SIXTH ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 91, Art. 6]

Whether There Is a Law in the Fomes of Sin?

Objection 1:  It would seem that there is no law of the fomes of sin.  For Isidore says (Etym. v) that the “law is based on reason.”  But the fomes of sin is not based on reason, but deviates from it.  Therefore the fomes has not the nature of a law.

Obj. 2:  Further, every law is binding, so that those who do not obey it are called transgressors.  But man is not called a transgressor, from not following the instigations of the fomes; but rather from his following them.  Therefore the fomes has not the nature of a law.

Obj. 3:  Further, the law is ordained to the common good, as stated above (Q. 90, A. 2).  But the fomes inclines us, not to the common, but to our own private good.  Therefore the fomes has not the nature of sin.

On the contrary, The Apostle says (Rom. 7:23):  “I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind.”

I answer that, As stated above (A. 2; Q. 90, A. 1, ad 1), the law, as to its essence, resides in him that rules and measures; but, by way of participation, in that which is ruled and measured; so that every inclination or ordination which may be found in things subject to the law, is called a law by participation, as stated above (A. 2; Q. 90, A. 1, ad 1).  Now those who are subject to a law may receive a twofold inclination from the lawgiver.  First, in so far as he directly inclines his subjects to something; sometimes indeed different subjects to different acts; in this way we may say that there is a military law and a mercantile law.  Secondly, indirectly; thus by the very fact that a lawgiver deprives a subject of some dignity, the latter passes into another order, so as to be under another law, as it were:  thus if a soldier be turned out of the army, he becomes a subject of rural or of mercantile legislation.

Accordingly under the Divine Lawgiver various creatures have various natural inclinations, so that what is, as it were, a law for one, is against the law for another:  thus I might say that fierceness is, in a way, the law of a dog, but against the law of a sheep or another meek animal.  And so the law of man, which, by the Divine ordinance, is allotted to him, according to his proper natural condition, is that he should act in accordance with reason:  and this law was so effective in the primitive state, that nothing either beside or against reason could take man unawares.  But when man turned his back on God, he fell under the influence of his sensual impulses:  in fact this happens to each one individually, the more he deviates from the path of reason, so that, after a fashion, he is likened to the beasts that are led by the impulse of sensuality, according to Ps. 48:21:  “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand:  he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them.”