worldly compliments and offers, having no purpose to fulfil them. And spiritualising this precept, I bear false witness against Almighty God when I think basely of His goodness and mercy, of His justice and providence, and when by my evil works I defame and discredit His law and His doctrine, and am a cause that His holy " name" is " blasphemed among the Gentiles," [1] or less esteemed and reverenced among the faithful. I also lie to Almighty God when I fulfil not my word, having given it to Him, nor the resolution that I made to do something in His service.
ix., x. The ninth and tenth commandments are declared in the sixth and seventh.
2. After I have considered these sins, I am to charge myself with them before our Lord with great sorrow and shame for having committed them. And although I had broken but one commandment only, I may esteem myself, as the apostle St. James says, " guilty of all;" [2] for in every sin I shall find that which is spiritually prohibited in all: for one mortal sin only in the form that has been declared is as idolatry, infidelity, hatred, adultery, theft, infamy, and homicide. And therefore, reprehending myself, I may call myself by these infamous names, saying:
Colloquy. — Idolater, infidel, adulterer, thief, hypocrite and homicide! how hast thou dared to do injury in so many ways to a God of so infinite majesty? Why dost thou not break thy heart with grief for having broken the just commandments of thy Lord? O God of my soul, that I might say to Thee with David, " My eyes have sent forth springs of waters, because they have not kept Thy law." [3] Grant unto me these tears so abundant that I may wash with them my innumerable sins!
