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The City of God

Chapter 25.--That We Should Not Endeavor By Sin to Obviate Sin.

But, we are told, there is ground to fear that, when the body is subjected to the enemy's lust, the insidious pleasure of sense may entice the soul to consent to the sin, and steps must be taken to prevent so disastrous a result. And is not suicide the proper mode of preventing not only the enemy's sin, but the sin of the Christian so allured? Now, in the first place, the soul which is led by God and His wisdom, rather than by bodily concupiscence, will certainly never consent to the desire aroused in its own flesh by another's lust. And, at all events, if it be true, as the truth plainly declares, that suicide is a detestable and damnable wickedness, who is such a fool as to say, Let us sin now, that we may obviate a possible future sin; let us now commit murder, lest we perhaps afterwards should commit adultery? If we are so controlled by iniquity that innocence is out of the question, and we can at best but make a choice of sins, is not a future and uncertain adultery preferable to a present and certain murder? Is it not better to commit a wickedness which penitence may heal, than a crime which leaves no place for healing contrition? I say this for the sake of those men or women who fear they may be enticed into consenting to their violator's lust, and think they should lay violent hands on themselves, and so prevent, not another's sin, but their own. But far be it from the mind of a Christian confiding in God, and resting in the hope of His aid; far be it, I say, from such a mind to yield a shameful consent to pleasures of the flesh, howsoever presented. And if that lustful disobedience, which still dwells in our mortal members, follows its own law irrespective of our will, surely its motions in the body of one who rebels against them are as blameless as its motions in the body of one who sleeps.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXV: Quod peccatum non per peccatum debeat declinari.

At enim timendum est et cauendum, ne libidini subditum corpus inlecebrosissima uoluptate animum adliciat consentire peccato. proinde, inquiunt, non iam propter alienum, sed propter suum peccatum, antequam hoc quisque committat, se debet occidere. nullo modo quidem hoc faciet animus, ut consentiat libidini carnis suae aliena libidine concitatae, qui deo potius eiusque sapientiae quam corpori eiusque concupiscentiae subiectus est. uerumtamen si detestabile facinus et damnabile scelus est etiam se ipsum hominem occidere, sicut ueritas manifesta proclamat, quis ita desipiat ut dicat: iam nunc perpetremus homicidium, ne postea forte incidamus in adulterium? nonne si tantum dominatur iniquitas, ut non innocentia, sed peccata potius eligantur, satius est incertum de futuro adulterium quam certum de praesenti homicidium? nonne satius est flagitium committere, quod paenitendo sanetur, quam tale facinus, ubi locus salubris paenitentiae non relinquitur? haec dixi propter eos uel eas, quae non alieni, sed proprii peccati deuitandi causa, ne sub alterius libidine etiam excitatae suae forte consentiant, uim sibi, qua moriantur, inferendam putant. ceterum absit a mente Christiana, quae deo suo fidit in eoque spe posita eius adiutorio nititur, absit, inquam, ut mens talis quibuslibet carnis uoluptatibus ad consensum turpitudinis cedat. quodsi illa concupiscentialis inoboedientia, quae adhuc in membris moribundis habitat, praeter nostrae uoluntatis legem quasi lege sua mouetur, quanto magis absque culpa est in corpore non consentientis, si absque culpa est in corpore dormientis.