What Our Natural Impulses Are For

For example, do we not see the natural impulses of the flesh not only in boys, in whom innocence still comes before the ability to tell good from evil, but even in little children and infants? Though they have not the slightest trace of lust in them, they still show that the impulses of the flesh exist in them and are naturally stirred. Do we not also see the deadly stings of anger already at full strength in little children? Before they have learned the virtue of patience, we see them upset by wrongs and feeling insults offered to them even in jest. And sometimes, though they lack the strength, they do not lack the desire to avenge themselves when anger stirs them. [a]

I do not say this to blame their natural state. I say it to point out that of these impulses that come from within us, some are planted in us for a useful purpose, while others are brought in from outside through the fault of carelessness and the desire of an evil will. For these impulses of the flesh that we spoke of above were planted in our bodies for a useful purpose by the providence of the Creator: namely, to carry on the race and raise up children for the generations to come, and not to commit adulteries and debauchery, which the authority of the law also condemns. And the stings of anger: do we not see that they have been given to us most wisely, so that, being angry at our own sins and mistakes, we may apply ourselves all the more to virtues and spiritual exercises, showing all love toward God and patience toward our brothers?

We know too how useful sorrow is, though it is counted among the other vices, when it is turned to the opposite use. On the one hand, when it is in keeping with the fear of God, it is most necessary; on the other, when it is in keeping with the world, it is most harmful. So the apostle teaches when he says that “the sorrow that is according to God produces a steadfast repentance that leads to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”