(Admonition 30.) In one way are those to be admonished who bewail sins of deeds, and in another those who bewail sins of thoughts. For they who bewail sins of deeds must be admonished that they wash away consummated evils with perfect laments, lest they be bound the more in the debt of the deed committed, and pay the less in the tears of satisfaction. For it is written: 'Thou hast given us drink in tears by measure' (Ps. 79:6); that is, that each one's mind, in repenting, may drink as many tears of its compunction as it remembers to have deserved of God through its faults. They must be admonished unceasingly to bring back their deeds before their eyes, and so to act in their living that they may not deserve to be seen by the strict Judge. Whence David, when he prayed, saying: 'Turn away thy eyes from my sins' (Ps.
51:9), a little before had said: 'My sin is ever before me' (Ibid., 3). As if he said: I beg that Thou look not upon my sin, because I myself cease not to look upon it. Whence also through the prophet the Lord says: 'And I will not be mindful of thy sins, but do thou be mindful' (Isa. 43:25-26, according to the Septuagint). They must be admonished to consider each single thing committed, and, while they weep for the defilement of their error through each single one, at the same time to cleanse themselves wholly with tears. Whence it is well said through Jeremiah, when the single transgressions of Judah were being weighed: 'Mine eye hath brought down divisions of waters' (Lam. 3:48). For we bring down waters divided from our eyes, when we give tears apportioned to single sins.
For the mind does not grieve equally over all things at one and the same time; but while it is now more sharply touched by the memory of this fault, now of that, being at once moved over all in each single one it is purged. They must be admonished to presume upon the mercy which they beg, lest they perish by the violence of immoderate affliction. For the Lord would not mercifully set the sins to be wept before the eyes of transgressors, if He willed to strike them strictly by Himself. It is certain that He willed to hide from His own judgment those whom, mercifully preventing them, He made judges of themselves. For hence it is written: 'Let us prevent the face of the Lord in confession' (Ps. 95:2). Hence through Paul it is said: 'If we would judge ourselves, we should not indeed be judged' (1 Cor. 11:31).
And again they must be admonished so to have confidence from hope, that they may not nevertheless grow torpid in incautious security. For very often the crafty enemy, when he beholds the mind which he had supplanted by sin afflicted over its ruin, seduces it with the pestiferous blandishments of security. Which is figuratively expressed when the deed of Dinah is recorded. For it is written: 'Dinah went out to see the women of that region; and when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of that land, had seen her, he loved her, and seized her, and lay with her, oppressing the virgin by force; and his soul was knit fast with her, and he soothed her sadness with blandishments' (Gen. 34:1-3). Dinah goes out to see the women of a foreign region
when each mind, neglecting its own pursuits, caring for the actions of others, wanders outside its own state and outside its own order. Whom Shechem, prince of the land, oppresses, because the devil corrupts her found amid outward cares. 'And his soul was knit fast with her' (Ibid.); because he beholds her united to himself through iniquity. And because, when the mind recovers itself from the fault, it is bound over, and strives to weep for what has been committed—while the corrupter recalls before its eyes empty hopes and securities, that he may withdraw the profit of its sadness—it is rightly there added: 'And he soothed her sadness with blandishments' (Ibid.).
For now he says that the deeds of others are more grievous, now that what has been done is nothing, now that God is merciful, now he promises a further time yet to come for penitence; so that while the deceived mind is led on through these things, it may be held back from its intention of penitence; that so it may then not perceive the good over which no present evils now sadden it, and may then be more fully overwhelmed with torments, wherein it now even rejoices in its faults. On the other hand, those who bewail sins of thoughts must be admonished carefully to consider, within the secret places of the mind, whether they have transgressed by delight only, or also by consent.
For very often the heart is tempted, and is delighted by the wickedness of the flesh, and yet resists that same wickedness by reason, so that in the secret of thought it is both saddened by what pleases, and pleased by what saddens. But sometimes the mind is so swallowed up by the abyss of temptation that it in no way resists, but follows from deliberation that whereby it is smitten by delight; and if outward opportunity be at hand, it soon consummates its inward vows in the effects of deeds. And if the just animadversion of the strict Judge regards this, it is now no longer a fault of thought but of deed; because although the slowness of circumstances deferred the sin without, within the will fulfilled it by the work of consent.
But in our first parent we have learned that we perpetrate the wickedness of every fault in three ways, namely by suggestion, by delight, and by consent. The first therefore is perpetrated through the enemy, the second through the flesh, the third through the spirit. For the assailant suggests evil, the flesh subjects itself to delight, and at last the spirit, overcome by delight, consents. Whence also that serpent suggested evil, but Eve, as it were the flesh, subjected herself to delight, and Adam, as the spirit, overcome by suggestion and delight, gave assent. Therefore by suggestion we recognize the sin, by delight we are conquered, and by consent we are even bound.
Those therefore who bewail the wickednesses of thought must be admonished carefully to consider into what measure of sin they have fallen, so that according to the mode of the ruin which they feel within themselves they may also be raised up by a measure of lamentation, lest, if the evils thought of torment them the less, they lead them on even to perpetrating deeds. Yet amid these things they are so to be terrified that they be by no means broken. For often the merciful God the more speedily washes away sins of the heart, in that He permits them not to go forth into deeds; and the wickedness thought of is the more quickly loosed, in that it is not more strictly bound by the effect of a deed. Whence it is rightly said through the Psalmist: 'I said, I will pronounce against myself my injustices to the Lord, and Thou hast forgiven the impiety of my heart' (Ps. 31:5).
For he who subjoined 'the impiety of his heart' indicated that he willed to pronounce the injustices of his thoughts. And while he says: 'I said, I will pronounce,' and forthwith added, 'And Thou hast forgiven,' he shows how easy is pardon upon these. For while he still promises that he will beg, he obtained that very thing which he promised he would beg; so that, because the fault had not come to the deed, the penitence should not come to the torment, but the afflicted thought should wipe clean the mind which, of course, only the thought of iniquity had defiled.