they by themselves should be condemned, are weak and fallacious and therefore, whatsoever can be of truth in the difference of sins, may become a danger to them who desire to distinguish them, but can bring no advantages to the interests of piety and a holy life. 49. IV. We only account those sins great which are unusual, which rush violently against the conscience, because men have not been acquainted with them: "Peccata sola inusitata exhorrescimus, usitata verò diligimus "." But those which they act every day, they suppose them to be small, ' quotidiana incursiones,' the unavoidable acts of every day, and by degrees our spirit is reconciled to them, conversing with them as with a tame wolf, who by custom hath forgotten the circumstances of his barbarous nature, but is a wolf still. Τὰ μικρὰ καὶ συνήθη τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, as Synesius calls them: 'the little customs of sinning,' men think, ought to be dissembled. This was so of old; Cæsarius, bishop of Arles, complained of it in his time. "Vere dico fratres," &c. "I say truly to you, brethren, this thing, according to the law and commandment of our Lord, never was lawful, neither is it, nor shall it ever be; but as if it were worse, 'ita peccata ista in consuetudinem missa sunt, et tanti sunt qui illa faciunt, ut jam quasi ex licito fieri credantur,' these sins are so usual and common, that men now begin to think them lawful.'"-And, indeed, who can do a sin every day, and think it great and highly damnable? If he think so, it will be very uneasy for him to keep it: but, if he will keep it, he will also endeavour to get some protection or excuse for it; something to warrant, or something to undervalue it; and at last it shall be accounted venial, and by some means or other reconcilable with the hopes of heaven. He that is used to oppress the poor every day, thinks he is a charitable man, if he lets them go away with any thing he could have taken from them:. but he is not troubled in conscience for detaining the wages of the hireling, with deferring to do justice, with little arts of exaction and lessening their provisions. For since nothing is great or little but in comparison with something else, he accounts his sin small, because he commits greater; and he that can suffer the greatest burden, shrinks not under a b August. ubi suprà. e Hom, 16. lighter weight; and upon this account it is impossible but such men must be deceived and die. 50. V. Let no man think that his venial or smaller sins shall be pardoned for the smallness of their matter, and in a distinct account; for a man is not quit of the smallest but by being also quit of the greatest: for God does not pardon any sin to him that remains his enemy; and therefore, unless the man be a good man, and in the state of grace, he cannot hope that his venial sins can be in any sense indulged; they increase the burden of the other, and are like little stones laid upon a shoulder already crushed with an unequal load. Either God pardons the greatest, or the least stand uncancelled. 51. VI. Although God never pardons the smallest without the greatest, yet he sometimes retains the smallest, of them, whose greatest he hath pardoned. The reason is, because although a man be in the state of grace and of the divine favour, and God will not destroy his servants for every calamity of theirs, yet he will not suffer any thing that is amiss in them. A father never pardons the small offences of his son who is in rebellion against him; those little offences cannot pretend to pardon till he be reconciled to his father; but, if he be, yet his father may chastise his little misdemeanours, or reserve some of his displeasure so far as may minister to discipline, not to destruction; and therefore if a son have escaped his father's anger and final displeasure, let him remember, that though his father is not willing to disinherit him, yet he will be ready to chastise him. And we see it by the whole dispensation of God, that the righteous are punished,' and afflictions begin at the house of God;' and God is so impatient even of little evils in them, that to make them pure he will draw them through the fire; and there are some who are 'saved, yet so as by fire.' And certainly, those sins ought not to be neglected, or esteemed little, which provoke God to anger even against his servants. We find this instanced in the case of the Corinthians, who used indecent circumstances and unhandsome usages of the blessed sacrament; even for this, God severely reproved them; "for this cause many are weak, and sick, and some are fallen asleep"," 1 Cor. xi. 30. which is an expression used in Scripture to signify them that die in the Lord, and is not used to signify the death of them that perish from the presence of the Lord. These persons died in the state of grace and repentance, but yet died in their sin; chastised for their lesser sins, but so that their souls were saved. This is that which Clemens Alexandrinus affirms of sins committed after our illumination, rà dè ¿πɩywóμενα ἐκκαθαίρεται, These sins must be purged with a παίδευσις, 'with the chastisements of sons.' The result of this consideration is that which St. Peter advises, "that we pass the time of our sojourning here in fear:" for no man ought to walk confidently, who knows that even the most laudable life hath in it evil enough to be smarted for with a severe calamity. 52. VII. The most trifling actions, the daily incursions of sins, though of the least malignity, yet if they be neglected, combine and knit together, till by their multitude they grow insupportable; this caution I learn from Cæsarius. Arelatensis." Et hoc considerate, fratres, quia etiamsi capitalia crimina non subreperent, ipsa minuta peccata quæ (quod pejus est) aut non attendimus, aut certè pro nihilo computamus, si simul omnia congregentur, nescio quæ bonorum operum abundantia illis præponderare sufficiat ;” “Although capital sins invade you not, yet if your minutes, your small sins, which either we do not consider at all, or value not at all, be combined, or gathered into one heap, I know not what multitude of good works will suffice to weigh them down." For little sins are like the sand, and when they become a heap are heavy as lead; and "a leaking ship may as certainly perish with the little inlets of water as with a mighty waves;" for of many drops a river is made; and therefore, "ipsa minuta vel levia non contemnantur. Illa enim quæ humanæ fragilitati quamvis parva tamen crebra subrepunt, quasi collecta contra nos fuerint, ita nos gravabunt sicut unum aliquod grande peccatum ";"" Let no little sins be despised, for even those smallest things which creep upon us by our natural weakness, yet when they are gathered together against us, stand on a heap, and like an army St. August. epist. 108. ad Seleu. lib. 50. hom. 42. Idem. tract. 1. in ep. Johan. Levia multa faciunt unum grande. of flies can destroy us as well as any one deadly enemy. "Quæ quamvis singula non lethali vulnere ferire sentiantur, sicut homicidium, et adulterium, vel cætera hujusmodi, tamen omnia simul congregata velut scabies, quo plura sunt, necant, et nostrum decus ita exterminant, ut à filii sponsi, speciosi formâ præ filiis hominum, castissimis amplexibus separent, nisi medicamento quotidianæ pœnitentiæ dissecentur:" "Indeed, we do not feel every one of them strike so home and deadly, as murder and adultery do; yet when they are united, they are like a scab, they kill with their multitude, and so destroy our internal beauty, that they separate us from the purest embraces of the Bridegroom, unless they be scattered with the medicine of a daily repentance." For he that does these little sins often, and repents not of them, nor strives against them, either loves them directly or by interpretation. 53. VIII. Let no man, when he is tempted to as in, go then to take measures of it; because it being his own case he is an unequal and incompetent judge; his temptation is his prejudice and his bribe, and it is ten to one but he will suck in the poison, by his making himself believe that the potion is not deadly. Examine not the particular measures unless the sin be indeed by its disreputation great; then examine as much as you please, provided you go not about to lessen it. It is enough it is a sin, condemned by the laws of God, and that death and damnation are its wages. 54. IX. When the mischief is done, then you may, in the first days of your shame and sorrow for it, with more safety, take its measures. For immediately after acting, sin does to most men appear in all its ugliness and deformity: and if in the days of your temptation you did lessen the measure of your sin, yet in the days of your sorrow, do not shorten the measures of repentance. Every sin is deadly enough; and no repentance or godly sorrow can be too great for that which hath deserved the eternal wrath of God. 55. X. I end these advices with the meditation of St. Jerome."Si ira et sermonis injuria, atque interdum jocus, judicio, conciliòque, atque Gehennæ ignibus delegatur, quid merebitur turpium rerum appetitio, et avaritia quæ est radix omnium malorum?" "If anger, and injurious words, and Lib. 50. hom. 80. c. 8. sometimes a foolish jest, are sentenced to capital and supreme punishments, what punishment shall the lustful and the covetous have?"-And what will be the event of all our souls, who reckon those injurious or angry words of calling 'fool,' or sot' amongst the smallest, and those which are indeed less we do not observe at all? For who is there amongst us almost, who calls himself to an account for trifling words, loose laughter, the smallest beginnings of intemperance, careless spending too great portions of our time in trifling visits and courtships, balls, revellings, fantastic dressings, sleepiness, idleness, and useless conversation, neglecting our times of prayer frequently, or causelessly, slighting religion and religious persons, siding with factions indifferently, forgetting our former obligations upon trifling regards, vain thoughts, wanderings and weariness at our devotion, love of praise, laying little plots and snares to be commended; high opinion of ourselves, resolutions to excuse all, and never to confess an error; going to church for vain purposes, itching ears, love of flattery, and thousands more? The very kinds of them put together are a heap; and therefore, the so frequent and almost infinite repetition of the acts of all those are, as David's expression is, without hyperbole, more than the hairs upon our head;' they are like the number of the sands upon the sea-shore for multitude. SECTION VI. What Repentance is necessary for the smaller or more 56. I. UPON supposition of the premises; since these smaller sins are of the same nature, and the same guilt, and the same enmity against God, and consigned to the same evil portion that other sins are, they are to be washed off with the same repentance also as others. Christ's blood is the lavatory, and faith and repentance are the two hands that wash ourselves white from the greatest and the least stains: and since they are by the impenitent to be paid for in the same fearful prisons of darkness, by the same remedies and instruments the intolerable sentence can only be prevented. |