Question Sixth. On Internal Sins.

327. Notions. 1. Those sins are called internal which are completed solely by the internal powers of the soul, namely by the mind and the will. All are reduced to three classes: a. to desire, b. to joy, c. to morose delectation; and desire indeed is referred to a future action, joy, as it is taken here, to a past action, but delectation to a present action; in common speech, however, all these are comprehended under the name of an evil thought.

2. Joy and delectation do not differ specifically: for the difference consists only in this, that the object is represented in delectation as present, in joy as past; but this merely external difference does not suffice for constituting a specific distinction.

3. Delectation (joy) and desire differ specifically: it is indeed one thing to be delighted concerning an injury to one's neighbor, another thing to desire an injury to be inflicted on one's neighbor. For in desire the evil thing is exhibited as to be accomplished by deed; in delectation it is prescinded from the external deed.