14. But now, what wounds can those who are overcome show? what gashes of gaping entrails, what tortures of the limbs, in cases where it was not faith that fell in the encounter, but faithlessness that anticipated the struggle? Nor does the necessity of the crime excuse the person compelled, where the crime is committed of free will. Nor do I say this in such a way as that I would burden the cases of the brethren, but that I may rather instigate the brethren to a prayer of atonement. For, as it is written, “They who call you happy cause you to err, and destroy the paths of your feet,”30    Isa. iii. 12. he who soothes the sinner with flattering blandishments furnishes the stimulus to sin; nor does he repress, but nourishes wrong-doing. But he who, with braver counsels, rebukes at the same time that he instructs a brother, urges him onward to salvation. “As many as I love,” saith the Lord, “I rebuke and chasten.”31    Apoc. iii. 19. And thus also it behoves the Lord’s priest not to mislead by deceiving concessions, but to provide with salutary remedies. He is an unskilful physician who handles the swelling edges of wounds with a tender hand, and, by retaining the poison shut up in the deep recesses of the body, increases it. The wound must be opened, and cut, and healed by the stronger remedy of cutting out the corrupting parts. The sick man may cry out, may vociferate, and may complain, in impatience of the pain; but he will afterwards give thanks when he has felt that he is cured.

XIV. Nunc vero quae vulnera ostendere victi possunt, 0477A quas plagas hiantium viscerum, quae tormenta membrorum, ubi non fides congressa cecidit, sed congressionem perfidia praevenit? Nec excusat oppressum necessitas criminis ubi crimen est voluntatis. Nec hoc ideo dico ut fratrum causas onerem, sed ut magis fratres ad precem satisfactionis instigem: nam, cum scriptum sit. Qui vos felices dicunt, in errorem vos mittunt, et semitas pedum vestrorum turbant (Isa. III, 12), qui peccantem blandimentis adulantibus palpat, peccandi fomitem subministrat; nec comprimit delicta ille, sed nutrit. At qui consiliis fortioribus redarguit simul atque instruit fratrem, promovet ad salutem. Quos diligo, inquit Dominus, redarguo et castigo (Apoc. III, 19). Sic oportet et Dei sacerdotem non obsequiis decipientibus fallere, sed remediis salutaribus 0477B providere. Imperitus est medicus qui tumentes vulnerum sinus manu parcente contrectat, et in altis recessibus viscerum virus inclusum dum servat exaggerat. Aperiendum vulnus est et secandum, et, putraminibus amputatis, medela fortiore curandum. Vociferetur et clamet licet et conqueratur aeger impatiens 0478A per dolorem, gratias aget postmodum cum senserit sanitatem.