Repentance and Rejection

Quorum si poenitentiam respuamus habentium aliquam fiduciam tolerabilis conscientiae, statim cum uxore, cum liberis, quos incolumes reservaverant, in haeresim vel schisma, diabolo invitante, rapiuntur; et adscribetur nobis in die judicii nec ovem sauciam curasse, et propter unam sauciam multas integras perdidisse, et cum Dominus, relictis nonaginta sanis, unam errantem et lassam quaesierit, et inventam humeris suis ipse portaverit, nos non tantum non quaeramus lapsos, sed et venientes arceamus, et cum pseudoprophetae gregem Christi nunc vastare et lacerare non desinant, occasionem canibus et lupis demus ut quos persecutio infesta non perdidit, eos nos duritia nostra et inhumanitate perdamus. Sanctus Cyprianus, Epistola LI, Ad Antonianum,

If we reject the repentance of those who had some faith in a tolerant conscience, at once with wife, with children, whom they had preserved uninjured, they are carried off, by the devil's invitation, into heresy or schism; and it will be attributed to us on the day of judgment that we had not cared for the wounded sheep and that on account of one wounded one we have made lost many who were sound, whereas the Lord left the ninety and nine that were well and sought the one wandering and weary, and finding it he carried it on his own shoulders; but we not only do not seek the lapsed, but we even drive away those who approach, and this while false prophets are not ceasing to lay waste and tear Christ's flock, and so we give opportunity to the dogs and the wolves that those whom hateful tribulation has not destroyed we might destroy by our hardness and inhumanity. St Cyprian of Carthage, Letter 51, To Antonianus,