As
to the place, manner or kind of these sufferings nothing has been
defined by the Church; and all who with Dr. Deacon except against this
doctrine, on account of the circumstance of a material fire, quarrel
about a mere scholastic question, in which a person is at liberty to
choose either side.... Certainly some sins are venial, which deserve
not eternal death. Yet if not effaced by condign punishment in this
world must be punished in the next. The Scriptures frequently mention
those venial sins, from which ordinarily the just are not exempt, who
certainly would not be just if these lesser sins into which men easily
fall by surprise, destroyed grace in them, or if they fell from
charity. Yet the smallest sin excludes a soul from heaven so long as it
is not blotted out.... Who is there who keeps, so constant a guard upon
his heart and whole conduct as to avoid all sensible self-deceptions?
Who is there upon whose heart no inordinate attachments steal; into
whose actions no sloth, remissness, or other irregularity ever
insinuates itself?... The Blessed Virgin was preserved by an
extraordinary grace from the least sin in the whole tenor of her life
and actions; but, without such a singular privilege, even the saints
are obliged to say that they sin daily.
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