|
WE are not ignorant also of another kind of insanity, which we find in
some of the brethren under colour of a counterfeit patience, as in this
case it is not enough to have stirred up quarrels unless they incite them
with irritating words so as to get themselves smitten, and when they have
been touched by the slightest blow, at once they offer another part of
their body to be smitten, as if in this way they could fulfil to perfection
that command which says: "If a man smite thee on the right cheek, offer him
the other also;" while they totally ignore the meaning and purpose of
the passage. For they fancy that they are practising evangelical patience
through the sin of anger, for the utter eradication of which not only was
the exchange of retaliation and the irritation of strife forbidden, but
the command was actually given us to mitigate the wrath of the striker by
the endurance of a double wrong.
|
|