To Florus 3.177
‘For they come together while the mind is unwilling, and act in secret shame. At that time they hate the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed (John 3:20). This is why the apostle says, “It is not of the one who wills” (Romans 9:16)—understand: this act. If we do good, it is not of the flesh, because “the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication,” and the rest (Galatians 5:19). If we do evil, it is not of the soul, because “the fruit of the spirit is peace and joy” (Galatians 5:22). Finally, the apostle also cries to the Romans: “I do not do the good I want, but I perform the evil I abhor” (Romans 7:19). You see the voice of the soul resisting desire and defending the soul’s freedom. It grieved because sin—that is, the devil—produced every desire within it (Romans 7:8). The law’s authority shows its evil by condemning all its uses, which the flesh admires and praises. Everything bitter to desire is sweet to the soul; through this the soul is nourished and summoned to strength. Indeed, the mind of someone restraining himself from every use of desire stays awake, grows rich, and increases; through the use of desire it usually diminishes.’
Do you now understand, even belatedly, that we have discovered the source not only of your thinking but of your language? You embrace your teacher with such love that you follow not merely his routes but even his footprints. All your writings assert this, as both the books you published under Marcellinus’s name and those you addressed to Valerius testify: this fleshly desire, which you also call shameful, was mixed into human bodies by the devil.
Latin
Cum animo nolente coeunt et secretis pudoribus gerunt, quo tempore odio habent lucem, uti ne manifestentur opera eorum; cuius rei gratia ait Apostolus: " Non est volentis " [n215] , ut subaudiatur: hoc opus. Sive enim bonum geramus, non est carnis, quia " manifesta sunt opera carnis, quae sunt fornicatio " [n216] et cetera, sive malum geramus, non est animae, quia " fructus spiritus pax gaudium est " [n217] . Denique clamat et ad Romanos Apostolus: " Non bonum quod volo ago, sed malum operor quod exhorreo " [n218] . Videtis vocem animae contumacis contra concupiscentiam defendentem libertatem animae. Dolebat enim, quia peccatum id est diabolus operaretur in se omnem concupiscentiam. Legalis auctoritas indicat malum eius, cum omnes eius usus vituperat, quos caro miratur et laudat; omnis enim amaritudo concupiscentiae suavis est animae, per quam nutritur anima et ad vigorem accitur. Denique cohercentis se ab omni usu concupiscentiae animus vigilat, ditatur et cre scit, per usum autem concupiscentiae consuevit decrescere. Intellegisne vel sero deprehendisse nos, unde non solum saperes, sed etiam loquereris? Tanto enim magistrum tuum amore complecteris, ut non solum itineribus eius, sed etiam vestigiis insistas, quod tu omnibus scriptis asseris, sicut et illi, quos ad Marcellini nomen edidisti, libri et isti testantur, quos ad Valerium destinasti, istam videlicet concupiscentiam carnis, quam etiam pudendam vocas, per diabolum admixtam humanis esse corporibus.