the powers of your soul, the many natural gifts with which you are endowed, and, principally, the health which you enjoy.

O Lord! I confess myself more ungrateful even than the very beasts of the forest, for they, at least, do not offend Thee; more ungrateful than the infidels, and the savage children of nature, to whom You have not granted as many favours as You have conferred upon me; more ungrateful than the very demons themselves, for whom Your Son did not die upon the cross. I confess that this, my ingratitude, united to my natural baseness, increases immeasurably the heinousness of my sins. But, have mercy upon one who seriously repents! . who promises to be converted.

THIRD POINT.

pardon one

Finally, the heinousness of sin is infinite, when we come to consider the majesty and clemency of the Being whom we offend. 1. As regards His majesty, not even the intellect of the cherubim is capable of comprehending it; they merely prostrate themselves and adore. Nor need we marvel at this, for He is "a powerful king, and greatly to be feared" (a); "the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on the right hand and on the left" (b); and you, a handful of vile dust, which is blown about by the wind, have dared to provoke such a terrible power (c). O monstrous crime ! Filthy toad that you are, consider who it is that you have offended! He is infinitely powerful, and

(a) Eccl. i. 8.

(b) 2 Paralip. xviii. 18. (c) S. Bernard, Serm. xvi. in cant.

in the very moment of your sin could have hurled you into hell. He is all-wise, and his eye, which nothing escapes, was fixed upon you while you were in the act of committing that horrible crime. He is most holy; and the disgust with which He viewed that abomination of yours, was greater than all the joy afforded to Him by the heroic acts of all the saints. Yet, all this notwithstanding, you have dared to offend Him, and to offend Him so many times, and with sins of such an abominable nature.

2. And you dared to offend Him, the very while that His infinite clemency was restraining the thunderbolts from descending and reducing you to ashes; while He held in the wild beasts which would have ground you beneath their teeth; while He hindered the demons from hurling you alive into hell.

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For

every creature was armed against you for revenge" (a), and God forbade it. The cry of your iniquities, ascending from the earth, was continually calling down upon you the vengeance of heaven, and God spared you, "overlooking your sins for the sake of repentance" (b). Nay, more, He guarded you as the pupil of His eye, and carried you in His bosom as a mother is wont to carry her infant child. Not only this, but He loved you, if not with the love of friendship, which He bestows upon the just alone, yet, with the love of beneficence, being always mindful of you that He might serve you. Tell me, then, is not the malice of sin most detestable, by reason of the majesty and clemency of God who is offended?

(a) Wisdom v. 18.

(b) Ibid. xi. 24.

AFFECTIONS.

1. An act of sorrow. O God, I have offended Thee! I.... Thee a filthy nothing has offended the most beautiful of beings, a vile worm has rebelled against the Supreme Monarch, the slave against his Master, the creature against his Creator, man against his God! And this I have done with unspeakable malice and ingratitude, . . . . after having received so many favours at your hands,

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offending for a trifle, for some paltry gain, for a filthy pleasure, for mere caprice and of pure malice, Thee, my most holy Lord! And I have done this while Your eye was fixed upon me; the while you held out the threat of hell to frighten me from sin; and promised heaven as a reward to tempt me on to virtue ; . . . . the while You were heaping so many favours upon me, and were pressing

me lovingly to Your bosom. And, then, the many times I have offended Thee! after having been so often pardoned by Thee. Ah! I am covered with confusion, . . . . I am sorry, . I repent. Oh, that my heart would burst itself asunder through the violence of my grief.

2. Resolution for the future. But I shall never, never more sin, O Lord! In the presence of the whole court of heaven, and of Thy Divine Majesty, I am determined, and do resolve with all the strength of my free will, to lose, one thousand times, all earthly goods, to forfeit all worldly honours, and to yield up my very life in the midst of the most excruciating torments, rather than ever offend Thee for the future by even a venial sin. No, never more shall I

offend Thee by any sin, and more particularly by the sin of (N.) and (N).

3. An act of humility. Ah! "The confusion of my face hath covered me" (a); my soul, is, all over, a filthy ulcer. Ah! truly, "I am an abominable and unprofitable man, since I have drunk iniquity like water" (b); for my iniquities are gone over my head" (c). O accursed pride! origin of all my misfortune, I abominate and detest you with all my soul. Henceforward, I shall neither think, nor do, nor speak anything which savours of pride. Come, insults and scorn, come down upon my guilty head, and avenge the outrages which I have committed against God.

COMPENDIUM.

I. The malice of sin is infinite, because of its intrinsic deformity, and of the number of times we commit it. (1). Its deformity is so great, that God essentially detests it, and hates it as much as He loves himself. It is so great, that all the evils of the world are insufficient to punish it as it deserves. It is so great that, if, in an impossible hypothesis, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ could defile themselves with a single venial sin, they would, thereupon, become more odious than the demons. And, nevertheless, you have defiled your soul with mortal sin! (2.) And how often have you sinned? Ah! the multitude of your sins is innumer able! Retrace, in thought, the years of your life, and be horrified at discovering that no sooner did

(a) Ps. xliii. 16. (b) Job xv. 16. (c) Ps. xxxvii. 5.

you begin to know God, than you began to offend Him.

II. The malice of sin is increased, when we take into consideration the worthlessness and ingratitude of him who commits it. (1.) The baseness of the sinner is very great, when we consider the nothingness of his origin, his impotence to act, the corruption which will terminate his mortal career, the many miseries to which his body is subject, and the malice which enslaves his soul. And yet, this vile compound of filth has dared to offend so often, and so

grievously, ... the infinite majesty of God! (2.) The ingratitude of the sinner, superadded to the baseness of his nature, increases immensely the malice of sin. God has lavished upon man benefits countless in number, of infinite utility, and of priceless value; and yet, ungrateful Man dares to offend his Benefactor and his Lord! what a monster is Man!

III. The malice of sin appears still greater, when we reflect on the majesty and clemency of Him who is offended. (1.) No human intellect is capable of comprehending the majesty of God; the very cherubim bend down their heads in reverent adoration, and shade their faces with their wings from the brilliant light which dazzles them, while they cry out in wonderment: "Who is as the Lord!" (Ps. cxii. 5.) (2.) God's clemency is infinite. While you were in the very act of sinning, it restrained the thunderbolts of heaven from reducing you to ashes, it prevented the earth from opening beneath your feet, and saved you from the jaws of hell. Nay more, during the very time when you were sinning, it watched over you, guarded you, loved you. Ah! after having offended a God so great and so good, you can still