These seven Capital Vices are seven mothers who, when taken into the heart, settle there, and produce large families of sins. They are _Vices_, that is to say, they are dispositions towards evil, disordered inclinations left in us by original sin, whence spring up in us, _by the consent of the will_, large crops of bad actions, _i.e._, of sins. Vice is a habitual disposition towards evil. Sin is the action produced by this disposition when it has seduced the heart into giving consent to it. Vice may exist without sin, and sin can exist without vice. That is to say, there may be a vicious inclination which cannot manifest itself in act, because the opportunity is wanting. A sin may be committed without vicious inclination, out of carelessness, or against the inclination which is towards good, through the weakness of the nature and debility of the will. Everyone has, more or less, the roots of vices in him, though in some they are far stronger than in others, and in some individuals certain vicious propensities are stronger than other vicious propensities. One man may have a natural proclivity towards pride, and this very inclination towards pride may neutralize in him the inclination towards indolence. 2. The seven Capital Vices are:-- 1. Pride. 2. Avarice. 3. Luxury. 4. Envy. 5. Gluttony. 6. Anger. 7. Indolence. Of these Pride, Avarice, and Envy, are vices of the soul; Luxury, Gluttony, Anger, are vices of the body. Indolence is a vice of the soul and of the body. Of Pride it is said, "Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord." (Prov. xvi. 5.) "God resisteth the proud." (James iv. 6.) "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate." (Prov. viii. 13.) Of Avarice it is said, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God," and S. Paul says that among these are "the covetous" who "shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." (1 Cor. vi. 10.) "No covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God." (Eph. v. 5.) David speaks of "the covetous, whom God abhorreth." (Ps. x. 3.) Of Luxury, there are many and strong denunciations in Scripture, it is one of those conditions which, like avarice, shuts out from the Kingdom of God. (1 Cor. vi. 10.) S. John saw the luxurious shut out from the gates of the New Jerusalem. See also Gal. v. 19. Of Gluttony, that is of indulgence to excess in eating and drinking, the same is said. "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these--drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Gal. v. 21.) Of Envy it is the same, "Envyings," are included among the works of the flesh. So also is Anger.