use, without belonging to the substance of the house, and can be
burnt, while the house is saved, so also venial sins are multiplied
in a man, while the spiritual edifice remains, and for them, man
suffers fire, either of temporal trials in this life, or of purgatory
after this life, and yet he is saved for ever.

Reply Obj. 1: Venial sins are not said to be built upon the spiritual
foundation, as though they were laid directly upon it, but because
they are laid beside it; in the same sense as it is written (Ps.
136:1): "Upon the waters of Babylon," i.e. "beside the waters":
because venial sins do not destroy the edifice.

Reply Obj. 2: It is not said that everyone who builds wood, hay and
stubble, shall be saved as by fire, but only those who build "upon"
the "foundation." And this foundation is not dead faith, as some have
esteemed, but faith quickened by charity, according to Eph. 3:17:
"Rooted and founded in charity." Accordingly, he that dies in mortal
sin with venial sins, has indeed wood, hay, and stubble, but not
built upon the spiritual edifice; and consequently he will not be
saved so as by fire.

Reply Obj. 3: Although those who are withdrawn from the care of
temporal things, sin venially sometimes, yet they commit but slight
venial sins, and in most cases they are cleansed by the fervor of
charity: wherefore they do not build up venial sins, because these do
not remain long in them. But the venial sins of those who are busy
about earthly things remain longer, because they are unable to have
such frequent recourse to the fervor of charity in order to remove
them.

Reply Obj. 4: As the Philosopher says (De Coelo i, text. 2), "all
things are comprised under three, the beginning, the middle, the
end." Accordingly all degrees of venial sins are reduced to three,
viz. to "wood," which remains longer in the fire; "stubble," which is
burnt up at once; and "hay," which is between these two: because
venial sins are removed by fire, quickly or slowly, according as man
is more or less attached to them.
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THIRD ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 89, Art. 3]

Whether Man Could Commit a Venial Sin in the State of Innocence?

Objection 1: It would seem that man could commit a venial sin in the
state of innocence. Because on 1 Tim. 2:14, "Adam was not seduced," a
gloss says: "Having had no experience of God's severity, it was
possible for him to be so mistaken as to think that what he had done
was a venial s