"16. For Thy mercy is kind, as explained in the gloss. At the time of the martyrs mercy was very kind, because the wretchedness was very bitter. So it was also at the time of the heretics. This is now much more the ease, but to none except a few. For to the few the great wretchedness of the church appears in its peace, which the Lord bewailed above all when He wept over Jerusalem and said (Luke 19:42): “If you had known even now, in this your day, what makes for your peace; but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Thus if we, too, would know the things that make for our peace, namely, since they are worse than every affliction, we would without doubt act differently. As I have said, everybody would shape and make the biggest affliction for himself. For thus it is written: “Thou hast prepared a table before me against all who afflict me” (Ps. 23:5). Let no priest under any circumstances approach the altar, unless he is burdened with many afflictions and filled with many miseries. But since peace and security do not let us see such things, let us labor and show what we ought to consider, that we may see many miseries, so that thus we may magnify and make propitious the mercy of the Lord. For it is not possible to make the mercy of God large and good, unless a person first makes his miseries large and evil or recognizes them to be such. To make God’s mercy great is not, as is commonly supposed, to think that God considers sins as small or that He does not punish them. Indeed, this especially means to reduce mercy. For how can one who regards evil as something small regard as something great the good by means of which the evil is removed? Hence our total concern must be to magnify and aggravate our sins and thus always to accuse them more and more, and earnestly judge and condemn them. The more deeply a person has condemned himself and magnified his sins, the more is he fit for the mercy and grace of God. This is what the apostle has forbidden, that we should please ourselves in even one point (Rom. 15:1), but that we should above all and in all things be displeased and thus with Job fear all our works (Job 9:28). For he who is pleased with himself cannot stand in the fear of God and be without presumption. But what is worse than being without fear?"
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