Now we go into a wood with a friend as often as we turn our attention to the sins of subjects, and guilelessly we hew wood when we cut away the faults of sinners with loving intention. But the axe flies from the hand when reproof oversteps itself and degenerates into hardship. The iron flies from the handle when the words of reproof are excessively harsh and the friend is struck and killed. Thus a contumelious utterance kills the spirit of love in the hearer.

The very words of Scripture^[1] indicate that even ignorance is a sin. This is why Job offers holocausts for his sons, lest perchance they may have sinned unwittingly in thought.^[2] And if a man is killed by the iron of an axe that flies off the handle when a man is hewing wood, the wood hewer is ordered to flee to a city of refuge and remain in that place until the death of the high priest.^[3] That is to say, [he remains there] until he is redeemed by the blood of the Savior, either in the house of baptism or by repentance, which supplies the efficacy of the grace of baptism through the ineffable mercy of the Savior. [The Savior] does not wish anybody to perish, nor does he find his delight in the death of sinners, but [he would] rather that they be converted from their way and live.^[4]

And since we have taken an example drawn from agriculture, enjoin them to keep the laws about borders intact and to guard the ancestral boundaries which the law protects. The good will of a neighbor is often more important than the love of a brother. For a brother is often far away, but a neighbor, close at hand, is a witness to the whole of one’s life and a judge of one’s dealings.

But on the contrary, if your eye has looked upon a woman to covet her, you have opened a wound, you have driven a weapon into your body. Your very members become tools of sin.^[1] If you look upon the property of orphans and drive them from the dwellings of their fathers,^[2] you are changing the landmarks that your forefathers set. Your members are tools of iniquity. And so the passions are the author of guilt and not the flesh, for the flesh is the servant of the will.

[Christ] did then truly rise, and after he had risen, he was seen again by his disciples. And the twelve disciples were witnesses of his resurrection, testifying not with words meant to please but contending for the truth of the resurrection even unto torture and death. Further, on the word of two or three witnesses every word may be confirmed, according to Scripture. There are twelve witnesses to the resurrection of Christ, and do you still disbelieve in the resurrection?

Therefore if a people composed of a great multitude was found a false witness, how must it be understood, In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand, except that in this way. The Trinity, in which is unending stability of truth, was revealed through a mystery. Do you want to have a good case? Have two or three witnesses, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

As a matter of fact, a single witness generally speaks the truth, while a mob may tell lies. And the world, in its conversion to Christianity, believed one apostle preaching the gospel rather than the mistaken multitude who persecuted him.

At the birth of the Savior, then, there was fulfilled that divine sentence which says, Every word shall stand with two or three witnesses. For see, the Word of God is born with the Trinity as witness. For indeed, in the womb of holy Mary—when the Holy Spirit comes upon her, when the Most High overshadows her, when Christ is begotten—there is implied a confession of faith in him.