54. The wicked defend one another by mutual protection. — These scales of sinners are so hardened and joined together, that they cannot be pierced by any slender breath of preachers. For those whom a like guilt associates, a perverse defence also crams tight together in stubbornness of heart, so that by mutual defence they protect one another concerning their crimes. For each fears for himself when he sees another admonished or corrected; and therefore against the words of those who rebuke they rise up with one accord, because each shelters himself in the other. Well then is it said: 'One is joined to another, and not even a breath can pass through them' (Job XLI, 8); because in their iniquities, while by proud defence they protect one another in turn, they in no way permit the breathings of holy exhortation to enter into them.