Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 31

(Admonition 14.) In one way are those to be admonished who fear scourges and therefore live innocently; and in another way are those to be admonished who have so hardened in iniquity that they are not corrected even by scourges. For it is to be said to those who fear scourges, that they should by no means desire temporal goods as though they were something great, seeing that they behold these to be present even with the wicked; and that they should by no means flee present evils as though they were intolerable, by which they know that even the good are here very often afflicted. They are to be admonished that, if they truly desire to be free of evils, they should dread eternal torments, and yet should not remain in this fear of torments, but should grow up to the grace of love through the nourishment of charity. For it is written: 'Perfect charity casts out fear' (1 John 4:18).

And again it is written: 'You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry, Abba, Father' (Romans 8:15). Whence the same teacher again says: 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty' (2 Corinthians 3:17). If therefore dreaded punishment still restrains from a depraved deed, assuredly no liberty of the spirit holds the mind of the one who dreads. For if he did not fear punishment, he would without doubt commit the sin. Therefore the mind that the bondage of fear binds knows not the grace of liberty. For good things are to be loved for their own sake, and not to be carried out under the compulsion of penalties. For he who does good only because he fears the evils of torments, wishes there to be nothing to fear, that he may boldly commit unlawful things.

Whence it is clearer than light that innocence is lost before God, before whose eyes one sins by desire. But on the contrary, those whom not even scourges restrain from their iniquities are to be struck with a rebuke so much the sharper, as they have hardened with the greater insensibility. For very often they are to be disdained without disdain, and despaired of without despair; in such wise, namely, that the despair displayed may strike terror, and the admonition subjoined may lead back to hope. Sternly, therefore, are the sentences of the divine judgment to be brought forth against them, that they may be recalled to knowledge of themselves by the consideration of eternal punishment. For let them hear to be fulfilled in themselves what is written:

'If you pound a fool in a mortar, as with a pestle striking down upon barley, his folly will not be taken from him' (Proverbs 27:22). Against these the prophet complains to the Lord, saying: 'You have bruised them, and they refused to receive discipline' (Jeremiah 5:3). Hence it is that the Lord says: 'I have slain and destroyed this people, and yet they have not returned from their ways' (Isaiah 9:13). Hence again he says: 'The people has not returned to him that smote them' (Jeremiah 5:3 / Amos 4:6). Hence with the voice of those who scourge, the prophet complains, saying: 'We have healed Babylon, and she is not healed' (Jeremiah 51:9).

For Babylon is healed, and yet is not brought back to health, when the mind, confounded in a depraved deed, hears the words of correction, receives the scourges of correction, and yet disdains to return to the right paths of salvation. Hence to the captive Israelite people, yet not converted from iniquity, the Lord reproaches, saying: 'The house of Israel is turned to dross for me; they are all brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace' (Ezekiel 22:18). As if he openly said: I wished to purge them through the fire of tribulation, and I sought that they might become silver or gold; but in the furnace they are turned for me into brass, tin, iron, and lead, because even in tribulation they broke forth not to virtue, but to vices.

For brass, when it is struck, gives back a sound louder than the other metals. He therefore who, placed under a blow, bursts forth into the sound of murmuring, is turned into brass in the midst of the furnace. But tin, when it is fashioned by art, counterfeits the appearance of silver. He therefore who is not free from the vice of simulation in tribulation, has become tin in the furnace. And he uses iron who lies in wait for the life of his neighbor. Iron therefore is in the furnace, who does not lose the malice of harming in tribulation. Lead too is heavier than the other metals. In the furnace, then, is found lead, who is so weighed down by the burden of his sin that, even when placed in tribulation, he is not lifted up from earthly desires. Hence again it is written:

'It has been sweated over with much labor, and its great rust did not go out from it, not even by fire' (Ezekiel 24:12). For he applies to us the fire of tribulation, that in us he may purge the rust of vices; yet we do not lose the rust even by fire, when even amid scourges we are not free from vice. Hence the Prophet again says: 'In vain has the founder melted; their wickednesses are not consumed' (Jeremiah 6:29). But it is to be known that sometimes, when men remain uncorrected amid the harshness of scourges, they are to be soothed by gentle admonition. For those whom torments do not correct, gentle blandishments sometimes restrain from wicked deeds;

because very often the sick, whom a strong draught of medicines was unable to cure, tepid water has recalled to their former health; and some wounds, which cannot be cured by incision, are healed by the fomentations of oil. And the hard adamant by no means receives the incision of iron, but is softened by the mild blood of goats.