Every sin, before it is admitted, is dreaded the more. But however grave it may be, once it has come into habitual use, it is reckoned light, and is committed without any fear. By these kindlings, as by certain degrees, every sin grows strong: for a depraved thought begets delight; delight, consent; consent, action; action, habit; habit, necessity. And so, entangled by these bonds, a man is held bound by a certain chain of vices, so that he can by no means be torn away from it, unless divine grace seize the hand of the one lying prostrate. To admit a sin is to fall into a pit; but to make a habit of sinning is to narrow the mouth of the pit, so that he who has fallen cannot get out.
But sometimes God delivers even such, when He changes their despair into the conversion of liberty. For by His mercy sins are forgiven; by His protection it comes about that one does not go on into worse sinning. It is most wicked to sin, but worse to make a habit of sinning. From the one there is an easy rising again, from the other only with labor, while one struggles against the evil habit. The prophet asserts that the habit of doing evil is a recess into the depth, by the practice of which a man is held bound as by a certain law, so that even when he does not wish it, he admits sin. But to rise again quickly from a fall is not to go into the depth. The apostle speaks of the law of sin in our members;
This law is habit, which we conceive by sinning, and from which we do not depart when we wish, because we are now held fast by the bond of necessity through habit. The love of truth accomplishes much in a man, yet the flesh resists through the law of evil habit. But rightly does he exult boldly for a good conscience who mightily restrains within himself that which insolently assails him. One must beware of sinning frequently; for that very thing, whereby God for the most part works our salvation out of our evil, is as rare as it is wonderful. Therefore we must fear to be confident of being saved in this way, lest perchance, while we wait to be healed of our vices, we both multiply our vices and fail to attain salvation. Let us therefore strive either not to fall, or, being quickly converted, to rise again from our fall.
One must altogether beware of sinning; but if through human frailty sin has crept in, that which is felt to have been wickedly committed must be corrected at once. For a fault that is quickly recognized is quickly corrected; but a wound is more slowly healed which, when the members are already festering, is treated with remedies only long afterward. [The repetition of sin is graver, as when disease comes upon disease, as when rain falls upon rain.] Delay in sinning increases the enormity of the crime, whence also the prophet says: Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with a cart-rope. For he who is slow to turn to God draws iniquity like a cord. To draw iniquity is to prolong iniquity.
Whence also the psalm says: They have prolonged their iniquities; the Lord who is just shall cut asunder the necks of sinners. XXIV. On the remembrance of sin. It is good for a man always to set his own offenses before his eyes, according to the sentence of the psalm: And my sin is ever before me. For just as one ought not to recall the pleasure of sin, so it is ever necessary that each one call to mind his own sin in weeping over it. In the just man, the remembrance of sin produces weariness of soul. But those who are subject to lust and greed, with stubborn pride, even glory in the very work of sin itself. In the servant of God there ought to be so great a remembrance of sin that he always confesses with tears the things he has done. Whence also the psalm says:
I was turned in my anguish, while the thorn is fastened in; I made known my sin, and I said: I will declare against myself my unrighteousness to the Lord. For above he had said: Because I kept silence, that is, I did not confess, all my bones grew old, while I cried out all the day long. What then does he repent of having kept silence, save the confession of sins? Of what does he grieve to have cried out, save the defense of his evils? He therefore who stood forth as a defender of his own sins must needs, by repenting, accuse that which in pride he wickedly committed. XXV. On thought. The cause of sinning is twofold, namely of deed and of thought, of which the one is called iniquity, which is carried out in deed, the other unrighteousness, which is admitted in thought.
First, however, the action must be cut off, then the thought; first the wicked works, afterward the desires. Yet in turn both works proceed from thought, and thought is born from work. Although a man may refrain from an evil work, yet for the malice of wicked thought alone he will not be innocent. Whence also the Lord says through Isaiah: Take away, he says, the evil of your thoughts from before my eyes. For we offend not only by deeds but also by thoughts, if we take delight in them when they unlawfully occur to us. Just as the viper is torn apart and killed by the young placed within its womb, so our own thoughts, nourished within us, slay us, and when conceived inwardly, consume us with viperous venom, and destroy our soul with a cruel wound.
It is not within our choice to forestall the suggestions of wicked thought; but to let the thought lie in the soul belongs to our will. The former, therefore, is not reckoned to guilt, the latter is imputed as our own fault. For that unlawful thoughts occur is of the demons; to take pleasure in perverse thoughts is ours. It very often happens that the impure images of bodily things, which we have learned, are set before our minds, and we think of them against our will; and the more we strive to turn the mind's gaze away from them, the more they press themselves upon the soul, and creep in upon us with obscene stirrings. But this comes about by reason of the mortal condition which the first man merited as the penalty of his sin.
When each one is forestalled by divine illumination, at once he is beaten by the vexations of base thoughts. But the servant of God, by the judgment of the fear of God, casts their temptations away from himself, and by setting good thoughts against them, drives the base ones from himself. Great watchfulness must be applied to the guarding of the heart, because there is the origin of either good or evil; for, as it is written: Out of the heart come evil thoughts. And therefore, if we first resist the wicked thought, we do not fall into the lapse of the deed. It is not to be feared if good and evil come into the thought; but rather one should glory if the mind, by the understanding of reason, distinguishes evil from good.
Likewise it profits nothing that we distinguish between good and evil with a more prudent sense, unless by our work we either beware of the evil we have recognized, or do the good we have understood. XXVI. On conscience. The human condition, while it disturbs the mind with divers vices, even before the punishments of hell already suffers the punishments of conscience through the disordered appetite of the soul. A man may be able to flee all things except his own heart. For no one can depart from himself. For wherever he goes, the conscience of his own guilt does not forsake him. Although everyone who does evil may escape human judgments, yet he cannot escape the judgment of his own conscience.
For even if he conceals from others what he has done, yet he cannot conceal it from himself, who fully knows the evil he has committed to be evil. A twofold judgment therefore comes upon him, because both here he is punished by the guilt of his own conscience, and there he is condemned to everlasting punishment. For this is the meaning of: Deep calleth unto deep, in the voice of the waterfalls. For deep to call unto deep is to go from the judgment of one's own conscience to the judgment of everlasting damnation. In the voice of the waterfalls, that is, in the preaching of the saints. XXVII. On the intention of the mind. The eye of a man is the intention of his work. If therefore his intention is good, the work of his intention also is good.
Otherwise, of an evil intention, even if the work should appear good in its deeds, it is no longer good, since from its own intention it is either approved as good or rejected as unworthy. A good intention, therefore, is that which is for God's sake; but an evil one is that which is for earthly gain or vain glory. Those who do not perform a good work with a good intention are the more blinded by the very work through which they might have been enlightened. Let each one do the good work he does with a good intention, since for the sake of an evil intention we for the most part lose the good work we do, and are the less free from fault. Often things that appear good in the judgment of men are, at the examination of the most diligent and most acute Judge, uncovered as reprobate.
And therefore every holy man fears lest perchance the good he does, by reason of some intention of the soul, be reprobate in the eyes of God. XXVIII. On the senses of the flesh. Through the senses of the flesh the disease of the mind creeps in. Whence also the Lord says through the prophet: All the kindreds of the earth shall come from the north, and each one shall set his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. The kingdoms of the north are the vices, which set their seats in the gates when through the senses of the flesh they bring ruin upon the soul; and therefore in the very gates, that is, in the senses themselves, they reign. For we sin from no other source than by seeing, hearing, handling, tasting, and touching. Whence it is also said elsewhere: Death has entered through our windows; and elsewhere:
And strangers entered through her gates, and cast lots over Jerusalem. The strangers are indeed the unclean spirits, who, as through gates, so creep into the soul through the senses of the flesh, and overcome it by enticement. XXIX. On speech. While we do not avoid certain small words of the vices, we slide into a great crime of the tongue; and while we freely and without fear commit certain deeds that are not grave, we fall by the habit of sinning into more grievous and horrible crimes. Just as the folly of the talkative is for the most part reproved, so again the faults of those too silent are marked out. For the former, by loosing the tongue too much, flow away into the vice of levity; the latter, by keeping silence too much, grow torpid, away from usefulness.
The unlearned, just as they know not how to speak, so they cannot keep silence. Untutored in mind, talkative in mouth, they make noise with words, and say nothing in sense. Just as the crime of falsehood is greatly feared by those making progress, so idle words are shunned by perfect men. For as a certain one says: For an idle word an account is rendered, for an unjust word a penalty is paid. Vain speeches ought not to be in the mouth of a Christian. For just as good conversations correct evil morals, so wicked conversations corrupt good morals. A guard is set upon the mouth when a man confesses himself not just, but rather, which is more true, a sinner. He sets his hand upon his mouth who covers the excess of the tongue with good works.
He sets his hand upon his mouth who covers the faults of evil speech with the veil of good action. He who speaks the things that pertain to God, yet does them not, though he is useless to himself, nevertheless profits his hearers. Let those who long to be praised for wisdom heed the prophet who speaks: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent before your own selves. Rightly does he speak from a 'sentence' who perceives true wisdom by the taste of an inner savor. For 'sentence' is so called from 'perceiving' (sentire). And through this, the arrogant, who speak without humility, speak from mere knowledge, not from a 'sentence.' For he is wise who is wise rightly and according to God.
Teachers speak to their own reproach if their sayings, though wise, are nevertheless too eloquent. For wisdom shudders at the foamy pomp of words, and at the paint of worldly eloquence adorned with inflated speeches. Certain curious persons delight to hear whatever wise men, not that they may seek the truth from them, but that they may recognize the fluency of their speech, after the manner of the poets, who follow the composition of words rather than the sentence of truth. Fourfold is the manner of speaking, by which one must foresee what, to whom, when, and how something is to be uttered.
Likewise fourfold is the manner of speaking: either by perceiving well, something is well uttered; or by perceiving nothing, nothing is said; or by perceiving little, mere loquacity is displayed; or by perceiving excellently, what is understood is not elegantly uttered. Likewise fourfold is the manner of speaking, by which either good is spoken well, or evil ill, or good ill, or evil well. He indeed speaks good well who is seen humbly to announce those things which are right. He speaks evil ill who tries to persuade to some disgraceful act. He speaks good ill who is felt to preach anything right arrogantly. He speaks evil well who, by relating some vice, detests it, that men may be turned away from it.
He speaks well with the heart who does not feign charity. He speaks well with the mouth who announces the truth. He speaks well with deeds who builds up others by good examples. He speaks ill with the heart who inwardly ponders and thinks harmful thoughts. He speaks ill with the tongue who is scourged for the evil he does and murmurs. He speaks ill with deeds who, by living wickedly, forms others to act perversely by his examples. He speaks well once who reproves himself by repenting. He speaks well twice who, by living well, also instructs others. He speaks ill once who, after a fault, is quickly corrected. He speaks ill twice who both lives ill and teaches ill. Likewise he speaks ill twice who both thinks evil and reports the things he has thought evilly.
Likewise he speaks ill twice who both did not do the good he ought and admitted the evil he ought not. The evil return evil for good, and adverse things for the best. The good return good for evil, and prosperous things for adverse. Against the reviling of the tongue the fortitude of patience must be applied, so that the temptation of the word, which assails from without, being overcome by the virtue of endurance, may depart. Not everyone who suffers reproaches is just; but he who suffers innocently for the truth, he alone is just. Amid the reproaches of the tongue and the insults of men, by this remedy the mind of the just man is strengthened, that it may be all the more solidly fixed inwardly in God, the more it is despised outwardly by human senses.
He who with a tranquil mind brings forth the insults inflicted upon him opens the grief of his heart and easily casts out the venom that seethes in his soul. For open wounds of the mind quickly breathe out their poison; those shut up too much fester within. He who covers the pain of an injury with a closed breast, the more he presses down the tongue with silence, the more keenly he nourishes it within. Whence also, truly, a certain one of the pagan poets said: 'The more it is covered, the more the covered fire glows.' For a hidden languor is vehement and excessive, because 'a silent wound lives beneath the breast.' XXX. On lying. Liars bring it about that not even those who speak the truth are believed. For much falsehood often renders a man suspect even in the truth.
Often he who is about to speak falsehoods promises true things, so that, when he has first gained trust, he may make his hearers credulous as to the rest of his lies. To many, things that are false seem to be true, and therefore they speak not from God, but from their own falsehood. Sometimes falsehood is joined to truthful speech, and for the most part he who contrives falsehoods begins from truth. Often poisons lie hidden, smeared over with the honey of words, and the deceiver simulates the truth for so long until by deceiving he ensnares. Sometimes it is worse to premeditate a lie than to speak it; for sometimes an incautious person is wont to speak a lie from precipitancy, but he cannot premeditate one except by design.
He therefore is held to lie more grievously who lies from design than he who lies from mere precipitancy. Every lie is above all to be avoided, although sometimes there is a certain kind of lie of lighter fault, if anyone should lie for the salvation of men. But because it is written: The mouth that lies slays the soul; and, Thou shalt destroy those who speak a lie, this kind of lie also perfect men above all flee, so that neither is anyone's life defended through their deceit, nor do they harm their own soul while they strive to be of service to another's flesh; although we believe that this very kind of sin is most easily remitted. For if any fault is purged by a reward that follows, how much more easily is that wiped away which the reward itself accompanies.
Men lie about many things and feign many things for the praise of men; and so it comes about that both these perish by lying, and lead those whom they praise to the ruin of vain glory. Just as one who is well conscious of himself does not fear the reviling of another's tongue, so also he who is praised by another ought not to heed the error of another's praise; but rather let each one seek the testimony of his own conscience, to which he himself is more present than the one who praises him. For let each one prove his own work, as the Apostle says, and then each shall have glory in himself, that is, secretly in his own conscience, not openly in another's tongue.
The perfect, who are founded upon a deep root, even if by the blast of praise and blame they are somehow bent at times as by the impulse of winds, yet are not cast down at the foundations, but forthwith return to themselves by the firmness of the root. A good mind is conquered to evil neither by rewards nor by terrors. For the wicked mingle terror with flatteries, so that they may either deceive someone by delight, or break him by terrors. He who is praised is inserted into the love of his hearers, but only if he is praised truly and not feignedly, that is, if the things said of him are true. XXXI. On the oath. Just as he who does not speak cannot lie, so he cannot forswear himself who does not seek to swear.
Swearing therefore must be avoided, nor is it to be used except in sole necessity. It is not contrary to God's precept to swear, but while we make a practice of swearing, we incur the crime of perjury. Let him therefore never swear who fears to forswear himself. Many, while they speak, always delight to swear, though this only ought to be in the mouth: 'Yea, yea; nay, nay.' For whatsoever is more than 'yea' and 'nay' is of evil. Many, that they may deceive, forswear themselves, so that through the trust of an oath they may create trust in their word, and so by deceiving, while they forswear themselves and lie, they deceive the incautious man. Sometimes we are deceived, seduced also by false tears, and belief is given, while they weep, to those who were not to be believed.
For the most part we resolve to speak without an oath, but by the incredulity of those who do not believe what we say, we are compelled to swear, and by such necessity we make a habit of swearing. There are many slow to believe, who are not moved to faith in a word. But those grievously offend who compel those speaking to them to swear. By whatever art of words anyone swears, God nevertheless, who is the witness of conscience, takes it thus, just as he to whom it is sworn understands it. And doubly does he become guilty who both takes the name of God in vain and catches his neighbor by guile. An oath by which evil is incautiously promised is not to be kept, as if anyone should pledge to an adulteress the faith of remaining perpetually with her.
For it is more tolerable not to fulfill the oath than to remain in the disgrace of fornication. To swear is that providence of God which has determined not to overturn what is established. But the repentance of God is a change of things; while not to repent is not to revoke what is established, as is that: The Lord has sworn and it shall not repent him; that is, what he swore, he did not change. XXXII. On the vices. A man withdrawing from God is at once handed over to the power of the vices, so that, while he suffers hostile vices, by returning he may come to his senses whence he fell. And if the saints strive with every effort to overcome the vices and yet do not extinguish them, what do those do who not only do not hate the vices, but pursue them with all their love?
He flatters himself too tenderly who wishes to overcome the vices without labor, since he cannot without the violence of pain cut away the law of sin which he made for himself by serving the vices. He perfectly renounces a vice who avoids the occasion in the perpetrating of sin. For if you should wish just so much not to sin, and yet, when the occasion is given, you have sinned, you are to yourself both defendant and judge, who both condemn the things committed and commit the things condemned. But he is a defendant with himself as judge, who both accuses and perpetrates the vices. Certain vices, while they are not perfectly avoided, cause their own authors to relapse into them. For if one vice is strictly avoided and the others are neglected, the labor is vain.
For one cannot strongly persevere in the observance of a single virtue, in whose heart other vices hold dominion. Sometimes a man's own vices pursue him, because doubtless he who first, by willing, made them his companions, afterward feels them, even unwilling, as goads. Some do not fall into the error of the vices before they have first lost the eyes of inner reason, just as Samson was not bound to the engine of error by the Philistines before the light of his eyes had been extinguished. Certain men, while the reason of the mind is still vigorous, are overcome by the onset of the vices, and thus thereafter lose the intention of good works, just as the king of Babylon first slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and so afterward plucked out his eyes;
and through this, after the habit of many works and the destruction of good things, the very reason of some men also perishes. XXXIII. That from vices vices arise, and from virtues virtues. Thus sins are begotten from sin, so that, while small ones are not avoided, one advances into the greatest; and while things committed are defended and not lamented, one goes from disgrace to pride. Whence it comes about that he is guilty of a doubled crime who both admits wicked deeds through his will and defends them through the swelling of stubbornness. Thus vice is begotten by vice, just as virtue is conceived by virtue. For vice is begotten from vice, just as David, while he does not avoid adultery, perpetrated also homicide.
Likewise virtue is conceived by virtue, just as through the virtue of evangelical preaching the apostles merited the virtue of martyrdom. In the hearts of those who live in a worldly manner the vices succeed one another in turn, so that, when one has departed, another succeeds, according to the testimony of the prophet Joel who says: What the caterpillar has left, the locust has eaten; and what the locust has left, the cankerworm has eaten; and what the cankerworm has left, the mildew has eaten. For these things are gathered under the allegory of the vices, because there follows: Awake, ye drunkards, and weep. Sometimes one usefully sins in the least vices that greater ones may be more usefully avoided. Read Paul the Apostle permitting the lesser sins, lest the greater be perpetrated. But those vices are truly healed which are excluded by virtues, not by vices.
But certain hidden vices of some men then appear when they cease from other vices. XXXIV. On virtues ill used. Sometimes even virtues ill used beget vices out of themselves; which happens through the immoderate appetite of the soul, to which the gift it has merited does not suffice, unless from it it seek either praise or damnable gains. Sometimes virtues beget vices when at any time they are by no means relaxed opportunely, according to the time. And so it comes about that things which in a fitting place are virtues are in an unfitting place accounted vices, as if on account of the arrival of a brother the canonical fast should not be broken. Take therefore the discernment of virtues from Paul the Apostle, who did for a time what he altogether forbade to be done.
Likewise certain virtues, while they do not serve discernment, pass over into vices. For often justice, while it exceeds its measure, begets the savagery of cruelty; and excessive piety brings forth the dissolution of discipline; and the zeal of ardor, while it is more than is fitting, passes over into the vice of wrath; and much meekness begets the sluggishness of torpor. But the discernment of the prudent man skillfully looks ahead, lest he act a good thing intemperately and pass over from virtue into vice. Likewise among some, vice is begotten from virtue, when anyone glories in the merits of chastity and abstinence. For he too who bestows alms for the sake of vain glory makes a vice out of a virtue;
but also he who has arrogance from wisdom, and he who seeks a reward for justice, and he who turns some gift of God which he has merited to his own praise, or takes it up for evil uses, without doubt transfers virtue into vice. Men nourish vices out of virtues, by which they perish. Again God, by a most powerful art, forms virtues out of our vice, by which he may reform us from iniquity. XXXV. On simulated virtues. Certain vices display the appearance of virtues, and therefore they deceive their followers more perniciously because they cover themselves under the veil of virtues. For vices which at once appear contrary to virtues are quickly amended when they come into the open, on account of which their followers blush at such crimes.
But carnal men, for the most part through the insensibility of the mind, do not recognize as a culpable vice that which is seen to be worthy of condemnation. Likewise certain vices seem to be species of virtues, and yet they are not virtues. For sometimes under the pretext of justice cruelty is enacted, and that is thought to be a virtue which doubtless is a vice; just as slack sluggishness is believed to be meekness, and what indifferent negligence does is thought to be done by the indulgence of piety. Sometimes also the vice of prodigal effusion imitates the virtue of generosity, and gloomy tenacity imitates the virtue of thrift, and the vice of obstinacy is hidden under the virtue of constancy.
Likewise fear is concealed under the appearance of obedience, and is called the virtue of humility, which nevertheless is the vice of fear. But also the boldness of voice is taken for the liberty of truth, and the vice of laziness imitates the virtue of quiet. Furthermore the vice of restlessness wishes to call itself the virtue of solicitude, and the readiness of precipitancy is believed to be the fervor of good zeal, and the slowness of acting well is seen to be the delay of counsel, whereas the latter is a virtue, the former a vice. By such an example, therefore, the vices imitate the species of virtues, and thence some are confident that they are just, whence they are most of all reproved. A fitting example of the vices is taken from the likeness of a robber;