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On the Lapsed

5.

Yet, beloved brethren, the cause of truth is to be had in view; nor ought the gloomy darkness of the terrible persecution so to have blinded the mind and feeling, that there should remain no light and illumination whence the divine precepts may be beheld. If the cause of disaster is recognised, there is at once found a remedy for the wound. The Lord has desired His family to be proved; and because a long peace had corrupted the discipline ¹ that had been divinely delivered to us, the heavenly rebuke has aroused our faith, which was giving way, and I had almost said slumbering; and although we deserved ² more for our sins, yet the most merciful Lord has so moderated all things, that all which has happened has rather seemed a trial than a persecution.

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De lapsis (PL)

V.

Habenda tamen est, fratres dilectissimi, ratio veritatis, nec sic mentem debet et sensum persecutionis infestae tenebrosa caligo caecasse, ut nihil remanserit lucis et luminis unde divina praecepta perspici possint. Si cladis causa cognoscitur, et medela vulneris invenitur. Dominus probari familiam suam voluit; et quia traditam nobis divinitus disciplinam [Col. 0468C] pax longa corruperat, jacentem fidem et pene, ut [Col. 0469A] ita dixerim, dormientem censura coelestis erexit; cumque nos peccatis nostris amplius mereremur, clementissimus Dominus sic cuncta moderatus est, ut hoc omne quod gestum est exploratio potius quam persecutio videretur.