Sin On Sin

Et dixisti: Absque peccato et innocens ego sum: et propterea avertatur furor tuus a me. Ecce ego judicio contendam tecum, eo quod dixeris, Non peccavi: 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, Liber I, Caput III Source Migne PL 24.725b-c

You have even said: 'I am without sin and innocent, and thus let your anger be turned from me.' Behold, I shall contend in judgement with you, because you have said: I have not sinned.' How very vile you have become, or 'how very contemptuous,' repeating your ways. 1 These words must be used against those who will not admit their sins but instead in times of affliction and distress they say that they are suffering what they suffer unjustly, by which they provoke the anger of God even more, since it is another and greater sin that they do not bewail what they have done but instead give vain excuses for their sins. He says: 'I will contend with you in judgement because you have said that you have not sinned,' as if somehow this sin is worse, to have one thing in one's conscience and to say something else. Let the new heresy attend to the old: the anger of God is even greater when one will not humbly confess one's sin but instead assert righteousness. Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 1, Chapter 3 1 Jer 3.17