Germanus Objects: Those Still Bound by Habit

We say that this does not apply to the persons of those who are caught up in deadly crimes, nor to an apostle and those who have reached his stature. But we think it ought properly to be taken of those who, after receiving the grace of God and the knowledge of the truth, are anxious to keep themselves from sins of the flesh, and yet, because long habit rules their members with great force like a law of nature, are carried away into the ingrained craving of their passions. For the habit and frequency of sinning becomes like a law of nature. Planted in the man’s weak members, it leads captive to sin the feelings of a soul that is not yet trained in all the pursuits of virtue, but is still, if I may say so, of an untrained and tender chastity. By an ancient law it makes them subject to death and brings them under the yoke of the sin that rules over them. It does not let them gain the good of purity, which they love, but rather forces them to do the evil they hate. [a]