Mortal sin

“ You know, one mortal sin is enough to damn a man—one single sin of drunkenness, for instance, or impurity; a cherished hatred, a false oath, or an act of grave injustice. One such sin is sufficient to sink a man in hell, and although we know very little in particular of the torments of hell, we have every reason to believe that they are most bitter, and we know that they are eternal. Now, can it be thought that a being of justice and goodness, as we know God to be, would inflict so extreme a punishment for an offence which was unavoidable, or could only be avoided with the utmost difficulty? ”

“ But the man who lives in mortal sin abides in death. Every sin that he commits plunges his soul deeper into the abyss of death, till at last he receives the full wages of his crimes in the flames of hell. How shall we escape this terrible penalty? Our blessed Lord, by his death, received the wages due to us on account of sin. Through the infinite merits of his death our souls may be brought to life, if we will truly repent and sin no more. ”

“ The evil of mortal sin. God punishes us according to our deserts: He never punishes us too severely. If, therefore, He condemned the fallen angels to the eternal torments of hell, we can see what a terrible evil sin is in His sight. One single mortal sin deserves everlasting punishment.
The consequences of sin. Just think what befell the angels through sin! Before their fall they were the friends and beloved of God, most beautiful, most holy, full of the love of what is good, and rich in their happiness and glory. ”

“ Oh then, tell me! if you will not listen to reason, to God, to the angels; will you not listen to your companions lost? {239} Hearken to them as from their dark prison they cry out, "It is an evil and a bitter thing to have left the Lord thy God."
Such, my brethren, is mortal sin. Such is one mortal sin. It does not require many mortal sins to lose God's grace or incur damnation. One is enough—one final deliberate rebellion against God and his holy law.
* * * ”

“ Mortal sin deserves an inconceivable and eternal punishment; for is of faith, that whoever, at his death, is found guilty of but one Mortal sin, shall be banished from the presence of God, excluded from the society of the Saints, and precipitated into hell, there to dwell for ever with the devils and reprobates in the most dreadful torments. ”

“ Resolve, then, most firmly never again to sin wilfully. If you are ever tempted to commit a mortal sin, think of the fallen angels and their eternal torment. Die rather than commit a mortal sin! Fear the just God, and keep His commandments faithfully. ”

“ The everlasting punishment in hell which every mortal sin deserves; and 3. The most bitter Passion and Death which the Only Son of God suffered for our sins.
14. What are the consequences of mortal sin?
Mortal sin, 1. Separates us from God, and deprives us of His love and friendship; 2. It disfigures in us the image of God, and disturbs the peace of our conscience; 3. It robs us of all merits, and of our heirship to Heaven; and 4. It draws upon us the judgments of God, and, lastly, eternal damnation.
'They that commit sin and iniquity are enemies of their own soul' (Tob. xii. 10) . ”

“ Endeavour to conceive a lively horror of mortal sin — a sincere conviction that it is the greatest of all evils, the most dreadful of all misfortunes. If your heart be deeply impressed with these sentiments, they will prove your greatest security against incurring the guilt of sacrilege. Divine Jesus! penetrate my heart with so great a horror of sin, that I may dread nothing so much as becoming thy enemy by any mortal offence, and that I may tremble at the very idea 6f profaning thy most sacred body and blood. ”

“ Now every mortal sin takes its principal malice and gravity from the fact of its turning away from God, for if it were possible to turn to a mutable good, even inordinately, without turning away from God, it would not be a mortal sin. ”

“ Death no more has dominion over him! 10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. ”

“ But, my brethren I have not as yet described the full effects of mortal sin. It immediately makes us liable to the eternal punishment of hell. That is what hell is made for. It is the prison for mortal sin. Apostates from the faith, drunkards, murderers, adulterers, the impure, the dishonest, the profane, the impious, calumniators, and all sinners "shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." The sentence of damnation is in the next life, but damnation itself begins in this. ”

“ And that which more affrights is, that from this original sin that we inherit of him, proceed as from their root those innumerable sins that are in the world, and the inundations of miseries that overflow it, [10] by which I may perceive how terrible, dreadful, and hideous an evil mortal sin is, seeing one alone deprives of so much good, brings so much evil, and so highly provokes the wrath of Almighty God, though He be much more inclined to mercy than to the rigour of justice. ”

“ Now, in mortal sin, whatever attaches to the aversion, is, considered in itself, common to all mortal sins, since man turns away from God by every mortal sin, so that, in consequence, the stain resulting from the privation of grace, and the debt of everlasting punishment are common to all mortal sins. ”

“ But there is this difference, that the desires which are of mortal sin produce total blindness, torment, impurity, weakness, etc. Those others, however, which are of the matter of venial sin or imperfection, produce not these evils in a complete and supreme degree, since they deprive not the soul of grace, upon the loss of which depends the possession of them, since the death of the soul is their life; but they produce them in the soul remissly, proportionately to the remission of grace which these desires produce in the soul. ”

“ By committing mortal sin, then, we turn away from God, our last end; we rob our souls of the sanctifying grace of God which is their life, and we incur liability to eternal separation from God and punishment in hell. Venial sin is indeed an offence against God, but it does not turn the soul away from him, nor rob it of his sanctifying grace; and it is more easily pardoned than mortal sin. ”

“ But let us pass to the second point, in which we shall see more clearly the enormity of the malice of mortal sin.
Second Point. Mortal sin is a great offence offered to God.
8. There is nothing more galling than to see oneself despised by those who were most beloved and most highly favoured. Whom do sinners insult? They insult a God who bestowed so many benefits upon them, and who loved them so as to die on a cross for their sake; and by the commission of mortal sin they banish that God from their hearts. A soul that loves God is loved by him, and God himself comes to dwell within her. ”

“ Some divines maintain that he would sin mortally; others say he would not. unless he acts through some kind of contempt on the occasion. But what is certain, and what they all agree in, is, that a religious in such a disposition of mind, and who would make such a resolution, would give very bad example, and, morally speaking, would be in great danger of falling into mortal sin. " For he that despiseth small things will by little and little fall into great." ”

“ A. It means, in the day thou eatest of that fruit thou shalt immediately die the death of the soul, by committing a mortal sin; thou shalt be subjected to the death of the body, and return to the dust from whence thou art made: and after that to the death, both of soul and body, in hell-fire for all eternity. ”

“ It should be noted that, while the matter of venial sins may coalesce so as to form grave matter and constitute a mortal sin, as just explained, venial sins themselves do not, from mere multiplication, ever become mortal, since the difference between mortal and venial sin is not one of quantity, but of kind. ”

“ The soul cannot be humbled by fasts and prayer; it must be broken by mortal sin to experience forgiveness of sin and rise to a state of grace. Otherwise, religion is nothing but dead logic." ”

“ What is hell in the words of Christ?
'A place of torments' (Luke xvi. 28) ; 'an everlasting punishment' (Matt. xxv. 46) ; an 'unquenchable fire' (Mark ix. 44) ; 'the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ' (Matt. viii. 12) .
7. Who shall be condemned to the torments of hell?
Every one who dies an enemy of God — that is, who dies in mortal sin.
'He that committeth sin is of the devil' (1 John iii. 8) ; therefore, he also deserves to be punished like the devil. ”

“ The Absolute Gravity.—The sins just mentioned are mortal or venial according to the character of what is done and the circumstances. Thus, it is a mortal sin to find recreation in wild revelry and debauchery, or to drive one’s children to the devil by forbidding them necessary diversion; it is a venial sin to spend a little too much time at the card table or to work rather too hard. ”

“ NOW, dear reader, it will be evident to you from the Scriptures we have presented that man is mortal--a perishing creature, as the result of sin. That, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ”

“ And being already dead in spirit, dead to God, dead in sin, he hastened on to death everlasting; to the destruction both of body and soul, in the fire never to be quenched.
6. Thus by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, as being contained in him who was the common father and representative of us all. Thus through the offence of one, all are dead, dead to God, dead in sin, dwelling in a corruptible, mortal body, shortly to be dissolved, and under the sentence of death eternal. For as by one man’s disobedience, all were made sinners ”

“ Q. What is actual sin? A. Actual sin is any wilful thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the law of God.
53. Q. How many kinds of actual sin are there? A. There are two kinds of actual sin—mortal and venial.
54. Q. What is mortal sin? A. Mortal sin is a grievous offense against the law of God.
55. Q. Why is this sin called mortal? A. This sin is called mortal because it deprives us of spiritual life, which is sanctifying grace, and brings everlasting death and damnation on the soul.
56. Q. How many things are necessary to make a sin mortal? ”

“ So, also, the nearer we are to losing our, souls and going to Hell, the more delighted the angels and saints are when we are saved. One who has escaped great danger will more carefully avoid similar accidents in the future: in like manner, the sinner, after having escaped the danger of eternal death by the pardon of his sins, should never again risk his salvation.
217 Q. What must he do who has willfully concealed a mortal sin in confession? ”

“ Mortal, or Deadly, sin, such as wilfully violates the divine law and separates the soul from God—seven deadly sins, pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth; Original sin, the innate depravity and corruption of the whole nature due to the sin of Adam as federal representative of the human race, and transmitted by ordinary generation to all his posterity; Venial sin, any transgression due to inadvertence, not alienating the friendship of God. ”

“ A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little
289:9 else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin,
lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life
abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life
289:12 and life's idea, Truth and Truth's idea, never make men
sick, sinful, or mortal. ”

“ Mortal sins render the transgressors children of wrath and enemies of God; but it is in regard to venial sins that the error or heresy is propounded. It is stated that in this mortal life even holy and justified persons fall into daily venial sins, which, nevertheless, do not in any way affect or detract from their holy character, “and which do not exclude the transgressor from the grace of God.” ”

“ I know that I have been a vile sinner, undeserving the mercy of God: but I know also that God, for Christ’s sake, hath pardoned all my sins. Oh, this is a happy time indeed! Blessed be God I am not afraid to die. Now I experience what you so often told me about the children of God’s triumphing over the fears of death.”――Then with a smile he said, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law. ”

“ I have sinned and done evil, all my life long. Specially I have sinned against this man, who has left me to die here in this horrible place. Now therefore, O my God, I beseech Thee, let the sufferings of Thy servant be accepted before Thee as an atonement for his sin, and let this one good deed, that I have preferred death rather than break Thy law, rise before Thee as the incense with the evening sacrifice! ”

“ Thus ends life. At the hour of death you will find yourself surrounded by evil spirits, who will bring up before you all the sins you have committed from your childhood. Now, the devil conceals and excuses your sins, that he may lead you into sin. He says to you: This vanity, this pleasure, this dangerous company, this inclination is no great sin; you have no bad intention in this acquaintance; but at the hour of death he will show you all the enormity of your sins. [ Examine yourself thoroughly as to your besetting sin.] ”