(Admonition 4.) In one way are the joyful to be admonished, in another the sad. To the joyful, namely, are to be brought forward the sad things that follow from punishment; but to the sad are to be brought forward the joyful things that are promised from the kingdom. Let the joyful learn from the harshness of threats what they should fear; let the sad hear the joys of rewards on which they may presume. For to the former it is said: Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn (Luke 6:25); but the latter, taught by the same Master, hear: I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you (John 16:22). But some are joyful or sad not from circumstances, but exist so from their temperaments. To such it must assuredly be intimated that certain vices are near to certain temperaments.
For the joyful have close at hand luxury, the sad wrath. Whence it is necessary that each one consider not only what he suffers from his temperament, but also what worse thing presses hard upon him from the neighbouring vice; lest, while he in no wise contends against that which he endures, he succumb also to the vice from which he deems himself free.