To Florus 2.70
Nevertheless, we must consider whether he now at least intimates what he previously passed over. ‘Until the law,’ he says, ‘sin was in the world’ (Romans 5:13). You say the apostle intended this sin to be understood as natural. I therefore ask: if it existed until the law, why did it cease to exist after the law? I do not agree to understand ‘until the law’ as until its end rather than until its appearance. The expression’s proper meaning supports me: in saying it existed until the law, he shows it does not exist after the law. Anything removed in the course of time was not natural. Therefore what the law’s discipline broke, and in breaking largely extinguished, evidently arose through imitation, not generation.
Latin
Verumtamen utrum id, quod praeterierat, vel nunc intimet, expendendum est. Usque ad legem - inquit - peccatum in mundo [n104] . Tu dicis, quia hoc peccatum Apostolus naturale voluerit intellegi; quaero ergo, si usque ad legem fuit, cur desierit esse post legem. Neque enim acquiesco, ut usque ad legem usque ad finem eius potius quam usque ad exortum intellegam; mecum facit verbi proprietas: quod dicit usque ad legem fuisse, ostendit non esse post legem et, quodcumque tempore ablatum est, naturale non fuit. Quod ergo infregit censura legis et infringendo ex multa parte restinxit, imitatione apparet, non generatione susceptum.