The old law commanded that every leper should go to the priest, and that the priest should separate him from men, if he really were leprous. If he were not manifestly leprous, he should then, by his judgement, be accounted clean. If the priest accounted him leprous, and God's might afterwards healed him, that he should then, with a gift, thank God for his cleansing. So also should he, who is leprous within with deadly sins, go to God's priest, and open his secret to the ghostly leech, and, by his counsel and aid, heal by penance the wounds of his soul. Some men imagine that it will suffice for a complete cure, if, with compunction of heart, they confess their sins to God alone, and that they need not confess to any priest, if they cease from evil: but if their opinion were true, the Lord would not have sent him, whom he himself had healed, with any gift to the priest. For the same example he also sent Paul, whom he himself had spoken to from heaven, to the priest Ananias, thus saying, "Go into the city, and there shall be told thee what it befitteth thee to do." The priest made not the man leprous or unleprous, but he judged that he should be separated from the society of men, if his leprosy were growing worse, or should continue among men, if his leprosy were growing better. So should the ghostly priest do: he should cure God's people, and separate, and excommunicate from christian men him who is so leprous with sinful practices that he infects others with his wickedness; concerning which the apostle Paul said, "Remove the evil man from you, lest one unsound sheep infect all the flock." If his leprosy be amending, that is, if he cease from evil, and, through dread of God, correct his ways, let him {127} have a dwelling among christian men, until he be full sound in his conditions. The evangelist said, that "After this the Lord went to a city which is called Capernaum; then a certain centurion approached him, praying and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home bedridden, and is grievously tormented. The Lord answered him, I will come and heal him. Then the centurion answered, and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; but say thy word, and my servant shall be healed. I am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this, Go thou, and he goeth; to another, Come thou, and he cometh; to my servant, Do this, and he doeth. Then Jesus, when he heard this, wondered, and said to the multitude following, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith in the people of Israel. I say to you in sooth, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall rest with the patriarch Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. The rich children shall be cast into utter darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then again said Jesus to the centurion, Go home, and betide thee as thou hast believed. And the servant was healed from that hour."