On the Lapsed 14

But now what wounds can the conquered show, what gashes of gaping flesh, what tortures of limbs, where it was not faith that fell in the encounter, but faithlessness that forestalled the encounter? Nor does the necessity of the crime excuse one who was overpowered, where the crime is one of the will. I do not say this to burden the case of the brothers, but rather to spur the brothers on to the prayer of satisfaction. For since it is written, “Those who call you happy lead you into error and disturb the path of your feet,” he who strokes a sinner with flattering blandishments supplies the tinder of sin, and does not suppress offenses but feeds them. But he who with sterner counsels at once rebukes and instructs his brother advances him toward salvation. “Those whom I love,” says the Lord, “I rebuke and chastise.” So too the Lord's priest ought not to mislead with deceiving compliances but to provide with saving remedies. He is an unskilled physician who handles the swollen pockets of wounds with a sparing hand and, while he preserves the poison shut up in the deep recesses of the body, increases it. The wound must be opened and cut, and, when the putrid parts have been cut away, treated with a stronger remedy. Let the patient cry and shout and complain, impatient through pain; he will give thanks afterward when he feels himself healed.