examination of the heart 160 other time. For who can be more wicked than a man, who — being reconciled to another merely a short while ago — begins again multiplying offenses, increasing injuries, and renewing enmities? Wherefore, lest you succumb to committing the same grave crimes, you must be mindful of the benefits you received when you were restored to the grace and love of God. 3. “Let both grow together” (Mt 13:30). Ponder why the most just God does not punish evildoers immediately after they commit their crimes, and why He permits sinners [f.23v] (spoken of here under the guise of weeds) to remain a long time in the filth of their sins, instead of condemning them as soon as possible by His most just sentence. Saint Augustine explained the reason thus: “For every sinner either lives that he may be corrected, or lives that a good man may be exercised [in virtues] through him.”49 Now if God, the just Judge, did not rush to pass the sentence on you who had offended Him with great sins, it is because you may come back to your senses and improve your life. Why then do you delay to amend your life, although you know that your sentencing and punishment are postponed so that you may do so? Indeed, there is never more need for haste than in fleeing from sin and amending one’s life. 49 Cf. Augustinus, Enarrationes in Psalmos: In Psalmum LIV (vers. 2-5), in: Patrologiæ cursus completus, Series Latina I-CCXXI, Ed. J.-P. Migne, vol. 36, Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, Paris 1865, p. 630 (n. 4): This quotation was taken from St. Augustine’s Exposition on Psalm 54, n. 4; however, in the original Latin text, instead of peccator (“sinner”) we have malus (“evil man”). [Hereafter Patrologiæ cursus completus, Series Latina I-CCXXI will be abbreviated as PL.]
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