XIV. And if I am doing wrong in this, that when
tyrannized over I endure it, forgive me this wrong; I have borne to be
tyrannized over by others too; and I am thankful that my moderation has
brought upon me the charge of folly. For I reckon thus, using
considerations altogether higher than any of yours; what a mere
fraction are these trials of the spittings and blows which Christ, for
Whom and by Whose aid we encounter these dangers, endured. I do
not count them, taken altogether, worth the one crown of thorns which
robbed our conqueror of his crown, for whose sake also I learn that I
am crowned for the hardness
of life. I do not reckon them worth the one reed by which the
rotten empire was destroyed; of the gall alone, the vinegar alone, by
which we were cured of the bitter taste; of the gentleness alone which
He shewed in His Passion. Was He betrayed with a kiss? He
reproves with a kiss, but smites not. Is he suddenly
arrested? He reproaches indeed, but follows; and if through zeal
thou cuttest off the ear of Malchus with the sword, He will be angry,
and will restore it. And if one flee in a linen sheet, Mark xiv. 51. he will defend him. And if you ask for
the fire of Sodom upon his captors, he will not pour it forth; and if
he take a thief hanging upon the cross for his crime he will bring him
into Paradise through His Goodness. Let all the acts of one that
loves men be loving, as were all the sufferings of Christ, to which we
could add nothing greater than, when God even died for us, to refuse on
our part to forgive even the smallest wrongs of our
fellowmen.