urce
than the affections and thoughts of the mind (for they exist from them
and are never apart from them), clearly the affections of the will are
changes and variations in the state of the purely organic substances of
the mind, and the thoughts of the understanding are changes and
variations in the form of those substances, quite like those in the
substances of the lungs.

[9] Since affections and thoughts are simply changes of state in the
forms of the mind, memory is nothing other than the permanent state of
those changes. For all changes and variations of state in organic
substances are such that once they are habitual they become permanent. So
the lungs are habituated to produce certain sounds in the trachea, to
vary them in the glottis, articulate them by the tongue, and modify them
by the mouth; once these organic activities have become habitual, they
are settled in the organs and can be reproduced. These changes and
variations are infinitely more perfect in the organs of the mind than in
those of the body, as is evident from what was said in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 199-204), where we showed that all
perfections increase and ascend by and according to degrees. More on this
will be seen below (n. 319).

280. _It is also an error of the age to suppose that when sins are
remitted they are taken away._ This is the error of those who believe
that their sins are pardoned by the sacrament of the Holy Supper although
they have not removed them from themselves by repentance. Those also
commit this error who believe that they are saved by faith alone; those
also who believe that they are saved by papal dispensations. All these
believe in unmediated mercy and instant salvation. But when the statement
is reversed it becomes truth, that is, when sins are removed they are
also remitted. For repentance precedes pardon, and aside from repentance
there is no pardon. Therefore the Lord bade His disciples:

That they should preach repentance for the remission of sins (Lu 24:27,
47),

and John preached

The baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Lu 3:3).

The Lord remits the sins of all; He does not accuse and impute; but He
can take sins away only in accordance with laws of His divine providence.
For when Peter asked how often he was to forgive a brother sinning
against him, whether seven times, the Lord said to him:

That he should forgive not only seven times, but seventy times seven (Mt
18:2