Section L

This argument indeed he explains much more fully elsewhere¹, saying:

Just as those things which are brought forth from the divine eloquences for the manifestation of grace cannot be violated by any art of disputation, so that opinions clear and consonant in so great a number should be drawn into some uncertainty of perverse interpretation; so also that which is found in the same body of the Scriptures concerning the salvation of all men must not be rashly violated by any contrary argumentation, so that, by as much as this very thing is grasped with a more difficult understanding, by so much may it be believed with a more praiseworthy faith. For great is the strength of an assent for which authority suffices in following the truth, even when the rationale lies hidden. Let us therefore consider vigilantly what is commanded by the Lord to the preachers of the Gospel.

For according to Matthew he says thus²: “All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the age.” But according to Mark it is thus said³ to the same Apostles: “Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature; and he who shall believe and shall be baptized shall be saved, but he who shall not believe shall be condemned.”

Was any distinction among nations or among men made in this precept? He excepted no one by merit, separated no one by race, distinguished no one by condition. The Gospel of the cross of Christ was sent absolutely to all men. And lest the ministries of those who preach should appear to be carried out by human operation alone, he says⁴: “Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the age”; that is: when you shall enter as sheep into the midst of wolves, do not tremble on account of your weakness, but trust in my power, for I shall not abandon you in all this work even unto the consummation of the age; not so that you may suffer nothing, but, what is much greater, that you may be overcome by no cruelty of those who rage. For in my power you shall preach, and through me⁵ it shall come about that among

those who contradict and those who rage, sons of Abraham may be raised up from stones… “The grace, therefore, of God our Savior,” as the Apostle⁶ says, “hath appeared to all men”; and nevertheless the ministers of grace were hated by all men. And although there were some who hated and others who were oppressed by the hatreds of persecutors, nevertheless neither part was deprived of the designation all men: the rebellious portion indeed sustaining the loss of its salvation, but the dignity of the faithful obtaining the reckoning of fullness.

It might almost be said: to the revealed will of God, which discloses itself outwardly, there corresponds the hidden will which lies concealed within God, in such a manner that the former is a sign of the latter and the latter can be estimated and judged from the former. But nothing is more evident than that the revealed salvific will is universal, by which God commanded that the Gospel and the promises of the Gospel should be announced not to these or those, but to all men, to every creature, to all nations. Therefore there is in God an intimate will, a hidden will, by which he pursues the salvation of all men with the most sincere love.

If many fall away from this salvation and experience God as the author not of reward but of punishment, not of felicity but of destruction, this must be ascribed not to him, on the ground that he withdrew outward and inward mercy, but to those very ones who perish, on the ground that they rebelled against his prevenient mercy. Excellently does Fulgentius say⁷:

Principally, every Scripture divinely inspired preaches that the one true and only God, namely that Trinity—that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—is no less merciful than just. For to him it is said from the person of the Church⁸: “Mercy and judgment I will sing to thee, O Lord.” Of him also it is sung⁹: “The Lord is merciful and just, and our God will have mercy.” In another place also¹⁰: “For the Lord is just and hath loved justices; his countenance hath beheld equity.” Again¹¹ it is said: “All the ways of the Lord

are mercy and truth.” And¹² again: “For the Lord loveth mercy and truth.” Through Isaiah also¹³ the Lord commemorates his mercy and justice, saying: “I am God, and there is no other besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and you shall be saved.”

By these, therefore,¹⁴ and innumerable testimonies of this kind, by which the Lord our God is preached as merciful and just, it is shown how greatly his mercy is to be loved and how greatly his justice is to be feared. For the Lord, merciful and compassionate, patient and plenteous in mercy and true, just as he knows how to remove punishment from him who is converted, so in him who has refused to be converted he in no way permits sin to remain unavenged. Hence it is that by the divine eloquences the evil are ceaselessly and salutarily admonished not to remain in the servitude of sin, but to seek the mercy of the just God while they are in this life.

Therefore, although the divine economy toward men is administered especially by a twofold work, that of mercy and that of justice, this distinction exists between the two: that the former precedes, while the latter follows; nor does it come about that men possessed of reason and previously under their own jurisdiction encounter punishments inflicted by justice before they have contemned the benefits of mercy. “Accordingly,” Fulgentius writes¹⁵ elsewhere:

In all his works God is worthy of eternal praise, because he gratuitously remits iniquity to all whom he calls according to purpose¹⁶ and justifies; but in all whom he punishes he retains irreprehensible equity.

He immediately subjoins this cause of that opinion: that men, having received the faculty of using reason, reject or neglect the salutary remedy of regeneration, without which they not only

will be able to obtain the kingdom, but will also be subject to more grievous punishments. For such men¹⁷, “contemning the benignity of God, according to their hardness and impenitent heart treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works”; so that they are tormented so much the more severely not only for original sin … but also for their own evil will, by as much as they add more of their own iniquity.

Hence, lest we turn the riches of the mercy of God into a treasure of wrath, Peter Chrysologus exhorted us¹⁸, writing:

Great are the works of the Lord, but the greatness of mercy excels their greatness. For when the prophet had said¹⁹, “Great are the works of the Lord,” he added²⁰ elsewhere: “His tender mercies are over all his works.” Mercy, brethren, fills heaven and replenishes the earth. “O Lord,” he says²¹, “thy mercy is in heaven.” And²² he likewise says: “The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.” And truly, brethren, all that God had made would have perished if mercy had not come to its aid… This is the great, ample, sole mercy of Christ, which reserved every judgment for one day and assigned the whole time to man as a respite for penance: so that old age at least may correct that which infancy takes up from vices, adolescence seizes, and youth invades; and that he may repent of sin even then when he perceives that he can no longer sin; and at least then abandon guilt when guilt has already abandoned him; that he may make a virtue of necessity; that he who lived his whole life in crime may die innocent.

Whence elsewhere²³ he says:

Let penance run, lest the sentence run ahead; for the Lord, in that he has not yet come, in that he still waits, in that he makes delays, desires that we return to him, not that we perish—we whom he has always²⁴ addressed with such loving-kindness: “I will not the death of the sinner, but that the impious man return from his way and live.”