Augustine on Galatians: whatever delights us more, we must act on
Thesis LXII. Jansenius illustrates his view with these words of Augustine from the commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, where, treating the fruits of the Spirit (joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control), he says: 'These spiritual fruits reign in the person in whom sins do not reign. These goods reign if they delight so much that they hold the mind firm in temptations, so that it does not fall into consenting to sin. For whatever delights us more, we must act according to it.
'For example, the form of a beautiful woman comes before us and stirs us to the delight of fornication; but if that inner beauty and the pure face of chastity delight us more, through the grace that is in faith in Christ, then we live by it and act by it. So, with sin not reigning in us to make us obey its desires, but righteousness reigning through charity, we do with great delight whatever we know pleases God in it. What I have said of chastity and fornication I mean to be understood of the rest.'
Latin
LXII. Quam suam sententiam Jansenius illustrat his Augustini verbis, ex commentario in epistolam ad Galatas desumptis, ubi Augustinus agens de fructibus spiritus, qui sunt gaudium, pax, longanimitas, benignitas, bonitas, fides, mansuetudo, continentia, Regnant, inquit, spirituales isti fructus in homine in quo peccata non regnant. Regnant autem ista bona, si tantum delectant, ut ipsa teneant animum in tentationibus, ne in peccati consensionem ruat. Quod enim amplius nos delectat, secundum id operemur necesse est. Ut verbi gratia, occurrit forma speciosae foeminae, & movet ad delectationem fornicationis: sed si plus delectat pulchritudo illa intima, & sincera species castitatis, per gratiam quae est in fide Christi, secundum hanc vivimus, & secundum hanc operamur; ut non regnante in nobis peccato, ad obediendum desideriis ejus, sed regnante justitia per charitatem, cum magna delectatione faciamus quicquid in ea Deo placere cognoscimus. Quod autem de castitate & fornicatione dixi, hoc de caeteris intelligi volui.