In-Text, Margin)
... that he also wishes; and what it forbids, and condemns, that he also hates: but for all that, what he hates, that he actually does. There is in his mind, therefore, a knowledge of the holy law of God, but still his evil concupiscence is not cured. He has a good will within him, but still what he does is evil. Hence it comes to pass that, amidst the mutual struggles of the two laws within him,—“the law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and making him captive to the law of sin,”[Romans 7:23] —he confesses his misery; and exclaims in such words as these: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 207, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
Pelagius’ Letter Discussed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1759 (In-Text, Margin)
... can be, by his present use of reason and free will, either in the full society of man or in monastic solitude, in such a state as to be beyond the necessity of offering up the prayer, not in behalf of others, but for himself personally: “Forgive us our debts;” or whether this gift shall be consummated at the time when “we shall be like Him, when we shall see Him as He is,” —when it shall be said, not by those that are fighting: “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,”[Romans 7:23] but by those that are triumphing: “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” Now, this is perhaps hardly a question which ought to be discussed between catholics and heretics, but only among catholics with a view to a peaceful ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 231, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
The Forgiveness of Sins and Example of Christ Held by Pelagius Enough to Save the Most Hardened Sinner. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1889 (In-Text, Margin)
That this, indeed, is his meaning, other words also of his show us,—not contained in this work, but in the third book of his Defence of Free Will, wherein he holds a discussion with an opponent, who had insisted on the apostle’s words when he says, “For what I would, that do I not;” and again, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.”[Romans 7:23] To this he replied in these words: “Now that which you wish us to understand of the apostle himself, all Church writers assert that he spoke in the person of the sinner, and of one who was still under the law,—such a man as was, by reason of a very long custom of vice, held bound, as it were, by a certain ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 250, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
Three Things Good and Laudable in Matrimony. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2024 (In-Text, Margin)
... other works of ours, which are not unknown to you. In relation to them all the Scripture has this general praise: “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.” For, inasmuch as the wedded state is good, insomuch does it produce a very large amount of good in respect of the evil of concupiscence; for it is not lust, but reason, which makes a good use of concupiscence. Now lust lies in that law of the “disobedient” members which the apostle notes as “warring against the law of the mind;”[Romans 7:23] whereas reason lies in that law of the wedded state which makes good use of concupiscence. If, however, it were impossible for any good to arise out of evil, God could not create man out of the embraces of adultery. As, therefore, the damnable evil ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 258, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
Retractations. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2049 (In-Text, Margin)
“ two books to the Illustrious Count Valerius, upon hearing that the Pelagians had brought sundry vague charges upon us—how, for instance, we condemned marriage by maintaining Original Sin. These books are entitled, On Marriage and Concupiscence. We maintain that marriage is good; and that it must not be supposed that the concupisence of the flesh, or “the law in our members which wars against the law of mind,”[Romans 7:23] is a fault of marriage. Conjugal chastity makes a good use of the evil of concupiscence in the procreation of children. My first treatise contained two books. The first of them found its way into the hands of Julianus the Pelagian, who wrote four books in opposition to it. Out of these, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 273, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
On Marriage and Concupiscence (HTML)
Lust and Shame Come from Sin; The Law of Sin; The Shamelessness of the Cynics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2146 (In-Text, Margin)
But if, in like manner, the question be asked of the concupiscence of the flesh, how it is that acts now bring shame which once were free from shame, will not her answer be, that she only began to have existence in men’s members after sin? [XXII.] And, therefore, that the apostle designated her influence as “the law of sin,”[Romans 7:23] inasmuch as she subjugated man to herself when he was unwilling to remain subject to his God; and that it was she who made the first married pair ashamed at that moment when they covered their loins; even as all are still ashamed, and seek out secret retreats for cohabitation, and dare not have even the children, whom they have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 277, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
On Marriage and Concupiscence (HTML)
True Freedom Comes with Willing Delight in God’s Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2172 (In-Text, Margin)
... good to me, when I wish to do what the law would have me do; inasmuch as it is not with the law itself (which says, “Thou shalt not covet”) that evil is present; no, it is with myself that the evil is present, which I would not do, because I have the concupiscence even in my willingness. “For,” he adds, “I delight in the law of God after the inward 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.”[Romans 7:22-23] This delight with the law of God after the inward man, comes to us from the mighty grace of God; for thereby is our inward man renewed day by day, because it is thereby that progress is made by us with perseverance. In it there is not the fear that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 483, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace. (HTML)
Distinction Between the Grace Given Before and After the Fall. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3348 (In-Text, Margin)
... they cry to God, “Deliver us from evil.” He in those benefits needed not the death of Christ: these, the blood of that Lamb absolves from guilt, as well inherited as their own. He had no need of that assistance which they implore when they say, “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and making me captive in the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:23] Because in them the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and as they labour and are imperilled in such a contest, they ask that by the grace of Christ the strength to fight and to conquer may be given them. He, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 46, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 345 (In-Text, Margin)
... heaven so in earth, because when the body, which is as it were the earth, shall agree in a final and complete peace with the soul, which is as it were heaven, we shall not mourn: for there is no other mourning belonging to this present time, except when these contend against each other, and compel us to say, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind;” and to testify our grief with tearful voice, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:23-24] If it is fortitude through which those are blessed who hunger and thirst after righteousness, inasmuch as they shall be filled; let us pray that our daily bread may be given to us to-day, by which, supported and sustained, we may be able to reach ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 282, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again, on Matt. vi. on the Lord’s Prayer. To the Competentes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2011 (In-Text, Margin)
... done, as in heaven, so also in earth. Again, “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” Our spirit is heaven, and the flesh earth. As our spirit is renewed by believing, so may our flesh be renewed by rising again; and “the will of God be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” Again, our mind whereby we see truth, and delight in this truth, is heaven; as, “I delight in the law of God, after the inward man.” What is the earth? “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind?”[Romans 7:22-23] When this strife shall have passed away, and a full concord brought about of the flesh and spirit, the will of God will be done as in heaven, so also in earth. When we repeat this petition, let us think of all these things, and ask them all of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 541, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, John xvi. 24, ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name;’ and on the words of Luke x. 17, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4286 (In-Text, Margin)
... hast heard, “Thou shalt not lust.” “I do not go in to another man’s wife;” this again I hear, believe, see. Thou hast heard, “Thou shalt not lust.” Why dost thou inspect thyself all round without, and dost not inspect within? Look in, and thou wilt see another law in thy members. Look in, why dost thou pass over thyself? Descend into thine own self. Thou wilt “see another law in thy members resisting the law of thy mind, and bringing thee into captivity in the law of sin which is in thy members.”[Romans 7:23] With good reason then is the sweetness of God hidden to thee. The law placed in thy members, resisting the law of thy mind, bringeth thee into captivity. Of that sweetness which to thee is hidden, the holy Angels drink; thou canst not drink and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 542, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, John xvi. 24, ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name;’ and on the words of Luke x. 17, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4297 (In-Text, Margin)
5. Return with me to that captive, return with me to my proposition. “The Law alarmeth him that relieth on himself, grace assisteth him who trusteth in God.” For look at that captive. “He seeth another law in his members resisting the law of his mind, and leading him captive in the law of sin, which is in his members.”[Romans 7:23] Lo, he is bound, lo, he is dragged along, lo, he is led captive, lo, he is subjected. What hath that profited him, “Thou shalt not lust”? He hath heard, “Thou shalt not lust;” that he might know his enemy, not that he might overcome him. “For he had not known concupiscence,” that is, his enemy, “unless the Law had said, Thou shalt not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 204, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. 12. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 645 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Spirit against the flesh.” Behold thou art thyself, thou art alone, thou art with thyself; behold, thou art bearing with no other person, but yet thou seest another law in thy members warring against the law of thy mind, and taking thee captive in the law of sin, which is in thy members. Cry aloud, then, and cry to God, that He may give thee peace from the inner strife: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:23-25] Because, “He that followeth me,” saith He, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” All strife ended, immortality shall follow; for “the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.” And what peace will this be? “This corruptible ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 234, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. 31–36. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 766 (In-Text, Margin)
... that which so remains? What, but to look to Him who has said, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed”? Indeed he also who thus spake so looked to Him: “O wretched man that I am,” he says, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Therefore “if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” And then he concluded thus: “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:23-25] I myself, he says; for there are not two of us contrary to each other, coming from different origins; but “with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin,” so long as languor struggles against salvation.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 340, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. 25–27. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1359 (In-Text, Margin)
... which He leaves us in this world, may more properly be termed our peace than His. For He, who is altogether without sin, has no elements of discord in Himself; while the peace we possess, meanwhile, is such that in the midst of it we have still to be saying, “Forgive us our debts.” A certain kind of peace, accordingly, we do possess, inasmuch as we delight in the law of God after the inward man: but it is not a full peace, for we see another law in our members warring against the law of our mind.[Romans 7:22-23] In the same way we have peace in our relations with one another, just because, in mutually loving, we have a mutual confidence in one another: but no more is such a peace as that complete, for we see not the thoughts of one another’s hearts; and we ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 314, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3062 (In-Text, Margin)
... needing nothing. Behold my light, behold whence I am illumined; for I cry, “Thou shalt illumine my candle, O Lord.” What then of thee? “But I am needy and poor.” I am like an orphan, my soul is like a widow destitute and desolate: help I seek, alway mine infirmity I confess. There have been forgiven me my sins, now I have begun to follow the commandments of God: still, however, I am needy and poor. Why still needy and poor? Because “I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind.”[Romans 7:23] Why needy and poor? Because, “blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Still I hunger, still I thirst: my fulness hath been put off, not taken away. “O God, aid Thou me.” Most suitably also Lazarus is said to be interpreted, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 317, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3088 (In-Text, Margin)
... Thee I am firm. “For my firmament and my refuge Thou art:” in order that I may be made firm by Thee, in whatever respects I shall have been made infirm in myself, I will flee for refuge unto Thee. For firm the grace of Christ maketh thee, and immovable against all temptations of the enemy. But there is there too human frailness, there is there still the first captivity, there is there too the law in the members fighting against the law of the mind, and willing to lead captive in the law of sin:[Romans 7:23] still the body which is corrupt presseth down the soul. Howsoever firm thou be by the grace of God, so long as thou still bearest an earthly vessel, wherein the treasure of God is, something must be dreaded even from that same vessel of clay. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 403, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3896 (In-Text, Margin)
... Therefore, by the grace of God may upward steps be placed in thy heart. Rise by loving. Hence the Psalm “of degrees” is called.…“He hath placed steps of ascent to the place which He hath appointed” (ver. 7). Now we lament; whence proceed our lamentations, but from that place where the steps of our ascent are placed? Whence comes our lamentation, but from that cause wherefore the Apostle exclaimed that he was a wretched man, because he saw another law in his members, warring against the law in his mind?[Romans 7:23] And whence does this proceed? From the penalty of sin. And we thought that we could easily be righteous as it were by our own strength, before we received the command; “but when the command came, sin revived; but I died,” saith the Apostle. For a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 494, footnote 7 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)
Homilies on 2 Timothy. (HTML)
2 Timothy 2:11-14 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1378 (In-Text, Margin)
... judgments, condemnation, ill will, abuse? what is more bitter than these? Hath it not enmities, and wars, and accusations? what is more bitter than these? Hath it not conscience continually scourging and gnawing us? If it were possible, I could wish to draw out from the body the soul of the unrighteous man, and you would see it pale and trembling, ashamed, hiding its head, anxiously fearful, and self-condemned. For should we sink down into the very depths of wickedness, the judging faculty of the mind[Romans 7:23] is not destroyed, but remains unbribed. And no one pursues injustice thinking it to be good, but he invents excuses, and has recourse to every artifice of words to shift off the accusation. But he cannot get it off his conscience. Here indeed the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 24, footnote 8 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 375 (In-Text, Margin)
5. If, then, the apostle, who was a chosen vessel separated unto the gospel of Christ, by reason of the pricks of the flesh and the allurements of vice keeps under his body and brings it into subjection, lest when he has preached to others he may himself be a castaway; and yet, for all that, sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin;[Romans 7:23] if after nakedness, fasting, hunger, imprisonment, scourging and other torments, he turns back to himself and cries “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” do you fancy that you ought to lay aside apprehension? See to it that God say not some day of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 159, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Oceanus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2330 (In-Text, Margin)
... which the wife alone refused to disclose. If however it is made a charge against her that after repudiating her husband she did not continue unmarried, I readily admit this to have been a fault, but at the same time declare that it may have been a case of necessity. “It is better,” the apostle tells us, “to marry than to burn.” She was quite a young woman, she was not able to continue in widowhood. In the words of the apostle she saw another law in her members warring against the law of her mind;[Romans 7:23] she felt herself dragged in chains as a captive towards the indulgences of wedlock. Therefore she thought it better openly to confess her weakness and to accept the semblance of an unhappy marriage than, with the name of a monogamist, to ply the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 165, footnote 8 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Salvina. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2425 (In-Text, Margin)
... virtues each one of which is to be found but in few men. Who ever entered the furnace of the King of Babylon without being burned? Was there ever a young man whose garment his Egyptian mistress did not seize? Was there ever a eunuch’s wife contented with a childless marriage bed? Is there any man who is not appalled by the struggle of which the apostle says: “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?”[Romans 7:23] But wonderful to say Nebridius, though bred up in a palace as a companion and fellow pupil of the Augusti (whose table is supplied by the whole world and ministered to by land and sea); Nebridius, I say, though in the midst of abundance and in the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 273, footnote 2 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3779 (In-Text, Margin)
2. Well does one of our own writers say: “the philosophers are the patriarchs of the heretics.” It is they who have stained with their perverse doctrine the spotlessness of the Church, not knowing that of human weakness it is said: “Why is earth and ashes proud?” So likewise the apostle: “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity”;[Romans 7:23] and again, “The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not that I do.” Now if Paul does what he wills not, what becomes of the assertion that a man may be without sin if he will? Given the will, how is it to have its way when the apostle tells us that he has no power to do what he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 277, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3851 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall no flesh be justified.” And to shew that it is not only the law of Moses that is meant or all those precepts which collectively are termed the law, the same apostle writes: “I delight in the law of God after the inward 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. O wretched man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:22-25] Other words of his further explain his meaning: “we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not: for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 75, footnote 14 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words Incarnate, and Made Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1403 (In-Text, Margin)
... rather from a virgin, must the Life appear: that as the serpent beguiled the one, so to the other Gabriel might bring good tidings. Men forsook God, and made carved images of men. Since therefore an image of man was falsely worshipped as God, God became truly Man, that the falsehood might be done away. The Devil had used the flesh as an instrument against us; and Paul knowing this, saith, But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity[Romans 7:23], and the rest. By the very same weapons, therefore, wherewith the Devil used to vanquish us, have we been saved. The Lord took on Him from us our likeness, that He might save man’s nature: He took our likeness, that He might give greater grace to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 222, footnote 30 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2827 (In-Text, Margin)
91. I have said nothing yet of the internal warfare within ourselves, and in our passions, in which we are engaged night and day against the body of our humiliation, either secretly or openly, and against the tide which tosses and whirls us hither and thither, by the aid of our senses and other sources of the pleasures of this life; and against the miry clay in which we have been fixed; and against the law of sin,[Romans 7:23] which wars against the law of the spirit, and strives to destroy the royal image in us, and all the divine emanation which has been bestowed upon us; so that it is difficult for anyone, either by a long course of philosophic training, and gradual separation of the noble and enlightened ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 94b, footnote 10 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Concerning the law of God and the law of sin. (HTML)
The Deity is good and more than good, and so is His will. For that which God wishes is good. Moreover the precept, which teaches this, is law, that we, holding by it, may walk in light: and the transgression of this precept is sin, and this continues to exist on account of the assault of the devil and our unconstrained and voluntary reception of it[Romans 7:23]. And this, too, is called law.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 180, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus. (HTML)
Book II. On the Belief in the Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1524 (In-Text, Margin)
... spoken, our soul may learn to withdraw itself, and, as it were placed on high, when earthly lusts cannot approach and attach it to themselves, may take upon herself the likeness of death, that she incur not the penalty of death. For the law of the flesh wars against the law of the mind, and makes it over to the law of error, as the Apostle has made known to us, saying: “For I see a law of the flesh in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity in the law of sin.”[Romans 7:23] We are all attached, we all feel this; but we are not all delivered. And so a miserable man am I, unless I seek the remedy.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 355, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. In urging repentance St. Ambrose turns to his own case, expressing the wish that he could wash our Lord's feet like the woman in the Gospel, which is a great pattern of penitence, though such as cannot attain to it find acceptance. He prays for himself, especially that he may sorrow with sinners, who are better than himself. Those for whom Christ died are not to be contemned. (HTML)
74. Perchance a maiden may have fallen, deceived and hurried away by those occa sions which are the sources of sins. Well, we who are older sin, too. In us, too, the law of this flesh wars against the law of our mind, and makes us captives of sin, so that we do what we would not.[Romans 7:23] Her youth is an excuse for her, I now have none, for she ought to learn, we ought to teach. So that “Tamar hath been more righteous than I.”