thou wouldst tremble at the heavy burden with which thou loadest thyself! [1] O sin, how heavy art thou to me! Thou deprivest me of grace, robbest me of virtues, chasest me out of Paradise, condemnest me to eternal death, subjectest me to temporal death, takest away the life of my children (which are my works) depriving them of the merit of glory, disquietest the kingdom of my soul, and fillest it with innumerable miseries. O my God, deliver me from so great an evil! O my soul, fly from sin (as the Wise man counsels thee) more than from snakes and serpents, [2] since one alone is more cruel and venomous than they are all being put together!
4. Besides this, I must make comparison of my sin with that of Adam, like as in the preceding point; for I (wretch that I am!) being tempted by the devil, suffered myself to be deluded by him, not once, but often. My flesh has been like to seduced Eve, that has provoked me to sin, and my spirit, effeminated like Adam, to please it, has a thousand times displeased God by breaking His commandments; my pride and ingratitude have arrived to that height that I have often desired to be as God, usurping to myself that which is proper to His deity. Then, if God inflicted such punishment on my first parents for one sin of disobedience and pride, founded upon no more than eating one apple contrary to the precept of Almighty God, how great punishments have I deserved for so many acts of disobedience and pride, and for so innumerable offences as I have committed against Him? Oh, how just had it been that, at my first sin, death should have swallowed me or all the miseries of the world showered down upon me!
5. Lastly, I will consider what a long penance Adam and Eve did for this sin of theirs, how bitter that morsel was to them, and how dear it cost them; for Adam having
