Section CIII

And for this reason he gives to all the opportunity and power to be advanced from children of wrath to the glory and excellence of the sons of God.

For it is written, says Tertullian¹, “To those who believed in him, he gave power that they should be called sons of God.” The Lord very frequently pronounced God to be our Father. Indeed, he commanded us not to call anyone on earth father except him whom we have in heaven… Blessed are they who—

—acknowledge the Father.

But all can acknowledge him, because² there is no one whom God does not invite to a reward, no one³ for whom his grace and favor are not at hand, and no one⁴ whose salvation he does not eagerly will.

He never fails to manifest this benignity of will, and has demonstrated it by a manifold abundance of benefits. He manifested it toward⁵ the first parents,

deferring the destruction of the devil by the same counsel by which he ordained the restoration of man. For he gave space for the contest, so that man might crush the enemy by the same freedom of choice by which he had fallen before him, proving the fault to be his own and not God’s; and thus might worthily recover salvation through victory, and the devil might be punished more bitterly, conquered by him whom he had formerly crushed; and God might be found so much the more good, awaiting man’s return to paradise more glorious, now to the permission of plucking the tree of life.

He afterward manifested it toward the human race universally, and therefore⁶

both gathered a people to himself⁷ and cherished it with many largesses of his goodness; and, having so often found it most ungrateful, always exhorted it to penance; and sent forth the mouths of all the prophets to prophesy; afterward he promised the grace by which, in the extremities of the times, he would illuminate the whole world through his Spirit; and he commanded that the baptism of penance go before, so that those whom he called through grace to the promise appointed for the seed of Abraham—

—he might prepare beforehand through the seal of penance.—John was not silent, saying, “Enter upon penance; for salvation has now drawn near to the nations,” namely, the Lord bringing it according to God’s promise. Ministering penance beforehand, he appointed it to preside over the purification of minds: so that, sweeping, scraping, and casting outside whatever ancient error had defiled, whatever ignorance had contaminated in the heart of man, penance might prepare a clean house of the breast for the Holy Spirit who was to come, into which he might willingly bring himself with heavenly goods.

If you seek the rationale of this merciful economy and investigate its intimate origin, you will discover none other than the goodness of God and the sincere purpose of saving the human race.

For there is one title of these goods, adds Tertullian⁸: the salvation of man, with the abolition of former crimes having been sent before. This is the cause of penance; this its work: attending to the business of divine mercy. What⁹ profits man serves God.

Whence nothing is more evident than that the order of divine providence is so disposed that works of clemency go before and works of severity follow; and that men do not experience God as angry before they have perceived him as the benevolent and all-good Parent.

Therefore, says Tertullian¹⁰, even unto the offense of man, God from the beginning was only good; thence he was Judge and severe and, as the Marcionites will, cruel… Thus God’s goodness was prior according to nature; severity was posterior according to cause. The former was unbegotten; the latter accidental; the former proper, the latter adapted; the former emitted, the latter employed. For neither ought nature to have contained an inoperative goodness, nor ought the cause to have escaped a severity kept concealed. God furnished the one to himself, the other to the circumstance.

And shortly afterward¹¹:

By these means we show that he came forth with goodness as the author of all things, so that goodness itself must be judged unbegotten and natural to God, not adventitious, since it is found in the Lord as the arbiter of his works. But when evil afterward burst forth, and from that point God’s goodness began to deal with the adversary, that same justice of God obtained another business, namely, that of directing goodness¹² according to opposition; so that¹³, with the liberality by which God is good even of his own accord having been set apart, it may be weighed according to the merits of each, offered to the worthy, denied to the unworthy, taken away from the ungrateful, and consequently vindicated against all rivals. Thus this whole work of justice is the administration of goodness: that by judging it condemns, by condemning it punishes, and, as you say, it rages—assuredly it profits unto good, not unto evil. Finally, fear of judgment conduces to good, not to evil. For it did not suffice that the good should be commended by itself, now laboring under an adversary. For although commendable by itself, it was nevertheless not also capable of being preserved, since it was now capable of being conquered by the adversary, unless some force of fear went before, which would compel even the unwilling to seek and preserve the good.

To these he finally adds¹⁴:

To such a degree is justice also the fullness of divinity itself, exhibiting God perfect both as Father and Lord: as Father by clemency, as Lord by discipline; as Father by gentle power, as Lord by severe power; as Father to be loved piously, as Lord to be feared necessarily; to be loved because he prefers mercy to sacrifice, and to be feared because he does not will sin; to be loved because he prefers the penance of the sinner to death, and to be feared because he does not will sinners who are now no longer penitent.