Chapter 7 [V.]—The Necessity and Advantage of Rebuke.

To this we answer: Whoever you are that do not the commandments of God that are already known to you, and do not wish to be rebuked, you must be rebuked even for that very reason that you do not wish to be rebuked. For you do not wish that your faults should be pointed out to you; you do not wish that they should be touched, and that such a useful pain should be caused you that you may seek the Physician; you do not desire to be shown to yourself, that, when you see yourself to be deformed, you may wish for the Reformer, and may supplicate Him that you may not continue in that repulsiveness. For it is your fault that you are evil; and it is a greater fault to be unwilling to be rebuked because you are evil, as if faults should either be praised, or regarded with indifference so as neither to be praised nor blamed, or as if, indeed, the dread, or the shame, or the mortification of the rebuked man were of no avail, or were of any other avail in healthfully stimulating, except to cause that He who is good may be besought, and so out of evil men who are rebuked may make good men who may be praised. For what he who will not be rebuked desires to be done for him, when he says, “Pray for me rather,”—he must be rebuked for that very reason that he may himself also do for himself; because that mortification with which he is dissatisfied with himself when he feels the sting of rebuke, stirs him up to a desire for more earnest prayer, 26    Or, “more earnest desire for prayer.” that, by God’s mercy, he may be aided by the increase of love, and cease to do things which are shameful and mortifying, and do things praiseworthy and gladdening. This is the benefit of rebuke that is wholesomely applied, sometimes with greater, sometimes with less severity, in accordance with the diversity of sins; and it is then wholesome when the supreme Physician looks. For it is of no profit unless when it makes a man repent of his sin. And who gives this but He who looked upon the Apostle Peter when he denied,27    Luke xxii. 61. and made him weep? Whence also the Apostle Paul, after he said that they were to be rebuked with moderation who thought otherwise, immediately added, “Lest perchance God give them repentance, to the acknowledging of the truth, and they recover themselves out of the snares of the devil.”28    2 Tim. ii. 25.

CAPUT V.

7. Ad haec respondemus: Quicumque Dei praecepta jam tibi nota non facis, et corripi non vis, etiam propterea corripiendus es, quia corripi non vis. Non vis enim tibi tua vitia demonstrari: non vis ut feriantur, fiatque tibi utilis dolor, quo medicum quaeras: non vis tibi tu ipse ostendi, ut cum deformem te vides, reformatorem desideres, eique supplices, ne in illa remaneas foeditate. Tuum quippe vitium est quod malus es, et majus vitium corripi nolle quia malus es: quasi laudanda vel indifferenter habenda sint vitia, ut neque laudentur neque vituperentur; aut vero nihil agat timor correpti hominis, vel pudor, vel dolor; aut aliud agat, cum salubriter stimulat, nisi ut rogetur bonus, et ex malis qui corripiuntur, bonos faciat qui laudentur. Quod enim vult pro se fieri qui corripi non vult, et dicit, Ora potius pro me; ideo corripiendus est, ut faciat etiam ipse pro se. Dolor quippe ille, quo sibi displicet, quando sentit correptionis aculeum, excitat eum in majoris orationis affectum; ut Deo miserante, incremento charitatis adjutus desinat agere pudenda et dolenda, et agat laudanda atque gratanda. Haec est correptionis utilitas, quae nunc major, nunc minor pro peccatorum diversitate salubriter adhibetur; et tunc est salubris, quando supernus medicus respicit. Non enim aliquid proficit, nisi cum facit ut peccati sui quemque poeniteat. Et quis hoc dat, nisi qui respexit apostolum Petrum negantem, et fecit flentem (Luc. XXII, 61, 62)? Unde et apostolus Paulus posteaquam dixit, cum modestia 0920 corripiendos esse diversa sentientes, protinus addidit, Ne quando det eis Deus poenitentiam ad cognoscendam veritatem, et resipiscant de diaboli laqueis (II Tim. II, 25, 26).