a different aversion, a
different stain, a different debt of punishment, according to the
different acts of mortal sin from which they arise; hence the
question is moved whether the stain and the debt of eternal
punishment, as caused by acts of sins previously pardoned, return
through a subsequent mortal sin.

Accordingly some have maintained that they return simply even in this
way. But this is impossible, because what God has done cannot be
undone by the work of man. Now the pardon of the previous sins was a
work of Divine mercy, so that it cannot be undone by man's subsequent
sin, according to Rom. 3:3: "Shall their unbelief make the faith of
God without effect?"

Wherefore others who maintained the possibility of sins returning,
said that God pardons the sins of a penitent who will afterwards sin
again, not according to His foreknowledge, but only according to His
present justice: since He foresees that He will punish such a man
eternally for his sins, and yet, by His grace, He makes him righteous
for the present. But this cannot stand: because if a cause be placed
absolutely, its effect is placed absolutely; so that if the remission
of sins were effected by grace and the sacraments of grace, not
absolutely but under some condition dependent on some future event,
it would follow that grace and the sacraments of grace are not the
sufficient causes of the remission of sins, which is erroneous, as
being derogatory to God's grace.

Consequently it is in no way possible for the stain of past sins and
the debt of punishment incurred thereby, to return, as caused by
those acts. Yet it may happen that a subsequent sinful act virtually
contains the debt of punishment due to the previous sin, in so far as
when a man sins a second time, for this very reason he seems to sin
more grievously than before, as stated in Rom. 2:5: "According to thy
hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath
against the day of wrath," from the mere fact, namely, that God's
goodness, which waits for us to repent, is despised. And so much the
more is God's goodness despised, if the first sin is committed a
second time after having been forgiven, as it is a greater favor for
the sin to be forgiven than for the sinner to be endured.

Accordingly the sin which follows repentance brings back, in a sense,
the debt of punishment due to the sins previously forgiven, not as
caused by those sins already forgiven but as caused by this