Works of the Right Rev. Bishop Hay of Edinburgh/Volume 1/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI.
Of Sin
Q. I. What is sin?
A. Sin is any thought, word, deed, or omission against the law of God.
Q. 2. How is sin in general divided?
A. Into original sin and actual sin.
Q. 3. What is original sin?
A. It is the sin of our first parents, under the guilt of which Ave are conceived and come into this world - as we have seen above, chap. v. Q. 30.
Q. 4. What is actual sin?
A. Actual sin is that which we commit ourselves.
Q. 5. Who are guilty of actual sin?
A. Those who willingly commit or consent to any thought, word, or deed which the law of God forbids, or who willingly omit any duty which the law of God enjoins.
Q. 6. How is actual sin divided?
A. Into mortal sin and venial sin.
Section I: Of Mortal Sin
Q. 7. What is mortal sin?
A. Mortal sin is a grievous transgression of the law, whether this grievousness arise from the nature of the thing done, or from the circumstances in which it is done, or from the will of the Lawgiver, Who strictly requires the observance of what is commanded, as was the case when our first parents ate the forbidden fruit.
Q. 8. What are the effects of mortal sin?
A. It banishes the grace of God from our souls, renders us hateful and abominable in the sight of God, and worthy of eternal punishment. For this reason it is called mortal because it kills the soul in this life by depriving it of the sanctifying grace of God, which is the spiritual life of the soul, and condemns it to eternal death in the life to come.
Q. 9. Is mortal sin a great evil?
A. It is the greatest of all evil, because infinitely opposed to the infinite goodness of God. It is a bottomless pit, which no created understanding can fathom; for as none but God Himself can fully comprehend His own infinite goodness, so none but God Himself can perfectly comprehend the infinite malice and enormity of this opposite evil. It is the parent both of the devil and of hell; for hell was only made for mortal sin, and Lucifer was an angel of light till he was transformed into a devil by mortal sin.
Q. 10. From what does the malice of mortal sin chiefly appear?
A. From several considerations: (i.) From the greatness of the injury done to God; (2.) From the hatred with which God abhors it; (3.) From the severity with which He punishes it, even in this world; (4.) From the ingratitude it involves against Jesus Christ; (5.) From the sad effects it produces in our souls in this life; and (6.) From the loss of heaven, of which it deprives us. and the torments of hell to which it condemns us in the life to come.
Q. 11. How does the malignity of sin appear from the injury done to God?
A. Because it strikes directly at God Himself; it is a rebellion and high treason against Him, and involves a most injurious contempt of all His divine perfections. The greatness of its malignity in this view will appear from the following considerations, (i.) God is a being of infinite perfection, goodness, dignity, and majesty, infinitely worthy in Himself of all possible honour, love, and obedience; in comparison of Him all created beings are a mere nothing. When, therefore, such wretched worms of the earth as we are presume to offend and insult this God of infinite dignity, by transgressing His commands, and preferring ourselves or any creature to Him, the malice of such conduct is in a manner infinite, for we find among ourselves that the grievousness of any injury always increases in proportion to the dignity of the person offended above the one who injures him. An injury which would be thought of very small consequence if done by a person to his equal, would be thought a great offence if done by him to a magistrate, still more if done to a prince or peer of the realm, and yet more so if done to the King's majesty. Seeing, therefore, that the dignity and majesty of God are infinitely above all creatures, an injury done to Him must increase in proportion to His dignity, and in this respect be of an infinite malice.
(2.) God is our Creator, Who gave us our very being; our souls and bodies, and all our powers and faculties, are the work of His hands, consequently He has an indisputable and unalienable tide to all our service. He is our First beginning and Last end. Who made us, and made us for Himself, and for His own glory. He is our Father, to Whom we owe infinitely more than to our natural parents. He is the sovereign Lord of us and of all creatures, the King of the whole universe. Who has the most absolute dominion over us, and can do with us whatsoever He pleases. We depend totally upon Him for our continual preservation, and for everything else that we possess and enjoy; when we had lost ourselves by sin He redeemed us and bought us with a great price, even His own most precious blood. Each of these titles gives God a supreme right to all our honour, love, and obedience, which it were the height of injustice to refuse, but sin at once breaks through them all, and most sacrilegiously alienates from God what is so strictly His. Parents, what do you feel in your own breasts when your children insult you, and despise your will? Masters, what is the indignation of your hearts when your servants disregard your orders, and reproach you? Kings, what feeling have you of the injury you receive when your subjects rebel against you? Judge, then, how great must be the injury done to God by sin, to Him in Whom all these titles are united, in a manner infinitely stronger than is possible between man and man! Hear how He complains of it Himself, "The son honoureth the father, and the servant his master; if, then, I be a Father, where is My honour? If I be a Master, where is My fear? saith the Lord of hosts," Mai. i. 6. Moses also says of his people, " They have sinned against Him, and are none of His children in their filth; they are a wicked and perverse generation. Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not He thy Father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee? " Deut. xxxii. 5.
(3.) God is our only true Friend, our best and kindest benefactor, Who has loved us with an eternal love, and is every hour bestowing the greatest favours on us; all we have, all we are, all we expect, is the pure effect of His goodness and love. To injure, then, so loving a friend, to insult and outrage Him by sin, involves the malice of basest ingratitude, of which God thus complains: " For even the man of My peace, in whom I trusted, who ate My bread, hath greatly supplanted Me," Ps. xl. 10.
(4.) To all the above ties of justice and gratitude, by which we are bound to love and serve God, is superadded that of the sacred vow of baptism, by which we were solemnly dedicated to Him, and engaged to His service, and became heirs of His kingdom, which vow is also broken by sin augmenting its malice by the basest perfidy.
(5.) Let us consider now the nature of sin itself, as opposed to all those sacred ties, and we shall clearly see how inconceivable a malice it must include. For by sin we withdraw ourselves from this Sovereign Good; we contemn and despise Him in the highest degree, by preferring our own will and passions to His Divine will; we insult His supreme dominion over us; we are guilty of the greatest injustice, ingratitude, and perfidy towards Him; we undervalue all His promises, laugh at His threats; we esteem the perishable riches, vain honours, and filthy pleasures of this world, more than Him, our Supreme Good; and we prefer the devil himself, and pleasing him, before the God of infinite goodness who made us!
Q. 12. How does the malice of sin appear from the hatred with which God abhors it?
A. From a very simple reason; for as God is a God of infinite goodness, He must necessarily love everything that is good, and cannot possibly hate anything but what justly deserves to be hated: now the hatred which God bears to sin is inconceivable, and expressed in the strongest terms in His Holy Scripture; consequently sin must be a monstrous evil when a God of infinite goodness so violently hates and detests it. " Thou art not a God," says David, "that wiliest iniquity; neither shall the wicked dwell near Thee, nor shall the unjust abide before Thy eyes: Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity," Ps. V. 6. " To God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike," Wis. xiv. 9. " The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord," Prov. xv. 9. " Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil; Thou canst not look upon iniquity," Hab. i. 13. " Evil thoughts are an abomination to the Lord," Prov. xv. 26. "Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord," Prov. xvi. 5. And the prophets, especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel, are full of the like expressions.
Q. 13. How does the malice of sin appear from the severity with which God punishes it in this world?
A. Because, as God is a God of infinite justice, it is impossible He should punish sin more than it deserves; nay, as in this life His infinite mercy is above His justice. He generally punishes it in the present time less than it deserves. Nothing, therefore, can show us more clearly the enormity of sin than the severity with which He pursues it, even in this world, of which there are several very remarkable instances in Holy Scripture, (i.) One sin in a moment stripped our first parents, and all their posterity, of that original justice, innocence, and happiness in which they were created, and of all the gifts of Divine grace with which they were adorned; it wounded them in all the powers of the soul, it gave them up to the tyranny of Satan, it cast them out of Paradise, condemned them both to a temporal and eternal death, and, in the mean time, let loose upon them that innumerable host of evils, both of soul and body, under which their posterity groan to this day. (2.) " God, seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart has bent upon evil at all times, it repented Him that He had made man upon the earth. And being inwardly touched with sorrow of heart. He said, I shall destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,"' Gen. vi. 5 ; and accordingly He destroyed the whole world, in punishment of sin, by the waters of the Deluge. (3.) When the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was multiplied, and became exceeding grievous, the Lord could not bear it longer, because it cried to heaven for vengeance: " And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven, and He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth," Gen. xix. 24. (4.) When Cora and his companions rebelled against the authority of Moses and Aaron, and claimed to themselves the priesthood, Almighty God was so displeased with them for this crime that He punished them in a most dreadful manner. For " the earth broke asunder under their feet, and opening her mouth, devoured them, with their tents and all their substance; and they went down alive into hell," Num. xvi. 31. Many other such examples are found in Scripture, both regarding the whole nation of the Israelites, and also many other particular persons, which show, to a demonstration, the great and inconceivable malignity of sin, from the severe punishments with which a just and merciful God pursues it, even in this world. But, above all, the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ clearly manifest this truth; for in them we see the Divine justice of God the Father inflicting the most dreadful torments upon His own innocent Son, for sins not His own, but ours, which He had taken upon Himself in order to satisfy our offended Creator. What, then, must be the enormous malignity of the monster sin, which a just and merciful God punishes in so unheard-of a manner in His own innocent Son?
Q. 14. How does the malice of sin appear from the ingratitude it involves against Jesus Christ?
A. The obligations we lie under to Jesus Christ are immense, and beyond conception. Without Him we must have been eternally miserable: He could in all justice have left us to our unhappy fate; He had no need of us, He was perfectly happy in Himself; He could have created thousands of worlds to serve Him, though we had never existed; there was no force obliging Him to do anything for us; He was perfectly free to do as He pleased. Out of pure mercy, then, and compassion for our miseries. He undertook to save us; and who can conceive what this undertaking cost Him? Count one by one His dreadful torments, from His agony in the garden till He expires upon the Cross; see the God of heaven, made man, agonising in the garden, buffeted, blindfolded, spit upon, and the most ignominious, insulting, and blasphemous things done against Him; see Him scourged at a pillar, tormented with a crown of thorns, and nailed to a disgraceful cross; consider the humility, the meekness, the patience, and, above all, the infinite love for our souls with which He bears all these severe afflictions; behold to what an excess His love for us goes, when He bows down His head and expires upon the Cross for our salvation. Does not such immense love, shown in so endearing a manner, and tending not only to free us from eternal damnation, but to procure for us everlasting joy and happiness, demand from us every possible return of gratitude and love that we can make to such a benefactor? What shall we say, then, of the monstrous ingratitude of sin, which not only refuses to make Him any return, but takes a fiendish pleasure in wantonly renewing all His sufferings, and, as His Holy Word expresses it, " crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making a mockery of Him," Heb. vi. 6. Hear how He complains of this by His prophet David: " If My enemy had reviled Me, I verily would have borne with it: and if he that hated Me had spoken great things against Me, I would perhaps have hid Myself from him; but thou, a man of one mind, My friend and My familiar, who didst take sweetmeats together with Me, in the house of God we walked with consent!" Ps. liv. 13. How aptly do all these expressions point to Christians, who are the familiar friends of Jesus Christ, feast at His table, attend Him in the house of God, etc.! What a monster of ingratitude, then, is sin in a Christian!
Q. 15. How does the malice of sin appear from its effects on our souls in this life?
A. The effects which sin produces in our souls are many, and miserable indeed, showing to a demonstration the horrid malignancy of that fatal poison which causes them. To understand them properly, we must consider, (i.) That a soul in the state of grace is beautiful, like an angel, and a delightful object in the eyes of God and of His saints. Such a soul, in the language of the Scripture, is a Queen, the daughter of a King, the spouse of the Lamb, and her beauty is thus described: " The Queen stood on Thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, - and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty; for He is the Lord thy God - all the glory of the King's daughter is within in golden borders, clothed round with varieties," Ps. xliv. lo. See also the beauty of the spouse of Christ described throughout the whole fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon: and, among the rest, he says, " How beautiful art thou, My love, how beautiful art thou! - thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee,"verse i, 7. And in the Revelations it is said of the spouse of the Lamb: " It is granted her that she should clothe herself with fine linen, glittering and white; for the fine linen are the justifications of the saints," Rev. xix. 8. What a noble idea does all this give us of the heavenly beauty of a soul in the state of grace! What an esteem and value ought we to put on that happy state! But no sooner does mortal sin enter into such a soul than immediately all this heavenly beauty is lost, the grace of God is banished from her, and she becomes an object of horror and detestation in the sight of God and of His saints, hideous and loathsome as the devils: " He that doth these things is abominable before God," Deut. xxii. 5. " How much more abominable and unprofitable is man that drinketh iniquity like water?" Job, xv. 16. " They are corrupted, and become abominable in iniquities," Ps. lii. 2. " A perverse heart is abominable to the Lord," Prov. xi. 20. " They are become abominable, as those things were which they loved," Hos. ix. 10. What a malignant monster, then, must sin be?
(2.) In consequence of this beauty, and of the love which God has for a soul in the state of grace. He raises her up to the exalted dignity of being a child of God, a spouse of Jesus Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost; so that by grace she is intimately united with God, Who dwells in her, in a most especial manner. " Know ye not," says St Paul, " that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? - the temple of God is holy, which ye are," i Cor. iii. 16. " If any one loves Me," says Jesus Christ, "he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him," John, xiv. 23. What an exalted dignity is this I what happiness to have God Himself dwelling in us as our Father, our Friend, our Spouse, our Protector! " If God be for us, who is against us?" Rom. viii. 31. But, alas! the moment such a soul consents to mortal sin she loses at once all this dignity and happiness; the grace of God is banished from her; God Himself forsakes her, and she becomes a slave of Satan, a vessel of filth and corruption, the habitation of unclean spirits. What a dismal change! what a sad misfortune to be deprived of her God! " Woe to them," says Almighty God, "when I shall depart from them," Hos. ix. 12. What a malignant monster is sin, to cause such a direful calamity.
(3.) The grace of God in the soul is " a living water, springing up to eternal life," John, iv. 14. It is an inexhaustible source of heavenly riches, which sanctifies all the good works of the just man, and makes them merit eternal life. It is that bond of union by which we abide in Jesus, and He in us. Now " he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit," says our Blessed Redeemer , John, xv. 5. When, therefore, a soul continues for a space of time in this happy state, what immense treasures may she not lay up for eternity! But if, after she has long exercised herself in holy works, and laid up stores of riches in heaven by their means, she should at last fall into one mortal sin, such is the venomous poison of that monster, that in an instant it consumes all the treasures of her past virtuous life, and reduces her to a deplorable state of the most abject poverty. This God Himself declares in these strong terms: " If the just man turns himself away from his justice, and do iniquity, according to all the abominations which the wicked man useth to work, shall he live? All his justices which he had done shall not be remembered. In the prevarication by which he hath prevaricated, and in his sin which he hath committed, in them he shall die,"Ezech. xviii. 24. To such as these our Saviour says, " Thou sayest I am rich, I am made wealthy, and I have need of nothing; and thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," Rev. iii. 17.
(4.) The grace of God is the spiritual life of the soul, and is preserved by innocence and a holy life; according to that text, " Keep the law and counsel, and there shall be life to thy soul, and grace to thy mouth," Prov. iii. 21 ; and the Wisdom of God says, " He that shall find Me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord," Prov. viii. 35 ; and as the human person is beautiful and comely while in life, so a soul that is alive by the grace of God is beautiful and comely in His sight. But the moment sin enters the soul, the life of the soul is destroyed. It wounds, hurts, and kills the soul, and renders her more hideous and loathsome in the eyes of God than a dead carcase is in the eyes of man. " He that shall sin against Me," says the Wisdom of God, "shall hurt his own soul; all that hate Me love death," Prov. viii. 36. "When concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; but sin, when it is completed, begetteth death," James, i. 15 ; wherefore "flee from sin as from the face of a serpent; for if thou comest near them, they will take hold of thee; the teeth thereof are the teeth of a lion, killing the souls of men,"' Ecclus. xxi. 2. And of some more grievous sins in particular the Scripture says, "They lie in wait for their own blood; they practise deceits against their own souls; so the ways of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors," Prov. i. 18. " He that is an adulterer for the folly of his heart shall destroy his own soul," Prov. vi, 32. "Refrain your tongue from detraction, for an obscure speech shall not go for nought: and the mouth that belieth killeth the soul," Wis. i. 11. Behold the fatal venom of the monster sin!
Q. 16. How does the malice of sin appear from the I loss of heaven, and the condemnation of the sinner to hell?
A. From this plain reason, that as heaven is a place of infinite happiness and never-ending bliss, great must be the malignity of sin, which alone can deprive us of that kingdom, and banish us for ever from all good. And as hell is a place of infinite misery and never-ending woe, dreadful must be the malice of sin, which alone condemns a soul to that never-ending torment. Now sin is the only thing that can do either of these things. The malice of men and devils can never deprive us of heaven, nor bring us to hell, if we be free from the guilt of sin. But so dreadful is the malice of sin, that one mortal sin alone effects all this.
(i.) That sin for ever banishes us out of heaven is thus declared in Holy Writ: " Know ye not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God," i Cor. vi. 9. " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, contentions, emulations, wrath, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envy, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and suchlike, of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold unto you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God," Gal. v. 9. " Know this and understand, that no fornicator, nor unclean, nor covetous person, which is a serving of idols, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God," Eph. V. 5. " Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God," Heb. xii. 14.
(2.) That sin condemns those who are guilty of it to the eternal torments of hell is no less manifestly declared in these divine oracles. Thus the portion of sinners is described by the prophet: " Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their ground with the fat of fat ones,... the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the ground thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch; night and day it shall not be quenched, and the smoke thereof shall go up for ever and ever," Is. xxxiv. 7. And Christ Himself thus assures us: "At the end of the world the Son of Man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth," Mat. xiii. 40. For " they shall be cast into the hell of unquenchable fire, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not extinguished,... for every one shall be salted with fire, and every victim shall be salted with salt," Mark, ix. 44 , 48. And at the last day the Judge will say to the wicked, " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Mat. xxv. 41. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, they shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death," Rev. xxi. 8.
Q. 17. These truths are indeed dreadful, and show beyond reply what a monster sin must be; but is it not amazing that Christians who believe these truths should ever dare to sin?
A. Amazing it certainly is; but the reason is given us in the Holy Scripture - to wit, that they never seriously reflect. Bewitched by the pleasures and vanities and amusements of this world, they spend their lives in a continual round of unprofitable and hurtful dissipations, and never find a moment's time to consider the great truths which their Holy faith teaches them. On this account these truths make no impression upon them; they easily forget them, and therefore lead the lives of heathens, as if they believed them not. " With desolation is all the land made desolate, because there is none that considereth in the heart," Jer. xii. 11. "The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and the wine are in your feasts; and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the work of His hands,... therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones, shall go down into it," Is. v. 14. That is, as Job expresses it, "They take the timbrel and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ; they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to hell," Job, xxi. 12. Oh that men would be wise, and think on these things!
Section II: Of Venial Sin
Q. 18. What is venial sin?
A. It is a smaller transgression of the law, a more pardonable offence, which, though it does not kill the soul, nor deserve eternal punishment, as mortal sin does, yet it obscures the beauty of the soul before God, displeases Him, and deserves a temporal chastisement.
Q. 19. How is this explained?
A. The grace of God, which beautifies the soul, may be in the soul in a greater or less degree; and of course the soul may be more or less beautiful in the eyes of God, more or less pure, more or less holy. Now the malignity of mortal sin is such that it banishes the grace of God entirely from the soul, and makes it positively hideous and loathsome in His sight; whereas venial sin does not entirely banish the grace of God from the soul, but it obscures its lustre, diminishes its splendour, and stains its brightness. It does not render the soul positively hateful to God, but it makes her less pure, less holy, less beautiful, and consequently less agreeable in His sight. It does not destroy friendship between God and the soul so as to make them enemies; but it cools the fervour of that charity and love which subsisted between them, and begets a degree of indifference on each side; and as even the smallest venial sin is contrary to the will of God, therefore it displeases Him, and deserves to be punished by Him.
Q. 20. How does it appear from Scripture that there are such venial sins, which do not break our peace with God?
A. That is plain from many parts of Scripture, (i.) It is said, " The just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again," Prov. xxiv. 16 . Now by these falls cannot be meant mortal sins, otherwise he would be no longer the just man; but only smaller imperfections, such as even good people fall into, and which do not break their peace with God. To the same purpose St James says, " In many things we all offend," James, iii. 2 ; and St John, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," i John, i. 8 ; where both these apostles put themselves among the number of those who sin; yet nobody will say that they committed mortal sins, and were separated from Christ, or in a state of damnation; on the contrary, St Paul assures us of himself and brethren, that " nothing should ever be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," Rom. viii. 39 ; nay, he declares that " there is now no condemnation"' (that is, clothing worthy of damnation) "to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh," Rom. viii. 1 . Now the apostles were the friends of Jesus Christ; and therefore any sins or imperfections in them were by no means mortal, or such as deserved damnation. The same truth we learn from our Lord's prayer; for in it He requires of His apostles, as well as of His followers, to pray, " forgive us our sins." Now we cannot suppose the apostles, and all the great saints of God, had mortal sins for which to ask forgiveness; yet they were not free from smaller imperfections, which, being sins, stood also in need of forgiveness. (2.) The Scripture makes the distinction between mortal and venial sins in very plain terms. Thus our Saviour says, " Whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca " (a word expressing contempt), " shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire," Mat. v. 22 ; where He expressly distinguishes the different degrees of guilt in sin, and declares that the smaller degrees deserve not hell fire, but the greater do. Again He says, " Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it at the day of judgment," Mat. xii, 36 ; but an idle word does not deserve hell fire; for even a word of anger does not deserve it, as He told us in the former text; yet an idle word is sinful, because we must give an account of it in judgment. Some sins are compared by Jesus Christ to beams in the eye, and others to small motes , Mat. vii. 3 , which shows the great difference between mortal and venial sins; for a beam in one's eye must destroy the sight entirely, whereas a mote only impairs it. To the same purpose He says: " You pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have let alone the weightier things of the law; . . . blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel," Mat. xxiii. 23 ; yet at the same time He tells them that even these smaller things ought to be done, and therefore it was a sin to neglect them, though only like a gnat in comparison of a camel when compared to greater crimes.
Q. 21. Are there diff'erent kinds of venial sin?
A. Venial sins, in general, are divided into two kinds: (i.) Such as arise from human frailty, surprise, or inadvertency, and from objects to which the person has no inordinate attachment. (2.) Such as a person commits willingly and deliberately, or from an evil habit, which he fakes no pains to amend, or with affection to the sinful object.
Q. 22. Is venial sin a great evil?
A. Venial sins of the first kind, to which all men are more or less subject, and which arise from human frailty, without any inordinate attachment to them, show, indeed, the corruption of our heart, and our great weakness, and on that account ought to be the subject of our daily humiliation before God; but they are less evil in proportion as they are less deliberate and voluntary. But venial sins of the second kind, which a person commits deliberately and with affection, or out of an unresisted habit, though even these be but small sins compared to mortal sins, yet they are very great and pernicious evils.
Q. 23. How can the evil of deliberate venial sin be shown?
A. From the following considerations: (i.) It is an offence voluntarily committed against a God of infinite goodness and majesty, and on that account alone is a greater evil than all the miseries any creature can endure in time, insomuch that no man living can be permitted by any power in heaven or earth to commit one venial sin, though he might thereby save a kingdom, or even the whole world; because an evil done to the Creator is in itself a greater evil than the destruction or annihilation of the whole creation.
(2.) Deliberate venial sins, especially if frequently repeated, show that the person who commits them has but a very weak and languid love for God when he makes so light of offending Him. True love has this constant property, that it makes the lover exceedingly attentive to please the beloved object, even on the most minute occasion, and studiously to avoid the least thing that can displease him; and nothing more plainly proves the weakness of one's regard and affection for one's friend than to show indifference about pleasing him, even in little matters. What kind of love, then, must those have for God, who, if they can but escape His avenging justice, care not how much they displease Him?
(3.) They not only show the weakness of our love for God, but the oftener they are repeated the more they cool and diminish it; for our love of God is always in proportion to the grace of God in our souls: the more the grace of God abounds in our souls, the more we love Him; and the greater our love of Him, the more His grace abounds in us. Now as every deliberate venial sin weakens the grace of God in the soul, of course it also cools the fervour of our love for Him. And as a little dust or smoke, though it does not blind, yet prejudices the sight of the eye, so the least deliberate venial sin obscures the spiritual vision of the soul, and abates the fervour of heavenly desires. Besides, the more we gratify our affection for those creatures which are the objects of our venial sins, the more our love for them must increase; and the more our love increases towards any creature, the more it must be diminished towards God; for " no man can serve two masters."
(4.) In consequence of this weakening and cooling of our love for God, His love diminishes and cools towards us; our indifference about pleasing Him makes Him the more indifferent towards us; the oftener we deliberately offend Him, the more He is displeased with us; and to show how dangerous this is for a soul that, by venial sins, falls away from her first fervour, hear what Jesus Christ says to one in this state: " I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, . . . and thou hast endured for My name, and hast not fainted. But I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first charity. Be mindful, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and do penance, and do the first works. Or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, unless thou do penance," Rev. ii. 2 , etc.
(5.) The more a person goes on repeating such sins, the more indisposed does he become for receiving new graces from God; and God, being the more displeased with him, withdraws His more abundant graces in just punishment of his repeated infidelity, as He Himself declares: " Thus saith the Faithful and True Witness, Who is the beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot; but because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and made wealthy, and I have need of nothing; and thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," Rev. iii. 14 . Such souls are nauseous and loathsome to God; and though He does not throw them oft" all at once, yet He begins to cast them out of His mouth, by withdrawing from them His graces, of which they have rendered themselves unworthy; and thus leaving them more and more to themselves, at last, if they do not alter their conduct. He rejects them entirely. Because they are not guilty of any gross mortal sin, and perform some outward duties of devotion, they fancy themselves in a safe way; but Almighty God forms a very different judgment of them.
(6.) The great evil of venial sin also appears from the severe punishments the Divine justice has often inflicted in this life upon sins which appear to us to be of a venial nature. Witness Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt for indulging a natural curiosity; Moses deprived of going into the Holy Land for a small diffidence in striking the rock; Oza struck dead for touching the ark to support it when in danger of falling; David losing seventy thousand of his people by the plague for his vain curiosity in numbering them; Agrippa consumed alive by worms for taking pleasure in hearing himself praised. Now if a God of infinite justice punished such sins so severely, they must certainly have deserved such punishment, and, therefore, are far from being small evils.
(7.) This is further shown from the way those are punished after death who die guilty of such sins; for so displeasing in the sight of God is the guilt of the least venial sin, that no soul stained with it can ever be admitted to His presence till its guilt be purged away. God is a being of infinite purity Himself, and none but the pure, " the clean of heart, shall see Him," Mat. v. 8 , and therefore into the heavenly Jerusalem " there shall not enter anything defiled," Rev. xxi. 27 : when, therefore, a soul leaves this world stained with the guilt of only venial sins, she is condemned to the sufferings of purgatory till she be perfectly cleansed by them from all spot or blemish, and rendered fit to be admitted to the Divine presence; and how dreadful this cleansing will be, appears from the words of the prophet: " Every one that shall be left in Sion, and shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written in life in Jerusalem • the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughter of Zion ... by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning," Isa. iv. 3 . How dreadful that purgation by the very " spirit of judgment and of burning "! How great an evil that stain which requires such a purgation!
(8.) The great and fatal evil of venial sin consists in this, that it disposes and leads on the poor soul to the gulf of mortal sin, according to the express declaration of the Word of God, " He that contemneth small things, shall fall by little and little," Ecclus. xix. 1 , and "he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater; and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is great," Luke, xvi. 10 . And for this several reasons are assigned: (i.) Experience teaches that the greatest things, both in the order of nature and in the order of grace, commonly take their rise from small beginnings; rivers from springs, trees from small seeds. " Behold how great a fire a small spark kindleth!" James, iii. 5 . Our bodies begin from a point; a drop of water neglected, causes the fall of a house; a slight illness disregarded brings on disease and death; the most learned man commences by the alphabet; the greatest saints were not born such, but arrived at sanctity by degrees; so also the greatest sinners begin by small sins, which neglected lead on to greater. A slight motion of anger indulged led Cain to murder his own brother; an impure glance of the eye encouraged, dragged on a David to adultery and murder; and an inordinate attachment to riches, uncorrected, brought Judas to betray his Master. (.?.) All the foregoing reasons show the same thing; for, by venial sins indulged, we become more disagreeable to God, our love of Him is diminished, and His to us; we are rendered more unfit for receiving His graces, and they are given more sparingly; our passions become stronger, and we grow weaker; and then what is to be the consequence when the time of temptation comes, but that we fall into mortal sin? (3.) Venial sins lead us on step by step towards mortal sin, and take off by degrees our horror of it. It would be impossible for any one to step from the ground to the top of a high stair all at once; but by taking one step after another, he goes up with the greatest ease. A modest person would be shocked at the proposal of any of the greatest crimes of impurity; but, if she gives ear to words of a double meaning, and takes pleasure in them, this will easily prepare the way for bad thoughts; from this there is but a step to desires; and, these encouraged, will lead on to undue liberties in action, and so step by step she will be carried on to every excess. (4.) By committing small sins without remorse, or with affection, we contract a habit of transgressing the law, which, the more it is indulged, the stronger it becomes. (5.) It is certain that our nature, if left to itself, would lead us into all crimes; and we have no other way to prevent this but by checking its desires. Now experience teaches us that the more we yield to these desires, the stronger they become; the more liberty we give to nature, the more unruly does she grow. (6.) Many venial sins are of such a nature, that they become mortal if frequently repeated: such are all sins of injustice, working upon forbidden days, and the like. (7.) It is often very difficult to distinguish the limits between mortal and venial sin; therefore a person who indulges himself in the latter, exposes himself to the continual danger of falling into the former. Now " he that loveth the danger shall perish in it," Ecclus. iii. 27 . (8.) A thing that is in itself only venial, very often, from the circumstances, becomes mortal.
Q. 24. How can a thing, in itself venial, become mortal from the circumstances?
A. From different causes: (i.) If his affection who commits it be so great towards the object of a sin in itself venial that he would be ready to offend God mortally rather than not do it, his doing it with such a disposition is a mortal sin. (2.) If a person commit a venial sin for an end mortally sinful; for example, if he should steal a small quantity of poison of trifling value in order to poison his neighbour, this intention makes the stealing the poison itself a mortal sin, though he should be prevented from using it as he intended. (3.) If he commit a sin in itself venial, but which, by mistake, he believes to be mortal, to him it becomes a mortal sin. (4.) If a sin, in itself venial, be the occasion of great scandal, it becomes mortal to the person who commits it on that account. (5.) If a venial sin be committed from a contempt of the Divine law, this contempt makes it mortal.
Q. 25. What are the proper remedies of sin?
A. There are two principal remedies for the great evil of sin - one on the part of man, which is a sincere repentance; the other on the part of God, which is the grace of Jesus Christ. These two remedies are both of absolute necessity, for it is impossible that we should be delivered from the guilt of our actual sins without a sincere repentance; and it is impossible for us to repent as we ought without the assistance of Divine grace; and though we have a sincere repentance, that alone cannot deliver us from our sins without the infusion of sanctifying grace into our souls. So that the grace of our Saviour is the great remedy which alone can heal the wounds which the soul receives from sin, and wash away its guilt; and repentance on our part is a condition absolutely required, to dispose the soul for receiving that grace, and without which it is impossible that this grace should be bestowed upon us.