hence do not know of any._ These love the world above all things and
welcome no truth that would lead them away from any falsity in their
religion. They tell themselves, "What is this to me? It is not to my way
of thinking." So they reject truth on hearing it and if they listen to it
smother it. They do much the same on hearing sermons; they retain some
sayings but not any of the substance. Dealing in this way with truths
they do not know what good is, for truth and good act as one; and from
good which is not linked with truth one does not recognize evil except as
one calls it good also, which is done by rationalizing from falsities. It
is these who are meant by the seed which fell among thorns, of whom the
Lord said:

Other seeds fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up and choked them
... These are they who hear the Word, but the cares of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the Word so that it become unfruitful (Mt
13:7, 22; Mk 4:7, 18, 19; Lu 8:7, 14).

[4] Fourth: _Those who favor sins and therefore cannot know them._ These
acknowledge God and worship Him with the usual ceremonials and assure
themselves that a given evil, which is a sin, is not a sin. For they
color it with fallacies and appearances and thus hide its enormity. Then
they indulge it and make it their friend and familiar. We say that those
who acknowledge God do this, for others do not regard an evil as a sin,
for one sins against God. But let examples illustrate this. A man makes
an evil not to be a sin when in coveting wealth he makes some kinds of
fraud allowable by reasoning which he devises. So does the man who
confirms himself in plundering those who are not his enemies in a war.

[5] Fifth: _Sins do not appear in these men, therefore cannot be
removed._ All evil which does not come to sight nurses itself; it is like