24. They exult and delight in the worst things. — What do we understand by the name of thorns, but those prickings of sins which we have already spoken of above? But because perverse minds rejoice in the iniquities which they ought to have wept over, all heretics exalt themselves with so much vain gladness the more they gain strength toward worse things; and they reckon it to be delights to be under thorns, because from that whence they bear the thorns of sins, they thence lift up their perverse mind to gladness. For if ever they are able to draw someone to their error, they boast themselves with joy; and from that whence they daily gather sins to themselves, even by destroying others, they thence exult as though they were leaders unto righteousness. Well, therefore, it is said:
'Who rejoiced among such things, and counted it delights to be under the thorns.' For they draw whom they can to their own perdition, and believe that to be under sins, or to add faults to faults, is to heap up an abundance of virtues.