But on the contrary, since God both admonishes us by His precepts and sets before us in the lives of the saints examples of good works, there is now no excuse for guilt; for the law of God daily knocks at our ears, and the proofs of good deeds provoke the depths of our heart. And if we have often followed the examples of the wicked, why do we not imitate the worthy deeds of the saints, pleasing to God? And if we were apt to imitate the unrighteous unto evil, why are we slow to imitate the righteous unto good? God must be entreated that the virtues He has prepared for the saints unto a crown may be placed before us for our advancement, not for our punishment. And they will avail unto our advancement if we are willing to imitate so many examples of virtue.
Surely, if we have turned away from them rather than imitated them, they will be for our condemnation, because in reading them we have neglected to fulfill them. Many imitate the life of the saints and from another's character take the likeness of virtue, just as when some image is gazed upon and from its likeness a painted form is fashioned; and so he becomes like the image who lives according to the likeness of the image. He who imitates a holy man looks upon him as upon some model, and beholds himself in him as in a mirror, that he may add what he recognizes to be lacking in virtue. For a man considers himself less from himself alone, but while he regards another, he adds that light which was lacking.
It belongs now to perfect men to work righteousness not by imitating any of the saints, but by gazing upon Truth itself, to whose image they were made. This is what the Scripture indicates when it is written: Let us make man to our image and likeness; for by understanding the Godhead itself he imitates it, to whose likeness he was made. Such a one, then, is so great that he does not need a man to show him righteousness, but by contemplating righteousness itself he imitates it. Pursue the various virtues from the examples of the saints, by which a man is edified:
humility from Christ, devotion from Peter, love from John, obedience from Abraham, patience from Isaac, endurance from Jacob, chastity from Joseph, meekness from Moses, constancy from Joshua, kindness from Samuel, mercy from David, abstinence from Daniel; and thus with what labor, what moderation, with what intention or compunction the other deeds of the ancients were performed, the holy man considers by imitating them. XII. On compunction of heart. Compunction of heart is humility of mind with tears, arising from the remembrance of sin and the fear of judgment.
That is the more perfect affection of compunction in the converted, which drives from itself all the desires of carnal longings, and fixes its whole intent with all the zeal of the mind upon the contemplation of God. The compunction by which the soul of each of the elect is moved for God's sake is twofold: that is, either while it considers the evils of its own works, or while it sighs with longing for eternal life. There are four qualities of affections by which the mind of the righteous is pricked with wholesome weariness: that is, the memory of past crimes, the recollection of future punishments, the consideration of one's pilgrimage in the long span of this life, and the desire for the heavenly homeland, that it may attain to it as swiftly as possible.
When anyone is pricked to lamentation by the memory of his sins, let him know then that he is visited by the presence of God, when from what he recalls having committed he inwardly blushes, and by his own judgment already punishes himself through repenting. For Peter wept then, when Christ looked upon him. Whence also the psalm says: He looked, and the earth was moved and trembled. The steps of God into the heart of man are that inner power by which good desires arise that evils may be trodden down. When therefore these things take place in the heart of man, it must be known that God is then present to the human heart through grace; whence a man ought then all the more to sharpen himself unto compunction, when he senses God also working within.
To what height the mind of a righteous man is caught up from true compunction, and in what manner, weakened, it returns by the greatness of the light it has tasted—this only he can know who has already tasted something thereof. There are those who become their own accusers not from true compunction of heart, but only assign themselves to be sinners for this end: that from a feigned humility of confession they may find a reputation of holiness. XIII. On the confession of sins and penance. Each one begins to be righteous from the moment he has become his own accuser. But many, on the contrary, confess themselves sinners, and yet do not withdraw themselves from sin.
It is already a great part of righteousness for a man to know himself to be depraved, so that from the moment he acknowledges his own weakness he may the more humbly submit to the divine power. The righteous man judges himself rightly in this life, lest he be judged by God with perpetual condemnation. But each one then passes judgment upon himself when through worthy penance he condemns his own depraved deeds. The bitterness of penance causes the soul both to examine its own deeds more subtly, and by weeping to call to mind the gifts of God which it despised. But nothing is worse than to acknowledge one's fault and not to bewail it. Every sinner ought to have a twofold weeping in penance: either because through negligence he did not do the good, or because through boldness he perpetrated the evil.
For what he ought to have done he did not do, and he did what he ought not to have done. He does penance worthily who bewails his own guilt with lawful satisfaction, namely by condemning and lamenting what he has done, weeping over it the more profusely in proportion as he was the more prone in sinning. He does penance worthily who so laments past evils that he does not again commit those to be lamented. For he who bewails a sin and again commits the sin is like one who washes an unbaked brick: the more he washes it, the more mud he makes. However great a sinner and impious a man may be, if he turns to penance, he is believed able to obtain pardon.
For let no one doubt the goodness of God; rather, only the perversity of those who would receive it denies the indulgence granted to them. In this life the liberty of penance stands open to such a degree; but after death there is no leave for correction. Whence the Lord also says: I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; but the night comes when no one can work. Hence the prophet too says: Give glory to the Lord your God before it grows dark; that is, before eternal death comes upon you, while you are in this life, glorify God through penance. Even now in this age God's mercy comes to the aid of those who work penance. But in the age to come we no longer work, but render an account of our works.
By that very means the wicked are for the most part made worse, by which through God's patience they receive a space for amending; but that delay of living they use not for penance, but usurp for the boldness of sinning. And he passes from evil to worse who uses the time granted him for penance for the license of depraved action. Each one ought to hasten to God by repenting while he is able, lest, if he was unwilling while he could, when he wishes it too late he may not be able at all. Therefore the prophet says: Seek the Lord while he can be found; call upon him while he is near. And where can he be found, except in this life, in which also he is near to all who call upon him? For then he will already be far off, when he shall say: Go into eternal fire.
For now he is not seen, and he is near; then he will be seen, and he will not be near, because he both will be able to be seen, and will not be able to be found. If, while anyone is still able to sin, he repents and while living corrects his life from every crime, there is no doubt that dying he passes over to eternal rest. But he who, living wickedly, does penance in the peril of death—just as his condemnation is uncertain, so his remission is doubtful. He therefore who desires to be certain of indulgence at death, let him repent while sound, and while sound blot out the crimes he has committed. There are those who quickly promise security to penitents. To such it is well said through the prophet: They heal the contrition of the daughter of my people with disgrace, saying "peace" when there is no peace.
Therefore he heals contrition with disgrace who promises security to one who sins and does not lawfully repent. Whence there follows: They were confounded who committed abomination; that is, they were confounded not by repenting, but by paying the penalty. For a guilty man is confounded in one way before the judge while he is punished, and in another way he who, blushing at his evil deed, is corrected. For the one is confounded because he has been reproved; the other, because he remembers that he has done evil. Although through penance there is propitiation of sins, yet a man ought not to be without fear, because the satisfaction of penance is weighed by the divine judgment alone, not the human. Therefore, because the mercy of God is hidden, it is necessary to weep without ceasing.
For it is never fitting that a penitent should have security concerning his sins. For security breeds negligence, and negligence often leads the incautious back to the vices he had renounced. When through penance the vices have been expelled from a man, if perchance after this, with security intervening, any fault should creep in, immediately the former delights of the vices steal upon the mind more greedily, and beating upon the man drag him back more grievously into his accustomed deeds, so that his last state is worse than the first. XIV. On the despair of sinners. It is not through spaces of places, but through good or evil affection that one goes to God or departs from Him. For it is not by the step of the feet, but by the step of morals that we grow distant from or draw near to God.
To perpetrate some wickedness is the death of the soul; to despise penance and to remain in fault is to descend into hell after death. Therefore to sin pertains to death, but to despair is to descend into hell. Whence the Scripture also says: The impious, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises. Often the devil leads to despair those whom he sees turning to penance, struck down by the enormity of their crimes, so that, hope of pardon being taken away, he may drag into distrust those whom he could not hold persistently in fault. But the penitent ought to foresee the crafty snares of the enemy against him; and so let him fear the justice of God in such a way that nevertheless, though in great crimes, he may trust in His mercy.
God rejoices more over a soul that has despaired and at length been converted, than over one that was never lost. As over the prodigal son, who had been dead and revived, had been lost and was found, over whose return there is great joy of the father. Not otherwise before God and the angels is there more abundant joy over him who is delivered from peril, than over him who never knew the peril of sin. For as greatly as a thing lost brings grief, so much the more, if it be found, does it bring gladness. As in the Gospel that shepherd exults who, rejoicing, carries back on his shoulders the lost sheep now found. No one ought to despair of pardon, even if he is converted to penance near the end of life.
For God judges each one by his end, not by his past life. This indeed is taught also by the testimony of the law, that a man is justified by his last state, when God commanded that a sheep be offered in place of the firstborn of an ass—that is, the uncleanness of the former life is to be changed into the innocence of a good end. Whence also the tail is commanded to be offered in sacrifice, that is, the last things of life unto penance. Many, regarded by grace from above, return to God through penance in their last moments, and whatever evils they have done they purge with daily weeping, and exchange their evil deeds for good deeds; to whom justly all that they had transgressed is forgiven, because they themselves acknowledge by repenting what they did wickedly.
In a man's life the end is to be sought, since God regards not what sort we were before, but what sort we shall be about the end of life. XV. On those who are forsaken by God. When God forsakes, no one repents; when God regards, each one sees and bewails his own deeds, and considers whence he has fallen. But some are so despised by God that they cannot bewail their own evils, even if they wish to.
This is the counsel of the unclean spirits: that because it has been denied to them to return to righteousness after their transgression, they desire to bar the entrance of penance to men, lest these too should return to God, and they strive to have them as companions in perdition, pressing on with whatever frauds so that men may either be forsaken by God, or despair through the enormity of the scourge. One must groan continually, and, security set aside, one must mourn, lest by the secret and just judgment of God a man be forsaken and left to be destroyed in the power of demons. For truly, whom God forsakes, the demons take up. Despisers of the Lord's precept, as soon as they are turned away from God, are seized by malignant spirits, by whom they are also persuaded to do evil.
Hence is that prophetic saying: Darkness pursues the enemies of God—by which are understood the demons. Whence also it is read in the psalm: Sendings by evil angels. Certain of the reprobate are, by the hidden and most just judgment of God, driven back into the power of demons, as Isaiah testifies: He himself sent them the lot, and his hand divided it to them by measure; they shall possess it forever. Certain of the elect are permitted by divine justice to walk into the error of sin, yet by His mercy they are led back and again converted. For concerning such the Lord speaks through the prophet: And I forsook him, and I led him back, and I restored consolation.
Sometimes too God, returning, visits again with affliction the man He had forsaken, and through the lamentation of tears and the affliction of penance purges him from his sins, as Job says to God: Because of pride, you take me as a lioness, and returning you wondrously torment me. For God, returning, torments a man when He visits again with scourging the one He had forsaken while he was sinning. By our evil acts we ought by no means to provoke against ourselves the heavenly wrath the more; but rather, if by repenting we perform deeds worthy of God, we shall change His severity into clemency. For He who tolerates us while evil, without doubt clemently pardons us when converted.
For the fact that a time of penance is reserved for us, so that we are not at once overwhelmed by a sudden death, but a place of satisfaction is given us—all this proceeds from the clemency of God, that He may not cruelly condemn us, but patiently await us unto penance. XVI. On those who return to sin after tears. He is a mocker, not a penitent, who still does that of which he repents, and seems not to entreat God as one submissive, but to jeer at Him as one proud. A dog returned to its vomit is also the penitent to his sin. For many pour out tears unceasingly, and do not cease from sinning.
Some receive tears unto penance, yet have not the effect of penance, because through inconstancy of mind they now pour out tears at the remembrance of sin, but now, the habit reviving, they commit again the very things they had wept over. He who wishes both to bewail the past and to brood over worldly actions, such a one has no cleansing, since he still does what he might have to bewail by repenting. Isaiah says to sinners: Wash yourselves, be clean; therefore he is washed and clean who both bewails the past and does not again admit what must be wept over. He is washed and is not clean who bewails what he has done yet does not forsake it, and after tears returns to the things he had wept over.
So too elsewhere the divine word rebukes the soul that repents and again transgresses, saying: How exceedingly vile you have become, repeating your ways. Whoever therefore mourns his past faults, it is necessary that he keep this measure: that he so bewail what he has committed as not again to commit what must be bewailed. Woe is me, wretched Isidore, who both neglect to repent of things done in the past, and still commit things to be repented of! XVII. On sin. Sin is committed in two ways, that is, either by the force of desire, or by the fear of dread, while one either wishes to attain what he desires, or fears lest he incur what he dreads. In four ways sin is committed in the heart, and in four ways it is perpetrated in deed.
It is admitted in the heart by the suggestion of demons, the delight of the flesh, the consent of the mind, the defense of self-exaltation; it is committed in deed now secretly, now openly, now by habit, now by despair. By these degrees, then, sin is both committed in the heart and malice is perpetrated in deed. In three ways sin is done, that is, by ignorance, by weakness, by deliberation, but with a different peril of punishments. For by the manner of ignorance Eve sinned in paradise, as the Apostle says: The man was not seduced, but the woman being seduced was in the transgression. Therefore Eve sinned by ignorance, but Adam by deliberation, because not being seduced, but knowing and prudent, he sinned; for he who is seduced plainly does not know to what he consents.
But by weakness Peter transgressed, when at the dread of the questioning maidservant he denied Christ; whence also after the sin he wept most bitterly. It is graver for anyone to transgress by weakness than by ignorance, and graver to sin by deliberation than by weakness. For he sins by deliberation who does evil with zeal and deliberation of mind; but by weakness he who transgresses by chance or by sudden impulse. But those sin more wickedly and by deliberation who not only do not live well, but even, if they can, turn the well-living away from the truth. For there are those who sin ignorantly, and there are those who sin knowingly. There are also those who, for the excuse of ignorance, are unwilling to know, that they may be held less culpable;
yet these do not protect themselves, but rather deceive themselves. Not to know simply pertains to ignorance; but to have been unwilling to know pertains to obstinate pride. For to be unwilling to know the will of one's own Lord—what else is it than to be willing to despise the Lord through pride? Let no one therefore excuse himself on account of ignorance, because God judges not only those who turn back from knowledge of Him, but also those who did not know, as the same Lord testifies through the prophet: I will destroy, He says, men from the face of the earth, and those who turn away behind the back of the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord, nor inquired after Him. And the psalm says: Pour out your wrath upon the nations that have not known you. XVIII. On lighter sins.
Many can have a life without crime, but cannot have it without sin. For however greatly a man may shine with the brightness of righteousness in this age, yet he is never wholly free from the filth of sins, as the apostle John attests, who says: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. There are certain deeds similar to sins, but if they are done with a good intention, they are not sins: for instance, the exercise of power, if one takes vengeance on the guilty not from a desire of avenging himself, but rather from a zeal for correcting. Likewise there are light sins which are purged by beginners through daily satisfaction, which nevertheless are avoided by perfect men as though they were great crimes.
But what ought men to do about great crimes, when even the perfect mourn each light offense as though it were most grievous? Not only grave, but light sins are to be guarded against. For many light sins make one great one, just as immense rivers are wont to grow from small and tiny drops. For a multitude gathered into one produces an overflowing abundance. Sins that are light for beginners are reckoned grave for perfect men. For a sin is known to be so much the greater as he who sins is held to be the greater. For the heap of the fault grows according to the order of merits, and often what is pardoned in lesser men is imputed to greater ones. XIX. On graver sins.
By the experience of lesser sins greater sins are committed, so that those may be struck the more harshly for great crimes who were unwilling to be corrected in small ones. But by the divine judgment they fall into a worse guilt who despise to examine strictly their lesser deeds. Many rush from crime into crime who, having knowledge of God, neglect the fear of Him, and whom they know through knowledge, they do not venerate through action. And therefore they are blinded by the divine judgment to commit things deserving punishment, and to add unto the penalty of the committed offense a worse offense. Often one sin is the cause of another sin; which, when it is committed, another arises from it as its own offspring, just as lust is wont to be born from excessive gluttony of the belly.
But sin is admitted as the penalty of sin, when, according to the merit of each sin, God forsaking, one passes into another and worse sin, by which he who has committed it is defiled the more. Therefore the preceding sin is the cause of the following sin, but the following sin is the penalty of the preceding offense. Preceding sins, then, are the cause of the crimes that follow, so that those which follow may be the penalty of those that precede. The penalty of preceding sins is that very hardening which comes from divine justice. Hence it is that the prophet says: You have hardened our heart, that we should not fear you; for it is not while any are righteous that they are impelled by God to become evil; but while they are already evil, they are hardened that they may become worse, as the apostle also says:
Because they did not receive the truth of God, that they might be saved, God sent them a spirit of error. God therefore causes certain ones to sin, but ones in whom such sins have already preceded, so that by His just judgment they deserve to go into the worse. Such sins indeed, with other sins preceding, slide down into the penalty which the sins deserve. Certain sins come from the wrath of God, which are recompensed for the merit of other sins. Whence the prophet also says: Behold, you are angry and we have sinned; in these we have been always, as if he said: because we have always been in sins, you have been angry that we might sin the worse. For a prudent reader ought to know what it is to deserve the wrath of God, and what it is to provoke it.
For the wrath that is provoked is graver than that which is deserved. For we deserve it when we sin by ignorance; we provoke it when we know to do good, and are unwilling. Now, while we live, we can avoid the wrath of God. Let us fear therefore lest, when that terror of judgment comes, it can be felt but cannot be avoided. XX. On manifest and hidden sins. It is of greater guilt to sin openly than secretly. For he is doubly guilty who transgresses openly, because he both does and teaches. Of such Isaiah says: And they proclaimed their sins like Sodom, nor did they hide them. For many, sinning publicly, without any shame proclaim their disgraceful deeds, nor do they employ any shamefacedness for their crime.
For it is already some portion of righteousness for a man to hide his own iniquity, and to blush within himself over his own sins. To perpetrate a sin is a crime; to proclaim a sin is a clamor, of which also the apostle says: And let clamor be taken away from you, with all malice—that is, with the sins themselves. From this very fact that anyone hides the sin he does, it is already an indication of judgment, because one does not blush except from the guilt of conscience. Therefore from this very thing—that one blushes over his own deed—he already becomes a judge to himself. XXI. On the love of sin. It is one thing not to sin from love of the love of God, another thing from fear of punishment.
For he who does not sin from the love of the charity of God shudders at all evil, embracing the good of righteousness, nor does sin delight him, even if impunity for the crime be promised. But he who represses vices in himself only from the penalty of punishment, although he does not accomplish the work of sin, yet the will to sin lives in him; and what the law is known to forbid grieves him as unlawful. He therefore receives the reward of a good work who does it by loving righteousness, not he who guards it unwillingly only from the dread of punishments. Some both love sin and do it; some only love it and do not do it; but many only do it and do not love it. Some do not do sin and yet hate righteousness.
But he sins more grievously who not only loves sin but also does it, than he who does not do it and loves it; and sometimes more grievously he who loves and does not do it, than he who does it and hates it; it is most grievous not only to do, but also to love sin. For there are some who are immediately confounded when the wicked deed is done, and there are those who not only do not grieve at having done evil, but even glory in the evil deed itself. And so in comparison with the evil it becomes worse, when, congratulating themselves on their vices, they are exalted unto the worse. Of such Solomon says: Who rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the most wicked things. XXII. On the necessity of sinning. Sometimes the evil that we are, we are by necessity rather than by will.
But the necessity of evil must be turned into the will of good. Very many sin not by will, but by necessity alone, greatly dreading temporal want; and, while they flee the necessity of the present age, they are deprived of future goods. Likewise some commit sin by will, not by necessity, and are wicked, compelled by no want; but only wish to be evil gratuitously. For they do not love the very thing they seek, but delight only in the very malice of sin. XXIII. On the habit of sinning. It is better to guard against sin than to amend it. For we resist more easily the enemy by whom we have not yet been conquered, than him by whom we are recognized as already overcome and vanquished.