Section CXVI

Now, indeed, among the very many things which cohere with this providence concerning the repaired human race, there are some which the Spanish doctors commemorate above the rest and which I judge worth the labor to review in order. First, therefore, if we give faith to them, there coheres the purpose by which God wills no one to perish, by which he solicitously seeks the erring and the wandering, and by which he rejoices vehemently when he finds them and, having found them, holds them obedient to himself.

Behold, Pacian writes¹, it is God himself who speaks: “I will not the death of the sinner², so much as that he should return and live.” And again³: “Will not he who has fallen,” he says, “rise; and will not he who has turned away be converted?” And the Apostle says⁴: “God is able to establish him.” The Apocalypse also threatens the seven churches unless they do penance. Certainly it would not threaten those who do not repent unless it pardoned those who repent. For God himself says⁵: “Remember, behold, whence thou hast fallen, and do penance.” And again⁶: “When, having been converted, thou shalt groan, then thou shalt be saved, and thou shalt know where thou wast.” Nor should anyone so despair because of the vileness of a sinful soul as to believe himself no longer necessary to God. The Lord wills none of us to perish: even the little and the least are sought. If you do not believe, look: behold, in the Gospel the drachma is sought and, when found, shown to the neighbors. The little sheep, to be carried back upon his shoulders, is not burdensome to the shepherd. Over one sinner doing penance the angels rejoice in heaven and the heavenly choir exults. Ho, thou sinner, do not cease to ask: thou seest where there is rejoicing over thy return.

Then there coheres the paternal care by which God is present to all with his grace, confirms all, and renders all invincible, provided only that they do not fail themselves.

This is always my—

—faithful and undoubted opinion, says Orosius⁷: God supplies his aid not only in his body, which is the Church, to which he bestows special gifts of his grace on account of the faith of believers; but also to all the nations in this world, on account of his long-suffering and eternal clemency—not, as you maintain⁸ with your disciple Caelestius, for whom the hidden nature of those impious dogmas has already been crushed before the African synod, that one grace has been contributed generally to all in natural good alone and in free choice; but that he ministers it specially each day, through times, through days, through moments, through ἀτόμους, indivisible moments, both to all and to each.

After illustrating this with more things, he adds by inference⁹:

You have, as I judge, even among the nations a sufficient proof of cooperating grace; receive also a manifest indication concerning that special gift which he bestows peculiarly upon the Church and his body. Paul the Apostle writes to the Corinthians¹⁰: “I give thanks to my God always for you, in the grace of God which is given to you in Christ Jesus; because in all things you have been made rich in him, in every word and in all knowledge, just as the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you, so that nothing is lacking to you in any grace.” And again¹¹: “Being justified, therefore, by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and glory.” Whence Peter the Apostle also admonishes¹², saying: “Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of souls; concerning which salvation the prophets, who prophesied concerning the grace of God that was to be in us, inquired and searched.” From this it has been most evidently declared that the aid of God is lacking to no man, especially since both the seducer presses upon him and weakness is within him.

Pacian agrees in the most explicit words¹³, when, refuting the Novatians because they withdrew the grace of penance from those who sinned after baptism, he says:

If spiritual wickednesses can do nothing against the baptized, if that fraud of the serpent which first overthrew man and impressed so many titles of condemnation upon his posterity can do nothing; if it has withdrawn from the world; if we have already begun to reign; if no crime creeps upon our eyes, none upon our hands, none upon our minds: let this gift of God be cast aside¹⁴, let aid be repulsed, let no exomologesis, no groans, be heard; let proud justice contemn every remedy. But if the Lord has provided these things for his man; if the same one who bestowed rewards upon those standing bestowed remedies upon those fallen: cease to accuse divine pietas, or, under an objection of rigor, to disbelieve so many attestations of heavenly clemency, or to prohibit the gratuitous goods of the Lord with inexorable harshness. We do not bestow these things from our own. “Be converted to me,” says the Lord¹⁵, “and at the same time in fasting and weeping and mourning rend your hearts.” And again¹⁶: “Let the impious forsake his ways, and the wicked man his thoughts, and let him be converted to the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy.” Likewise the prophet cries in this manner¹⁷: “Because God is gracious and gentle and patient, and one who¹⁸ turns back the sentence against the evils inflicted.” Does the serpent possess venom so enduring, and does Christ not possess a medicine? Does the devil slay in the world, and can Christ not bring aid here? Let it indeed grieve one to sin, but let it not grieve one to repent. Let one be ashamed to be endangered, but not ashamed to be liberated. Who will snatch the plank from a shipwrecked man lest he escape? Who will begrudge the healing of wounds?

For God is always at hand—

—to furnish medicine, and always, according to Dracontius¹⁹, brings aid by the gifts of his grace:

Being asked without a voice, he bestows pardon for sins upon the guilty, By the affection of the heart²⁰, by the secret mind, by faith, by hope. Since God is everywhere, always prepared to furnish, Alas, we receive more slowly, delayed by our own heart. Gracious vows hate delays²¹; swiftly he adopts. The clement God placed all things within our choice²²: The mind of men is free to sin or to live holily; He gave free vows, whenever we will to hope; If it pleases us to believe²³, it is easy, for we are able to obtain.

Therefore God acts patiently with men, defers punishment, does not punish before he has admonished, is clement even in wrath itself, frequently indulges, waits with long-suffering, and conducts himself thus for this reason: that he wills the life of men, not death and everlasting destruction. Let Dracontius be heard²⁴:

No one wishing to strike first admonishes that it is thereafter to be avoided; But he who terrifies loves²⁵. Thus indulgence anticipates Punishment, and torments seize no guilty persons.

The Almighty does not deny pardon to anyone who asks²⁶, Since he often denies punishment, although he threatens it To all; and the judgment of the Thunderer strikes no one Unless the vice of the sinner acts by persisting malignantly. And whomever he strikes, he moderately tempers the blows; He corrects the erring and does not punish suddenly with death, If any profane man refrains from sinning for long²⁷. But when man persists, always following offenses, He will feel wrath in fury chastising with punishment.

Repeating these things elsewhere²⁸, he sings:

Therefore thou dost not act severe; Thou punishest the erring, but gently correctest all, Good under pietas, while the scourge of punishment ceases. And as often as thou shalt have been moved²⁹, thou standest forth most placid, Commanding nothing harsh; the sentence of heaven is light. Gracious King, thou pronouncest punishment revocable for all, So that, if sinners acknowledge their guilt in the heart And with a better mind condemn their former offenses, There may be those whom thou pardonest; but not once only dost thou relax these things: Indulging more frequently, showing the thresholds of death³⁰, And calling back from cruel death those whom fault oppressed, Thou leadest in forms snatched from the jaws of hell³¹.

Since, therefore, the goodness of God is so great and his readiness to have mercy so great, whom, at last, shall we judge to perish? Dracontius answers³²:

These alone perish who, it has been established, are always profane, Willing to sin in evil without end. One boundary of crime and punishment is held once for all.

Moreover, he continues³³:

He who commands the sun to proceed for the placid and the savage³⁴, And the moon and wandering stars and all the constellations, Commands also the rains to be poured forth with no distinction. Nor is the one universal pietas devoid of rationale: He extends reward to the just, gifts to us unjust, That even thus we may be converted to him³⁵. Enticed by gifts, he changes us, not driven by punishments; God awaits gracious vows³⁶, he does not require incense; The sole victim pleasing to him is the honorableness of a purified mind³⁷.

From these things he finally concludes³⁸:

Whatever worthy of punishment we may do in the way of crime, fraud, and guile, The benign one defers to punish, That, if one repents, he may be more prepared to indulge; He who makes the angelic cohorts crackle with flame³⁹.

For indeed⁴⁰:

And a delay not brief is proved to be granted to the erring; And he is preserved for a long time for pardon, if the audacious man ceases To attempt illicit wickedness. For every guilty man converted⁴¹ Gives joys to heaven.