Section LXXII

Moreover, that the will of God and Christ toward men is such as we have thus far outlined, and that the order of reformation and salvation proceeded from it, we proceed to confirm by that argument than which we judge none stronger and none more efficacious for producing persuasion can be employed. For we have resolved to imitate the most learned Emmanuel Schelstratius, to traverse the patriarchal and more distinguished churches in geographical order, and to bring forward their universal and constant tradition. Once this has been ascertained, it will be permissible for us to repeat the sentence of Vincent of Lérins celebrated in the mouth of all:

What all equally, with one and the same consent, openly, frequently, and perseveringly held, wrote, and taught, each man will understand without doubt must be believed by him.

But that we may execute in deed the counsel undertaken, we shall take our beginning from the Alexandrian patriarchate and shall investigate as diligently as we can what those men thought and what they handed down who, from the most ancient times even to the sixth century, shone there above the rest in reputation for piety and learning.

To this end we believe it useful to embrace their fixed and established doctrine in several propositions and then to append the witnesses who defend it by their suffrage and authority.

Therefore, I., it was as a principle for the Alexandrian doctors that God is good by his own nature, inclined of himself and by an innate weight toward doing good, a lover of men and truly φιλάνθρωπος, and that he is compelled only unwillingly and almost by force to proceed against them with punishments. “The instrument of God¹,” says Clement of Alexandria,

φιλάνθρωπον, loves the human race: the Lord has mercy, chastises, exhorts, admonishes, preserves, guards, καὶ μισθὸν ἡμῖν τῆς μαθήσεως ἐκ περιουσίας, βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, ἐπαγγέλλεται· τοῦτο μόνον ἀπολαύων ἡμῶν, ὅτι σωζόμεθα, and as a recompense for instruction, as though out of abundance, he promises us the kingdom of heaven, receiving no other fruit from us than that we are saved. Κακία μὲν γὰρ τὴν ἀνθρώπων ἐπιβόσκεται φθοράν· ἡ δὲ ἀλήθεια, ὥσπερ ἡ μέλιττα, λυμαινομένη τῶν ὄντων οὐδέν, ἐπὶ μόνης τῆς ἀνθρώπων ἀγάλλεται σωτηρίας. For vice feeds upon the destruction of men; but Truth, which like a bee settles harmlessly upon things, rejoices only in their salvation². Thou hast what he promises; ἔχεις τὴν φιλανθρωπίαν· φιλανθρωπίαν τῆς χάριτος μεταλάμβανε, thou hast with how great an affection he loves the human race: do thou participate in the grace of this love.

For³:

That Father of ours, ὁ ὄντως πατήρ, who truly is Father and loves us exceedingly, never ceases to exhort, admonish, correct, and love; οὐδὲ γὰρ σώζων παύεται;

for he does not cease to save, but gives the best⁴ counsel: “Be made just,” says the Lord. “You who thirst, go to the water; and you who have no money, go and buy and drink without money.” Ἐπὶ τὸ λουτρόν, ἐπὶ τὴν σωτηρίαν, ἐπὶ τὸν φωτισμὸν παρακαλεῖ, he exhorts unto expiation through the laver, unto salvation, unto⁵ illumination, almost openly crying: “I give thee, O son, earth and sea and heaven and the things which are in them; I lavish upon thee all living things. Do thou only, O son, thirst for the Father; God will be manifested to thee without price, for Truth is not sold.”

For⁶ φιλάνθρωπος ὁ Παιδαγωγός, the Pedagogue⁷ loves men:

In all things the Lord benefits and in all things assists, καὶ ὡς ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ὡς θεός, both as man and as God: forgiving sins as God, but, that we may not sin, instructing after the manner of a Pedagogue as man. Εἰκότως ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῷ θεῷ, ἐπεὶ καὶ πλάσμα αὐτοῦ ἐστι· καὶ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα κελεύων μόνον πεποίηκεν, τὸν δὲ ἄνθρωπον δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐχειρούργησεν, καὶ αὐτῷ ἴδιον ἐνεφύσησεν. Rightly, therefore, is man dear to God, since man is his formation; and other things indeed he made by command alone, but man he fashioned by his own hand and breathed into him something proper to himself.

From this singular excellence of man, he first gathers that man is on his own account αἱρετὸν τῷ θεῷ, to be chosen by God; then he infers⁸:

Therefore, the man whom God made, δι᾽ αὐτὸν αἱρετόν ἐστιν, is a thing to be chosen for its own sake⁹. But a thing which is to be chosen for its own sake is joined to him by whom it is to be chosen for its own sake. Moreover, that thing is to be desired and loved. But it cannot come about that something should be lovable and yet not be loved by him: φιλεῖται ἄρα

πρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, therefore man is loved by God. For how can he not be loved for whom the Only-begotten is sent down from the bosom of the Father? … The Lord himself openly confesses it and says¹⁰: “For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me”; and again¹¹: “And thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.”