Sin and Judgement

Et dixisti: Absque peccato et innocens ego sum: et propterea avertatur furor tuus a me. Ecce ego judicio contendam tecum, eo quod dixeris, Non peccari: quam vilis es facta nimis (sive quomodo contempsisti nimis) iterans vias tuas. His utendum est adversus eos qui nolunt sua peccata cognoscere: sed in tempore afflictionis et angustiae dicunt se injuste sustinere quae sustinent: magisque provocant iram Dei, dum alterum, majusque peccatum sit, non lugere quod fecerint, sed vanas excusationes obtendere peccatorum. 'Judicio,' inquit, 'contendam tecum pro eo quod dixeris, Non peccavi.' quasi majus quippiam sit hoc peccatum, aliud habere in conscientia, aliud in sermone proferre. Audiat nova ex veteri haeresis, iram Dei esse vel maximam, nolle peccatum confiteri humiliter, sed impudenter jactare justitiam Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Jeremiam Propheta

And you say 'Without sin and innocent I am and so let your anger turn from me.' Behold I  shall bring judgement upon you because you have said, 'I am without sin,' for vilely you have acted (or you have been contemptible) repeating your ways.  These things should be used against those who are unwilling to acknowledge their sins but rather in times of affliction and anguish say that they are suffering unjustly what they suffer, and because of this they provoke more the anger of God, since it is another and greater sin for them to not mourn over what they have done and instead to cling to vain excuses for their sins. 'I shall bring  judgement upon you because you have said, 'I am without sin,' as if this sin were worse, to have something in one's conscience and to say something else with one's words. Let the new heresy learn from the old: the anger of God is even greater when a man is unwilling to confess his sin humbly but instead impudently boasts that he is righteous. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah