2. There must be clear knowledge of the malice of the act, or at least a belief or suspicion that what we are doing may be grievously wrong. With persons who are leading ordinarily good lives, that is, who are habitually disposed rather to suffer any loss than deliberately offend God by any grievous sin, it is necessary that there should always be an actual and present advertence to the sinfulness of what they are doing, in order to make a mortal sin. With regard, however, to such as have wilfully destroyed the voice of their conscience, or formed for themselves a false conscience, by purposely continuing in ignorance of their duty, or by long indulgence of their passions and confirmed habits of sin, there are some writers who deny the necessity of any present or actual advertence to render their actions grievously sinful in the sight of God. Practically, however, it makes little difference whether we say that each distinct act of which they are guilty is a separate mortal sin, or whether we say they are answerable in the cause for all the sinful consequences which result from the ignorance or negligence in which they have deliberately determined to live, or from the bad habit which they have wilfully and knowingly contracted.

3. There must be full consent of the will. If as soon as we perceive that the action which we are tempted to perform is sinful, we at once reject the temptation, there is no sin. If, however, there be a half consent, it is of course wrong, both because it is an offence of God and because of the danger to which we expose ourselves of giving full consent; but still, so long as the consent is imperfect, the sin is only venial. This kind of half consent is not uncommon with persons who have not attained the full use of reason, or who are insufficiently instructed, or who, from sudden fear, or from not being perfectly awake, or from any other cause, act without being fully conscious of what they are doing. The most difficult cases of this kind are doubts respecting sins of thought, when, from the violence of the temptation, or from want of promptness in rejecting it in the beginning, a person knows not whether he has consented or not. The following rules will be of great service to us in forming a correct opinion.

1. In all cases of doubt, the probability is on the side of what usually happens. If a person generally yields to temptation, and makes little or no struggle to overcome it, the presumption is against him in any given case. If, however, his past experience be in his favour, if he seldom or never consents to a known mortal sin, he will be right in taking the benefit of the doubt.

2. We may presume that there was no full consent in a case of doubt when there was nothing to hinder a person from carrying out a sinful intention, who yet has abstained from doing so.

3. It would be a clear sign that full consent had not been given if, on reflecting that the mind has been occupied with sinful thoughts, or that there is at least great danger of consent, the person is struck with fear and sorrow, and is anxious to get rid of the temptation as soon as possible.

CHAP. XXXV. Mortal Sin and its Effects.

IN speaking of the necessity of the Incarnation, it was shown that mortal sin, being an offence against an allperfect, all-good God, contains, as far as is possible, an infinite malice. It is impossible for us to form an adequate idea of its enormity, but the consideration of some of the consequences which it entails will help us to understand its heinousness.

1. Mortal sin deprives us of all the merit of our previous good works; so that if we die under the guilt of a single mortal sin, no matter however much merit we had acquired before its commission, we shall not be rewarded for it: "All his justices which he hath done shall not be remembered" (Ezechiel xviii. 24). It is true, this merit will revive, provided we have the happiness to recover the grace of God; but so long as the soul is stained with mortal guilt, we are deprived of all the merit of our previous good works.

2. So long as mortal sin exists in the soul, no matter what virtues we practise, we can gain no merit in the sight of God. Whatever good works we perform, we

shall not be rewarded for them in heaven. These are all dead works, even if we afterwards recover grace, and die in the friendship of God. But we must not consider these virtues as useless, for in spite of the sin which is in the soul, they are still real acts of virtue; and though they will not entitle us to a reward in heaven, nor, strictly speaking, merit for us the grace of repentance, yet, in consideration of these good works, God may, out of His infinite goodness and mercy, enable us once more to regain His friendship.

3. Mortal sin is so great an evil, that an infinitely good, infinitely just God, who delights to manifest His almighty power by forgiving and showing mercy, and whose punishments fall short of our deserts, condemns every one who dies under the guilt of but one such sin to everlasting torments. Every mortal sin, then, contains so much malice, that an eternity of suffering more terrible than any thing we can imagine is its only adequate punish

ment.

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But though mortal sin be so great an evil, and though some mortal sins are far more grievous than others, there is no sin, however enormous, which may not be forgiven. When our Blessed Lord promised His Apostles the power of forgiving sins, He made no limitation or exception. His word is pledged to ratify in heaven the sentence which they should pronounce upon earth: "Amen, I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven" (St. Matt. xviii. 18). 66 Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (St. John xx. 23). However black, therefore, has been the guilt of the sinner, the Church bas received power to forgive him, provided he be truly penitent: "If the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep My commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done in his justice which he hath wrought, he shall live" (Ezechiel xviii. 21, 22). If there are certain passages of

Holy Scripture which at first sight would seem to imply that there are some sins which cannot be forgiven, no more is meant than that there is a special malice in these sins which makes their forgiveness very difficult. "The blasphemy of the Spirit," which our Lord tells us shall not be forgiven (St. Matt. xii. 31), refers, according to the explanation of the best interpreters, to the sin of the Pharisees in resisting the plain truth, and attributing the manifest miracles of Christ to the devil. This was a sin of malice, and is therefore said to be against the Holy Ghost, to whom goodness is specially attributed; as sins of ignorance are said to be against the Son, to whom wisdom or knowledge is ascribed, and sins of infirmity are said to be against the Father, whose characteristic attribute is power.

CHAP. XXXVI. Venial Sin and its Effects.

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EVERY actual sin which does not contain the three conditions necessary to make a mortal sin is a venial sin. 1. Thus, if the matter be small, the sin is only venial. will, of course, be understood that circumstances sometimes quite change the nature of the case, and make a serious matter of what is usually of small moment. Thus to take an apple contrary to the Divine command not to steal would be only a venial sin; but when our first parents took of the forbidden fruit, they committed a mortal sin, because God had expressly chosen this prohibition to test their submission to Him, and had distinctly told them that death would be the penalty of their disobedience. Again, he who erroneously believed the matter to be great, and so did what he thought to be a great offence against God, would commit a mortal sin; because the greatness of the matter of a sin, considered in the person who commits it, must be estimated, not simply by what it is in its own nature, but by what it is believed to be in the mind of that person. 2. If there be no knowledge, nor suspicion that the thing which we are doing is wrong, there is no sin; and if the knowledge be imperfect, the sin is only venial. This, as already explained, will often be the case

with those who have not fully come to the use of reason, or are imperfectly instructed, or who are only half conscious of what they are doing.

3. The sin is only venial when the consent of the will is imperfect. This has been already explained in what has been said on the conditions which are required to make a mortal sin.

We shall now be in a position easily to understand the four ways in which a venial sin is sometimes said to be made mortal. 1. When a person commits a venial sin with such an affection to it that he is resolved to commit it though it were mortal. 2. When the end for which it is done is a mortal sin. In both these cases, it is not so much the act which is performed, as the evil disposition of the heart, and the bad intention accompanying the act, which constitute the mortal sin. 3. When a person perceives that by committing a venial sin he will give occasion to a mortal sin, by scandal or any other way. Here the circumstance that we know that our action will be the occasion of a great sin in another, makes the matter grievous which would otherwise be small. 4. When a person commits that which is in itself only a venial sin, and yet thinks in his conscience it is a mortal sin. It has already been stated, that in judging of past sins we must estimate the matter not by what it is in its own nature, but by what it was conceived to be by the person at the time the act was performed.

As to the effects of venial sin, they are as follows:

1. Venial sin weakens and cools the fervour of charity. As small illnesses undermine the strength of the body, so venial sins weaken the soul.

2. In consequence of venial sins, we are deprived of many graces which would otherwise be bestowed upon us, and the graces which we receive have not free scope to fructify in the soul. For as the good grain can with difficulty grow up in the ground which is covered with weeds, so a soul subject to venial sin can with difficulty grow in holiness.

3. Venial sins, especially when fully deliberate, dispose the soul for mortal sin; according to the admonition of

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