第21章

And is it allowable to court occasions of committing sin, or rather, are we not bound to shun them? That would be easy enough, surely." "Not always so," he replied; "that is just as it may happen." "Happen, how?" cried I."Oh!" rejoined the monk, "so you think that if a person experience some inconvenience in avoiding the occasions of sin, he is still bound to do so? Not so thinks Father Bauny.'Absolution,' says he, 'is not to be refused to such as continue in the proximate occasions of sin, if they are so situated that they cannot give them up without becoming the common talk of the world, or subjecting themselves to personal inconvenience.'" "I am glad to hear it, father," I remarked; "and now that we are not obliged to avoid the occasions of sin, nothing more remains but to say that we may deliberately court them." "Even that is occasionally permitted," added he; "the celebrated casuist, Basil Ponce, has said so, and Father Bauny quotes his sentiment with approbation in his Treatise on Penance, as follows: 'We may seek an occasion of sin directly and designedly- primo et per se- when our own or our neighbour's spiritual or temporal advantage induces us to do so.'""Truly," said I, "it appears to be all a dream to me, when I hear grave divines talking in this manner! Come now, my dear father, tell me conscientiously, do you hold such a sentiment as that?" "No, indeed," said he, "I do not.""You are speaking, then, against your conscience," continued I."Not at all," he replied; "I was speaking on that point not according to my own conscience, but according to that of Ponce and Father Bauny, and them you may follow with the utmost safety, for I assure you that they are able men." "What, father! because they have put down these three lines in their books, will it therefore become allowable to court the occasions of sin?

I always thought that we were bound to take the Scripture and the tradition of the Church as our only rule, and not your cauists." "Goodness!" cried the monk, "I declare you put me in mind of these Jansenists.Think you that Father Bauny and Basil Ponce are not able to render their opinion probable?" "Probable won't do for me," said I; "I must have certainty.""I can easily see," replied the good father, "that you know nothing about our doctrine of probable opinions.If you did, you would speak in another strain.Ah! my dear sir, I must really give you some instructions on this point; without knowing this, positively you can understand nothing at all.