To Florus · §4.80

To Florus 4.80

The devil would therefore have found a natural crime in him if any such crime existed. He would have held the body liable if he had poisoned it either in the first parent or in the very woman who bore him. It would not matter whether a late and ineffective intention of the will resisted the conditions of its own material. Struggling against nature, it would not cleanse the one born but would provoke the tyrant—all the more since the will could not be free if nature were captive. So if sin lay in the very sensation and condition of the flesh, if human nature itself belonged to the demon’s dominion, Christ would either have been guilty or would not have been human. If, then, a curse is assigned to human nature, the one who became flesh to dwell among us must likewise either be assigned guilt or be deprived of humanity (compare John 1:14).

Latin source witness