In pursuance of that aspect of the association of body and soul that we now have to consider, we maintain that the puberty of the soul coincides with that of the body. Generally speaking, they both attain together this full growth at about the fourteenth year of life. The soul attains it by the suggestion of the senses, and the body attains it by the growth of the bodily members. I do not mention [the age of fourteen] because reflection begins at that age (as Asclepiades supposes). Nor do I choose it because the civil laws date the commencement of the real business of life from this age. Rather, I choose it because this was the appointed order from the very first. For after their obtaining knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve felt that they must cover their nakedness. Likewise, we profess to have the same discernment of good and evil from the time that we experience the same sensation of shame. Now, beginning with the aforementioned age, sex is suffused and clothed with a special sensibility. This eye gives way to lust and communicates its pleasure to another. It understands the natural relations between male and female, and it wears the fig-leaf apron to cover the shame that it still excites. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.218, 219.
Where do we look for a man in whom there is no law and who therefore does not seem to be in the transgression of sin? For even Paul says of himself, “But I was once alive without law.” And when did Paul live without law, who says moreover concerning himself, “[I was] circumcised on the eighth day, a Hebrew born of Hebrews”? How then will it be true that he had lived at one time without law, this man who, eight days after his own birth, received the sign of circumcision from the law? Whence it is certain that a man comes under law at the time when he reaches the age when he can choose and discern what the law is. He does not receive the yoke of any external law before he begins to have the strength of the internal natural law. After all, in the text where he said, “But I was once alive without law,” he adds, “but when the commandment came, sin revived,” in which he shows that in childhood, before anyone has the capacity to distinguish between good and evil, one is said to be without law. Even if he sins, the sin is not imputed to him since there is no law in him. But when he receives the capacity for distinguishing between good and evil, it is said that the law has come to him and has given commandments to him. But when the power of the commandment is within, i.e., the accusing conscience, it is said that sin, which formerly was dead in him, has revived. Origen, Commentary on Romans 3.2.7, 3.2.8
This natural law then speaks to all who are under the law. From its precepts it appears to me that little children alone are exempt, for whom the judgment of right and wrong does not yet exist. Now whether those who, for whatever reason, are mentally incompetent ought to be joined to these as well is a question which needs to be investigated. Apart from these exceptions, however, no human being, it seems to me, escapes this law. Origen, Commentary on Romans 3.6.3
The Apostle understood that either righteousness or unrighteousness must dwell in a person who has cognizance, through being old enough to distinguish good and evil. Origen, Commentary on Romans 4.1.17
It is accepted, however, that he once lived apart from natural law, namely in his childhood, before he was capable of reason. For at that age the power of distinguishing right and wrong was not yet dwelling within him, nor was the ability to consider what is proper and what is improper accessible. That what follows is being said about natural law he plainly shows when he says, “But when the commandment came, sin revived, but I died.” By these words he is making clear that at that age, sins were certainly there, but they were considered dead, because they were not reckoned as a fault. Origen, Commentary on Romans 5.1.26
We need to examine the sense of the fact that he says, “Sin was in the world,” and that he did not say, “in men.” Although, of course, there are in this world cattle, other animals and trees, and whatever else this world consists of, yet no one believes that sin is in these things. It seems to me that the Apostle thinks of “men” as those who are already capable of reason and who comply with the laws of nature. But that age which has not yet reached the capacity of reason he calls not so much “men” as “the world,” in that they are indeed part of the world but they have not yet reached the point of exhibiting the image of God in them qua reasoning capacity, in which man is said to have been made. Origen, Commentary on Romans 5.1.28
But this law is found in man neither at all times nor from the beginning, when a man is born, but rather he lives without this law for a certain time, while his age does not allow it, just as Paul himself acknowledges when he says, “I was once alive without the law.” Therefore, at that time, when we lived without the law, we did not know covetousness. He did not say: I was not having it; but: “I was not knowing it,” as if covetousness existed, but it was not known what it was. But when reason arrives and the natural law finds a place within us in the advancement of age, it begins to teach us what is good and to turn us away from evils. Thus, when it says, “You shall not covet,” we learn from it what we did not know before: Covetousness is evil. Origen, Commentary on Romans 6.8.4
Therefore, in order that we not be constantly repeating the same things, we shall briefly call to remembrance what was previously said. We showed how sin is dead in us without law, i.e., before the mind within us grows vigorous when it reaches the age of reason, when we introduced the example of the little child who strikes or curses his father or mother. In such a case it would appear that at least according to the law, which forbids striking and cursing the father and mother, a sin was committed. Yet that sin is said to be dead since the law is not yet present within the child to teach him that what he is doing ought not be done. It is certain that Paul and all men have lived at one time without this law, namely, the age of childhood. Origen, Commentary on Romans 6.8.7