{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050595.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050595.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050595.htm","text":"Chapter 30 [XXVII.]\u2014The Evil Desires of Concupiscence; We Ought to Wish that They May Not Be.\nFor the concupiscence of the flesh is in some sort active, even when it does not exhibit either an assent of the heart, where its seat of empire is, or those members whereby, as its weapons, it fulfils what it is bent on. But what in this action does it effect, unless it be its evil and shameful desires? For if these were good and lawful, the apostle would not forbid obedience to them, saying, \u201cLet not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof.\u201d 2158 He does not say, that ye should have the lusts thereof, but \u201cthat ye should obey the lusts thereof;\u201d in order that (as these desires are greater or less in different individuals, according as each shall have progressed in the renewal of the inner man) we may maintain the fight of holiness and chastity, for the purpose of withholding obedience to these lusts. Nevertheless, our wish ought to be nothing less than the nonexistence of these very desires, even if the accomplishment of such a wish be not possible in the body of this death. This is the reason why the same apostle, in another passage, addressing us as if in his own person, gives us this instruction: \u201cFor what I would,\u201d says he, \u201cthat do I not; but what I hate, that do I.\u201d 2159 In a word, \u201cI covet.\u201d 2160 For he was unwilling to do this, that he might be perfect on every side. \u201cIf, then, I do that which I would not,\u201d he goes on to say, \u201cI consent unto the law that it is good.\u201d 2161 Because the law, too, wills not that which I also would not. For it wills not that I should have concupiscence, for it says, \u201cThou shall not covet;\u201d 2162 and I am no less unwilling to cherish so evil a desire. In this, therefore, there is complete accord between the will of the law and my own will. But because he was unwilling to covet, 2163 and yet did covet, 2164 and for all that did not by any means obey this concupiscence so as to yield assent to it, he immediately adds these words: \u201cNow, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.\u201d 2165\n\u201cConcupisco\u201d in the Latin, and hence used in this discussion.\n276:2161 276:2162","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: On Marriage and C...","type":"page"}