This may show you how a bodily sin, like self-indulgence punishes itself
by bringing a man into bondage of bodily misery, from which he cannot
escape; and in the same way a spiritual sin, like want of charity, will
bring a man into spiritual bondage from which he cannot escape. And
this, as in bodily sins, it will do by virtue of that mysterious and
terrible officer of God, which we call Habit. Habit, by which, we cannot
tell how, our having done a thing once becomes a reason for our doing it
again, and again after that, till, if the habit be once formed, we cannot
help doing that thing, and become enslaved to it, and fast bound by it,
in a prison from which there is no escape. Look for instance at the case
of the untruthful man. Let him beware in time. Who is his adversary?
Facts are his adversary. He says one thing, and Fact says another, and a
very stubborn and terrible adversary Fact is. The day will come, most
probably in this life, when Facts will bring that untruthful man before
God and before men likewise--and cry,--Judge between us which of us is
right; and there will come to that false man exposure and shame, and a
worse punishment still, perhaps, if he have let the habit grow too strong
on him, and have not agreed with his adversary in time.
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