The Reproaches of the Lost

Quod ad nos attinet, conscientiae nostrae convenit, frater charissime, dare operam, ne quis culpa nostra de Ecclesia pereat. Si autem quis ultro et crimine suo perierit, et poenitentiam agere atque ad Ecclesiam redire noluerit, nos in die judicii inculpatos futuros, qui consulimus sanitati, illos in poenis remansuros, qui noluerint consilii nostri salubritate sanari. Nec movere nos debent convicia perditorum quominus a via recta et a certa regula non recedamus, quando et Apostolus instruat, dicens: 'Si hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem.' Interest utrum quis homines promereri, an Deum cupiat. Si hominibus placetur, Dominus offenditur: si vero id enitimur et elaboramus ut possimus Deo placere, et convicia et maledicta debemus humana contemnere. Sanctus Cyprianus, Epistola Ad Cornelium Papam

It belongs to us, it befits our conscience, dearest brother, to labour that none should perish going out of the Church by our own fault; but if any one, of his own accord and by his own offence, should perish, and should be unwilling to repent and to return to the Church, then we who are anxious for their well-being will be blameless in the day of judgment, and they alone will remain in punishment who refused to be healed by the wholesomeness of our counsel. Nor should we be moved by the reproaches of the lost that we move even a little from the right path and from the sure rule, when the apostle instructs us, saying, 'If I should please men, I would not be the servant of Christ.'1 There is a difference between the one who would deserve well of men and the one who desires God. If we seek to please men, the Lord is offended, but if we strive that we might please God, we should scorn human abuse and curses. Saint Cyprian, Letter to Pope Cornelius 1 Gal 1.10