These heads of doctrine had put down such deep roots in Bernard’s mind and soul that they are found repeated and inculcated a second and third time in his works. For Bernard repeats them1 when, speaking of the threefold mercy of God, he says:
Mercy is in the midst of the temple, not in a corner2 or a lodging place, because there is no acceptance of persons with God. It is placed in common, is offered to all, and no one is without it except him who refuses it. Your waters are conducted abroad, O Lord God; nevertheless your fountain is proper to you.
And he repeats them yet again3 when, explaining the similitude expressed in these words of the Song of Songs4, “My beloved is like unto a roe and a fawn of harts,” he says:
It was assuredly fitting that the likeness should be taken not only from the fawn but also from the roe, in order that by the former the desire of the one saving might be expressed, and by the latter the judgment of the one choosing. For Christ is just and merciful, Savior and Judge; and because he loves, he wills5 all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; and because he judges, he knows6 who are his, and he himself knows whom he chose from the beginning.
What sort, therefore, is the order by which provision is divinely made for the salvation of men? It is bipartite, just as the will of God by which it was first instituted and is continually administered is bipartite. For one is the order of mercy, which corresponds to the will of mercy; and another is the order of justice, which is referred to the will of judgment.
But are these orders parallel, or is one subject and subordinate to the other? They are related to one another by that relation which intervenes between the two wills of mercy and justice. The will of mercy goes before and makes way for the will of justice only when it has been despised. Therefore the order of mercy is antecedent, and the order of justice follows it when it has been neglected and scorned.
Wherefore all men whatsoever pertain per se and primarily to the order of mercy, nor, excluded from it, do they fall into the order of justice before they have rejected the salvific will of the merciful and loving God.