as long as any virtuous inclinations remain, it cannot
be said that man has the opposite vices or sins.

Reply Obj. 3: The love of God is unitive, in as much as it draws
man's affections from the many to the one; so that the virtues, which
flow from the love of God, are connected together. But self-love
disunites man's affections among different things, in so far as man
loves himself, by desiring for himself temporal goods, which are
various and of many kinds: hence vices and sins, which arise from
self-love, are not connected together.
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SECOND ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 73, Art. 2]

Whether All Sins Are Equal?

Objection 1: It would seem that all sins are equal. Because sin is to
do what is unlawful. Now to do what is unlawful is reproved in one
and the same way in all things. Therefore sin is reproved in one and
the same way. Therefore one sin is not graver than another.

Obj. 2: Further, every sin is a transgression of the rule of reason,
which is to human acts what a linear rule is in corporeal things.
Therefore to sin is the same as to pass over a line. But passing over
a line occurs equally and in the same way, even if one go a long way
from it or stay near it, since privations do not admit of more or
less. Therefore all sins are equal.

Obj. 3: Further, sins are opposed to virtues. But all virtues are
equal, as Cicero states (Paradox. iii). Therefore all sins are equal.

_On the contrary,_ Our Lord said to Pilate (John 19:11): "He that
hath delivered me to thee, hath the greater sin," and yet it is
evident that Pilate was guilty of some sin. Therefore one sin is
greater than another.

_I answer that,_ The opinion of the Stoics, which Cicero adopts in
the book on _Paradoxes_ (Paradox. iii), was that all sins are equal:
from which opinion arose the error of certain heretics, who not only
hold all sins to be equal, but also maintain that all the pains of
hell are equal. So far as can be gathered from the words of Cicero
the Stoics arrived at their conclusion through looking at sin on the
side of the privation only, in so far, to wit, as it is a departure
from reason; wherefore considering simply that no privation admits of
more or less, they held that all sins are equal. Yet, if we consider
the matter carefully, we shall see that there are two kinds of
privation. For there is a simple and pure privation, which consists,
so to speak, in _being_ corrupted; thus death is privation of life,
a