Who can understand his errors? cleanse me from secret faults.
Read Chapter 19
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
13. "Who understandeth sins?" (ver. 12) But what sort of sweetness can there be in sins, where there is no understanding? For who can understand sins, which close the very eye, to which truth is pleasant, to which the judgments of God are desirable and sweet? yea, as darkness closes the eye, so do sins the mind, and suffer it not to see either the light, or itself.
Sins. Who can always decide when a sin is only venial? (Haydock)
Though I may have avoided the grosser transgressions, how can I be assured that my heart is innocent? (Calmet)
This assurance is reserved for Methodists, who seem to look upon it as essential, before a person can obtain salvation. But where does God specify this condition? We know that (Haydock) we are to work out our salvation in fear and trembling; and that St. Paul, though conscious to himself of nothing, said: yet in this I am not justified, 1 Corinthians iv. 4., and ix. 27., and Philippians ii. 12. Hebrew speaks of "ignorances "which might not however be wholly blameless. (Berthier)
Ones, or enemies: ".and from the proud preserve. "(Symmachus; Chaldean) But he alludes to the distinction of sins of ignorance and of pride, (Leviticus iv. 2., and Numbers xv. 30.; Calmet) or malice. (Haydock)
David had not fallen into many sins of the latter description, though his adultery and murder were such. But the former are da...
