Section CXIV

To this so excellent goodness and innate love, by which the divine nature is especially commended and excels, it must first be credited that

for this purpose, in the words of Orosius¹, the human race was created and established from the beginning: that, living under religion, with peace and without labor, it might merit eternity by the fruit of obedience.

But when our first parents converted the excellent gifts of God to their own destruction and by their fault ruined all posterity, it must then be credited to the divine goodness that he did not indulge wrath, but raised fallen man and offered a medicine by which the mortal wound inflicted might be healed. Pacian speaks to the point², saying:

After Adam sinned, when the Lord then said³, “Thou art earth, and unto earth thou shalt go,” he was condemned to death. This condemnation flowed down into the whole race. For all sinned, nature itself now compelling, as the Apostle says⁴: “Because through one man sin entered, and through the offense death, and thus it came unto all men, in whom all sinned.” Sin, therefore, obtained dominion, by whose bonds we were drawn as captives unto death, namely, everlasting death. But before the times of the Law this sin was not even understood, as the Apostle says⁵: “For until the Law was established, sin was not held to be in the world,” that is, it was not seen; at the advent of the Law it revived. For it was disclosed so that it might be seen—but in vain, because almost no one observed it. For the Law said: “Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not covet”; nevertheless, concupiscence remained with all the vices. Thus before the Law this sin killed man with a hidden sword; with the Law drawn, it killed him openly. What hope, therefore, is there for man? Without the Law he perished because he could not see sin; and—

—under the Law because he fell into the very thing which he saw. For who could free him from destruction?

Immediately he both repeats and resolves this most grave question⁶, writing:

Hear the Apostle⁷: “Unhappy man that I am! Who shall free me from the body of this death? Grace,” he says, “through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He proceeds to narrate in this manner how this ought to be understood⁸:

What is grace? The remission of sin, that is, a gift. For grace is a gift. Therefore Christ, coming and assuming man, first exhibited that very man to God pure and innocent of the power of sin.

But of what utility was this to the rest and to the whole of humanity? Altogether the greatest, Pacian replies, when he treats this very controversy and sets it forth and determines it in these words⁹:

But if he alone conquered, what did he confer upon the rest? Hear briefly. Through one man, as the Apostle says¹⁰, the offense entered, and through the offense death; thus also it came unto all men. Therefore the justice of Christ must also pass into the race; and just as the former through sin ruined his own stock, so Christ through justice vivifies his whole race. The Apostle urges this¹¹, saying: “That just as through the disobedience of one many were constituted sinners, so through the obedience of one many may be constituted just; and just as the offense reigned unto death, similarly may grace also reign through justice unto eternal life.”

Concerning this order of universal reparation Dracontius speaks with no less evidence¹², writing:

Yet the kindly pietas of the Parent, Wishing to indulge swiftly¹³, rather than prepared to punish—

—sent gracious Christ from the citadel of heaven through the stars¹⁴, Who by his might would break the arts of the serpent, Devastating the enemy’s cohorts by the standards of the Cross, Whom the lofty palaces of heaven, by a headlong cast, Thrust into grievous exile¹⁵ under perpetual fault.

And again¹⁶:

Thou seest future things beforehand, and although with thee¹⁷, Almighty, No things be future¹⁸, all things appear present, Or rather, things to come for us are created as things already past¹⁹. Thus, holy Spirit and Author, foreseeing beforehand that men would sin, Thou didst first prepare the medicine Before thou madest man: ready indulgence anticipated guilt, And pardon precedes the iniquitous deed. For Christ was given to us, the one hope of salvation, Who graciously washes our sins here in a stream of blood; And although he himself bears our stains and crimes, Nevertheless the spotless Lamb is present, and the sole heir Of him who always lives, himself also always destined to live.