I. If all men labored under one sickness of mind, and, afflicted by the same diseases of soul, differed in no way from one another, it would be necessary either that all be borne with or all reproved. But as it is, some are therefore to be borne and others chastised, because, in proportion to the diversity of sinners, the manner of precepts is also diverse. And indeed remedies dissimilar must be applied to sins, just as the sins themselves come from dissimilar causes. For the habit of sinning delights very many; an occasion of some temporal gain invites others to sin; frailty inclines not a few; ignorance of the good makes certain ones not know that they sin, and the sweetness of evil hinders them, lest, once reproved, they should at some time understand what they do not know.
I say nothing of those whom the offenses of others, in which they consent, discolor. I also pass over those who, desiring to obtain what they love, or shrinking from suffering what they fear, either betray the Catholic faith, or by a lie surrender the preeminence of truth. But this I do say: who does not know that men offend in one way by a sudden thought, in another by a settled resolve, in one way by speech, in another by deed, in one way by necessity, in another by will? Since, then, men sin in such manifold ways, differing greatly from one another, who does not understand that those whose diseases are so diverse cannot be healed by one method? And so human frailty despises God's precepts in a twofold manner:
either by doing what He forbade, or by not doing what He commanded. But just as they despise Him in His precepts—who do not keep His precepts—not only from those causes which I have mentioned, but also from others which I have not mentioned; so all must be healed, now by teaching, now by exhorting, now by bearing with, now by rebuking, so that, with the help of Christ, the salvation of no one in this life ought to be despaired of. Now then, if it has sufficiently appeared that those who trample on the divine precepts are not only to be borne but also to be chastised; by whom this is to be done, who, in what order, and how long those are to be cared for who are cared for—this, with the aid of your merits and prayers, I ought to declare.