Sins of Sudden Impulse and Sins of Set Purpose

Admonition 33. Those who are overcome by sudden passion are to be admonished differently from those who are bound in guilt by set purpose. Those whom sudden passion overcomes are to be admonished to regard themselves as set every day in the warfare of this present life, and to protect the heart, which cannot see wounds coming, with the shield of anxious fear; to dread the hidden arrows of the enemy lying in ambush, and, in so dark a contest, to guard the inner camp of the soul with constant attention. For if the heart is left without the watchfulness of careful foresight, it lies open to wounds, since the crafty enemy strikes the breast all the more freely when he catches it bare of the breastplate of forethought. Those who are overcome by sudden passion are to be admonished to stop caring too much for earthly things, since, while they tangle their attention beyond measure in passing things, they do not notice the arrows of sin that pierce them. That is why Solomon gives voice to one who is struck and yet sleeps, saying, “They have beaten me, and I felt no pain; they have dragged me, and I did not feel it. When will I wake, and find wine again?” For the soul that sleeps, neglecting its watchful care, is beaten and feels no pain, because, as it does not foresee the evils coming upon it, neither does it notice those it has committed. It is dragged and feels nothing at all, because it is led on by the enticements of vice and yet is not roused to keep guard over itself. And again it wants to wake so that it may find wine again, because, although weighed down by the sleep of its sluggishness from keeping guard over itself, it still strives to be awake to the cares of the world, so that it may always be drunk with pleasures; and while it sleeps toward the thing it ought to have been wisely awake to, it wants to be awake to something else, toward which it might have slept to its credit. That is why it is written just before, “And you will be like one who sleeps in the middle of the sea, and like a helmsman lulled to rest who has let go of the rudder.” For he sleeps in the middle of the sea who, placed among the temptations of this world, neglects to watch for the movements of vice that rush in on him like towering waves about to break. And the helmsman, as it were, lets go of the rudder when the mind loses its earnest care for guiding the ship of the body. For to let go of the rudder at sea is to give up the steady attention of forethought amid the storms of this life. For if the helmsman holds the rudder fast with anxious care, he now steers the ship straight into the waves, now cuts across the onset of the winds at a slant. So, when the mind watchfully guides the soul, it now rises above some things and tramples them down, now carefully turns aside from others, so that it may overcome present dangers by hard effort and gather strength against future struggles by foresight. That is why it is said again of the strong warriors of the heavenly homeland, “Each man has his sword on his thigh because of fears in the night.” For the sword is put on the thigh when the evil suggestion of the flesh is subdued by the sharp edge of holy preaching. But the night stands for the blindness of our weakness, since any attack that threatens in the night is not seen. So each man’s sword is put on his thigh because of fears in the night; that is, because holy men, fearing what they cannot see, always stand ready for the strain of a struggle. That is why it is said again to the bride, “Your nose is like the tower that is in Lebanon.” For what we do not perceive with our eyes we usually detect beforehand by smell. With the nose, too, we tell sweet smells from foul ones. What, then, does the nose of the church stand for but the foreseeing discernment of the saints? It is also said to be like the tower that is in Lebanon, because their discerning foresight is set so high that it sees the struggles of temptation even before they come, and stands fortified against them when they do come. For what is foreseen while it is still to come has less force when it is present; because when each person has become better prepared against the blow, the enemy, who thought he would come unexpected, is weakened by the very fact that he was anticipated. [a]

But on the other hand, those who are bound in guilt by set purpose are to be admonished to weigh with careful thought how, when they do evil by their own deliberate judgment, they kindle a stricter judgment against themselves; and that the more tightly the chains of deliberation have bound them in guilt, the harder the sentence that will strike them. Perhaps they might sooner wash away their sins by penitence if they had fallen into them through haste alone. For a sin that is firmly tied by set purpose is less quickly untied. For unless the soul utterly despised eternal things, it would not perish in guilt deliberately. In this, then, those who perish by set purpose differ from those who fall through haste: that the former, when they fall by sin from the state of righteousness, for the most part fall also into the snare of despair. That is why the Lord, through the prophet, rebukes not so much the misdeeds of haste as the purposes of sin, saying, “Lest perhaps my indignation go out like fire and burn, and there be no one to quench it, because of the wickedness of your purposes.” That is why, again, he says in wrath, “I will punish you according to the fruit of your purposes.” Since, then, sins committed by set purpose differ from other sins, the Lord censures purposes of wickedness rather than wicked deeds. For in deeds the sin is often from weakness or carelessness, but in purposes it is always from malice. By contrast, it is well said through the prophet in describing a blessed man, “And he does not sit in the chair of pestilence.” For a chair is usually the seat of a judge or of one who presides. And to sit in the chair of pestilence is to do wrong as if by a judge’s verdict; to sit in the chair of pestilence is to recognize with the reason what is evil, and yet to commit it deliberately. He sits, as it were, in the chair of perverse counsel who is lifted up with such pride in wickedness that he tries to accomplish evil even by deliberate counsel. And as those who are raised by the dignity of the chair are set over the crowds standing around them, so sins sought out on purpose rise above the sins of those who fall through haste. So those who bind themselves in guilt even by deliberate counsel are to be admonished to gather from this with what vengeance they must one day be struck, since they are now made not companions but princes of evildoers. [c]