HKB
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Often appears with: sin, guilt, and repentance · will, choice, and freedom · the passions and the emotions · prudence and practical wisdom · the fear of death · suicidal temptation · sloth as capital vice · sin categorization · self-estimation · scrupulous confession · scripture permanence · scripture and its interpretation
Usually: detachment (3) · argument (2) · reflection (2) · the test or trial (2) · narrative (1) · confronting death (1) · crisis of belief (1) · temptation (1) · censure (1) · exhortation (1)
“Wherefore any sin which by its very nature is contrary to charity is a mortal sin by reason of its genus. And such is sloth, because the proper effect of charity is joy in God, as stated above (Q. 28, A. 1), while sloth is sorrow about spiritual good in as much as it is a Divine good.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) · insight
“But from the opposite errour, from torpid despondency, can come no advantage; it is the frost of the soul, which binds up all its powers, and congeals life in perpetual sterility.” Samuel Johnson, The Works of Samuel Johnson, in Sixteen Volumes. Vol · vivid
In the dungeon, Christian laments his misery and debates whether life or death is better, questioning whether he should submit to the Giant’s rule.
to go back, but it was so dark, and the flood was so high, that in their going back they had like to have been drowned nine or ten times. {283} Neither could they, with all the skill they had, get again to the stile that night. Wherefore, at last, lighting under a little shelter, they sat down there until the daybreak; but, being weary, they fell asleep. Now there was, not far from the place where they lay, a castle…
Johnson argues that thinking well of oneself, in proportion to the task, is safer than torpid despondency: hope enables action, while pessimism freezes the mind’s power.
so baited with incessant importunities, that I should have given my hand to Drone the stock-jobber, had not the reduction of interest made him afraid of the expenses of matrimony. Some, indeed, I was permitted to encourage; but miscarried of the main end, by treating them according to the rules of art which had been prescribed me. Altilis, an old maid, infused into me so much haughtiness and reserve, that some of m…
Bunyan depicts assaults of the tempter as he alternates between despair and covenant-works thinking, reflects on Scripture’s permanence, then walks in a town musing on his sin, feeling the world’s tiles and stones “banish” him.
lay guilt upon, and also add continual affliction and shame upon my soul. _The dread of them was upon me*, *and I trembled at God’s Samuels_. 1 Sam. xvi. 4. 184. Now also the tempter began afresh to mock my soul another way, saying, *That Christ indeed did pity my case*, _and was sorry for my loss*; *but forasmuch as I had sinned and transgressed as I had done_, *He could by no means help me*, *nor save me from wha…
It defends sloth as a capital vice, explaining that capital vices easily lead to others as final causes, and it analyzes the daughters of sloth according to Gregory and related authorities.
the world worketh death." But such is sloth; for it is not sorrow "according to God," which is contrasted with sorrow of the world. Therefore it is a mortal sin. *I answer that,* As stated above (I-II, Q. 88, AA. 1, 2), mortal sin is so called because it destroys the spiritual life which is the effect of charity, whereby God dwells in us. Wherefore any sin which by its very nature is contrary to charity is a mortal …
He describes how scrupulous confession drives believers into a multiplying maze of sins and circumstances, producing despair, then worsening their guilt with endless demands to confess even negligence.
of the mire, and let me not sink.”(1722) Who can now think of recounting his sins, when he sees that David was unable to enter on an enumeration of his? XVII. The souls of those who have been affected with any discoveries of God, have been most cruelly tormented by this fatal delusion. First, they called themselves to an account; they divided sins into boughs, branches, twigs, and leaves, according to the distinctio…