Breviloquium

Regarding final or unforgivable sins, such as sins against the Holy Spirit, the following must be held: although every sin in general is against the triune and one God, nevertheless, by appropriation, a sin is said to be against the Father, another against the Son, and another against the Holy Spirit. But this sin against the Holy Spirit is called unforgivable in this age and in the age to come¹, not because it cannot be forgiven in this age, but because in this age it is rarely forgiven, or scarcely forgiven, as regards guilt; while in the future there will be little, almost no, remission of it as regards punishment. This sin has six varieties, namely envy of fraternal grace, resistance to acknowledged truth, despair, presumption, hardness of mind, and final impenitence.

The reason for understanding the foregoing is this: since sin signifies a withdrawal from the first, triune and one Principle, every sin deforms the image of the Trinity and defiles the soul itself with respect to its threefold power, namely the irascible, rational, and concupiscible powers; and it proceeds from free choice, which bears within itself the mark of the Trinity: of the Father, by reason of its faculty; of the Son, because of reason; of the Holy Spirit, because of will.²

Although these three concur simultaneously in every fault, each can nevertheless, through its own defect, be the cause of disordering the others. The defect concerning faculty is powerlessness, concerning reason is ignorance, concerning will is malice. Hence, since some sins arise from powerlessness, some from ignorance, and some from malice, and power is attributed to the Father, wisdom to the Son, and will to the Holy Spirit³, some sins are said to be against the Father, some against the Son, and some against the Holy Spirit. And since nothing is more in the will than the will itself⁴; and the will itself is the origin of sin, no sin is so voluntary and pure as that which proceeds from corruption existing in the will. For since the involuntary is spoken of in two ways, namely through violence and through ignorance—the first through a defect of power, the second through a defect of knowledge⁵; when the will, by its own corruption alone, although it can resist and knows that something is evil, chooses it, then it is said to sin from deliberate malice; and such sin proceeds purely from the wickedness of the free will and directly attacks the grace of the Holy Spirit. And because it proceeds purely from freedom of choice, it therefore has no color of excuse⁶, and consequently little, almost nothing, of the punishment ought to be relaxed for the one being punished. But because it directly attacks the grace of the Holy Spirit, through which remission of sin is made, it is therefore called unforgivable—not because it can in no way be forgiven, but because, insofar as it depends on itself, it directly attacks the medicine and remedy by which remission of sin is to be made.

And since remission of sin is made by God through penitential grace within ecclesial unity, the varieties of this sin are therefore taken according as they directly attack those three. For they either attack penitential grace itself in itself, or in relation to God, from whom it is given, or in relation to the Church, in which it is received. If in relation to the unity of the Church: since the unity of the Church consists in faith and charity, or in grace and truth⁷, there is a twofold sin, namely envy of fraternal grace and resistance to acknowledged truth. If in relation to God, the giver: since all his ways regarding justification are supremely mercy and truth⁸, there is a twofold sin: one that attacks mercy, namely despair; another that attacks justice, namely presumption of impunity. But if it attacks penitential grace itself in itself or according to itself, then it is twofold, because penitential grace makes one recoil from things committed⁹ and take precautions against things to be committed. Against the first is hardness of mind; against the second is final impenitence, insofar as final impenitence is called the resolve not to repent; thus it is a species of sin against the Holy Spirit. But insofar as final impenitence signifies continuation of sin to the end, it is the consequence of all mortal sins that are not forgiven in this life, and most of all of all the species of sin against the Holy Spirit.

And so every sin takes its beginning from pride¹⁰, and has its consummation or end in final impenitence; whoever reaches it falls into Gehenna, from which no one who sins mortally can be freed unless the grace of Christ the Mediator intervenes. And therefore the whole company of those to be saved desired his incarnation, to him, our Lord and Mediator, be all honor and glory forever and ever. Amen¹¹