Nor do we here exclude the outward mortifications of the body, which follow true grief of mind. But they say that it belongs to God's justice to punish sin. He certainly punishes it in contrition, when in these terrors He shows His wrath. Here indeed the most bitter punishments are spoken of. And the adversaries acknowledge that contrition can be so great that satisfaction is not required.
Contrition is therefore more truly a punishment than is satisfaction.
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. Likewise afflictions are inflicted because of present sin, since in the saints they mortify and extinguish concupiscence, so that they may be renewed by the Spirit, as Paul says, Rom. And death itself serves this purpose, namely, to abolish this flesh of sin, that we may rise absolutely new. Likewise, according to these very men, the keys remit the satisfactions, and the punishments on account of which the satisfactions are made. But it is evident that the common afflictions are not removed by the power of the keys.