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.