教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 52 章

And grievous indeed is the labour of the preacher, in the voice of common preaching, to be vigilant over the hidden motions and causes of individuals, and, after the manner of wrestling-schools, to turn himself in the art of a different side; yet with a much sharper labour is he wearied when he is compelled to preach to one who serves contrary vices. For very often someone is of a too cheerful constitution; but yet, when sadness suddenly arises, it monstrously depresses him. Care must therefore be taken by the preacher that the sadness which comes from circumstance be so wiped away that the cheerfulness which is supplied by constitution be not increased; and that the cheerfulness which is from constitution be so bridled that yet the sadness which comes from circumstance grow not.

One is burdened by the habit of immoderate rashness, and yet sometimes from that which is to be done in haste he is hindered by the force of a suddenly arising dread. Another is burdened by the habit of immoderate dread, and yet sometimes in that which he desires he is impelled by the temerity of rashness. So, therefore, let the suddenly arising dread be so repressed in the one, that the long-nurtured rashness grow not; so let the suddenly arising rashness be so repressed in the other, that the dread impressed from constitution gain not strength. But what wonder is it if the physicians of minds guard these things, when they temper themselves with such great art of discretion who heal not hearts but bodies? For very often, indeed,

a monstrous languor oppresses the bilious body, to which languor indeed one must oppose strong helps, and yet the feeble body does not sustain a strong help. He, then, who heals studies how so to take away the superexisting disease that the underlying weakness of the body by no means grow, lest perhaps the languor fail together with the life. He therefore composes the help with such great discretion that at one and the same time he both meets the languor and the weakness.

If, therefore, the medicine of the body, indivisibly applied, can serve divisibly (for then it is truly medicine, when by it the superexisting vice is so succoured that the underlying constitution also be served), why should the medicine of the mind, applied by one and the same preaching, not be able to meet the diseases of characters in diverse order—a medicine which is exercised so much the more subtly the more it treats of invisible things?