Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/445

436 LVII. That those who repeatedly commit little sins are to be admonished in one way; in another way those who abstain from little sins, and yet sometimes fall into grievous ones.

In one way are to be admonished those who repeatedly sin, and yet on a small scale; in another those who guard against the lesser sins, and yet sometimes fall into great sins. They are to be warned, when they sin often, although on a small scale, to think more of the number than the greatness of the sins they commit; and if they scorn to dread their little sins when they see them, let them at least dread them when they count them. Very minute are the drops of the thin rain, but yet they make a very great flood and strong stream when they are collected together, because there are very many of them. By very small degrees and very imperceptibly penetrates the water into the leaky ship, and yet it strives to effect the same as the roaring wave does in the rough sea, unless it is previously baled out. Very small are the wounds on the scabby body, and yet, if the scab overspreads it entirely, the effect is the same as that of the great wound in the breast. Therefore it is written in the books of Solomon, that he who will not shun his little sins will glide into greater. And if he neglects to repent of the little sins, and sometimes avoid them, he will sooner or later fall into greater ones. They who often sin on a small scale are to be admonished to understand accurately that we often sin worse in little than in great sins, because the sooner we perceive them the sooner we begin to amend them; while we do not believe that the small ones are sins at all, but get used to them, and amend them with so much the greater difficulty. Whence it often happens that the mind begins by not fearing the little sins, and ends with not fearing the great ones. And it gets used to sins until it attains to a certain supremacy in sinning; and then, the more confidently it accustomed itself formerly to little sins, and the less it feared them, the less it shuns the great sins. Those, again, are to be admonished who abstain from small sins, and yet sometimes plunge into great ones, to accurately understand themselves, since their mind is very often elated, because they have so cautiously abstained from small sins. It is