The Chief Sources of Sin

It is difficult to find a book on the seven deadly sins, so we are happy to bring this one back into print for the edification of Christians. THERE are certain vices in our fallen nature which betray us into so much badness, and are such fruitful causes of sin for us, that they may be called sources of our sins. Just as the little spring deep down in the ground, sending up the gallons and gallons of water which fill the well, -just as that little spring is the source of the well, so these vices buried deep down in human nature, are sources of many sins. The chief of these vices, "the chief sources of sin, are seven: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth; and they are commonly called capital sins" (Baltimore Catechism), much as the source of a man's income is called his capital, or the source and centre of a nation's life and government its capital city. "Capital" has reference to the head, the beginning, the fountain of anything; and thus these seven are capital sins, not that they are always worse than other sins, nor even that they are always mortal sins, but because they are the chief sources and fountains deep down in human nature from which spring up a vast multitude of human iniquities.