Turning from Sin Out of Love

For there is a great difference between one who puts out the fire of sin within him by fear of hell or hope of a future reward, and one who, from a feeling of divine love, has a horror of sin itself and of uncleanness. This second man holds on to the virtue of purity simply out of love and longing for purity. He looks for no reward promised for the future; delighted by the knowledge of good things present, he does everything not out of regard for punishment but out of delight in virtue.

A man in this condition cannot take advantage of an opportunity to sin when no human witness is present, nor can he be corrupted by the secret enticements of his thoughts. Since he keeps the love of virtue itself in his very marrow, he not only admits nothing opposed to it into his heart but actually hates it with the utmost horror.

For it is one thing for a man, delighted by some present good, to hate the stains of sin and of the flesh, and another to hold back unlawful desires by thinking of the future reward. It is one thing to fear a present loss, and another to dread a future punishment. Lastly, it is a much greater thing to be unwilling to forsake good for good’s own sake than to withhold consent from evil for fear of evil. In the first case the good is voluntary; in the second it is constrained, and, as it were, forced violently out of an unwilling party, either by fear of punishment or by greed for reward.

For one who keeps away from the enticements of sin out of fear will go back to what he loves as soon as the obstacle of fear is removed. So he will never gain any lasting firmness in good, nor will he ever rest free from attacks, because he will not secure the sure and lasting peace of chastity. For where there is the turmoil of war, there cannot help but be the danger of wounds. One who is in the middle of the battle, even if he is a warrior who fights bravely and gives his enemies many deadly wounds, must still sometimes be pierced by the point of the enemy’s sword.

But one who has beaten back the attack of sins, who now enjoys the security of peace and has passed on to the love of virtue itself, will keep this good condition continually, since he is wholly bound up in it. He believes that nothing can be worse than the loss of his inmost chastity. He counts nothing dearer or more precious than present purity, and to him a dangerous departure from virtue or a poisonous stain of sin is itself a heavy punishment.

To such a man, I say, the presence of another will add nothing to his goodness, and solitude will take nothing away from it. Always and everywhere he carries his conscience about with him as a judge, not only of his actions but of his thoughts. It is this conscience above all that he will try to please, since he knows that it cannot be cheated or deceived, and that he cannot escape it.