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.”183    1 John ii. 1, 2 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.

50. Sed rursus, ne per occasionem hujus sententiae quisquam cum mortifera securitate peccaret, seque trahendum permitteret, tanquam mox delendis facili confessione peccatis, continuo subjecit, Filioli mei, haec scripsi vobis, ut non peccetis: et si quis peccaverit, advocatum habemus ad Patrem Jesum Christum justum; et ipse propitiator est peccatorum nostrorum (I Joan. I, 8-11, 2). Nemo itaque a peccato tanquam rediturus abscedat, nec se hujusmodi quasi societatis pacto cum iniquitate constringat, ut eam confiteri quam cavere delectet.

CAPUT L.

Peccata parva quae subrepunt vigilantibus, superbia crescunt, humilitate perimuntur. Si quis forte hic sine peccato, quanto magnus est, tanto magis 0426 humiliat se. Sed quoniam etiam satagentibus vigilantibusque ne peccent, subrepunt quodam modo ex humana fragilitate peccata, quamvis parva, quamvis pauca, non tamen nulla; eadem ipsa fiunt magna et gravia, si eis superbia incrementum et pondus adjecerit: a sacerdote autem quem habemus in coelis, si pia humilitate perimantur, tota facilitate purgantur.