50. But, again, lest by
occasion of this sentence, any one should sin with deadly security,
and should allow himself to be carried away, as though his sins
were soon by easy confession to be blotted out, he straightway
added, “My little children, these things have I written unto you,
that ye sin not; and, if one shall have sinned, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and Himself is a
propitiation of our sins.”2207
Let no one therefore depart from
sin as though about to return to it, nor
bind himself as it were by
compact of
alliance of this
kind with
unrighteousness, so as to
take
delight rather to confess it than to
shun it. But, forasmuch
as even upon such as are
busy and on the watch not to
sin, there
creep by stealth, in a certain way, from human
weakness,
sins,
however
small, however few, yet not none; these same themselves
become great and grievous, in case pride shall have added to them
increase and weight: but by the Priest, Whom we have in the
heavens, if by pious humility they be destroyed, they are with all
ease cleansed.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
