Section CXXVI

These things clearly return to this: it is necessary to distinguish a twofold will in God, the one of goodness, by which God from himself wills that the souls and bodies of absolutely all men should seek heaven and be eternally blessed in that most delightful abode; the other of justice, by which he wills that those perish who have enslaved themselves to sins even unto the end. To this also pertain the things which he writes when in his commentary¹ he illustrates the events that accompanied the deed concerning the ruler’s daughter raised² from the dead. For he writes:

The Lord then enters the ruler’s house, namely, the synagogue, for which in the songs of the Law a hymn of mourning resounded; and he is mocked by many. For they never believed God in man; rather, they laughed at the resurrection from the dead being preached. Therefore, taking by the hand³ the girl whose death in his sight was sleep, he recalled her to life. And so that the number of the election of those believing from the Law might be understood to be small, the entire crowd was expelled: the Lord certainly would have desired it to be saved; but by mocking his words and deeds, it was not worthy of participation in the resurrection.

From these things we understand not only the distinction between the two wills of goodness and justice, but we also attain what is either the origin or the amplitude of each. We understand a) the distinction between the two wills, since the will of goodness is and is called by Hilary that by which Christ from himself desires all to be saved; but the will of justice is and is called by the same that by which Christ repels many from participation in the blessed resurrection. We attain b) the origin of each, since the former spontaneously emerges from Christ’s innate goodness, but the latter is provoked by the rebellion and faults of men. And again we attain c) how far each extends: for the will of goodness is from itself infinite and embraces all; but the will of punishing justice is circumscribed by the number of those who are judged mockers of divine benefits.

And Hilary again lends support to this doctrine when, investigating the signification⁴ of the words, “For the Lord will judge his people, and in his servants he will be consoled,” he says⁵:

To be judged and to be consoled differ; and a people and a servant differ. But consolation is in the servants, while judgment is in the people. Who does not know that Israel according to the flesh was called the people of God? But it was said by the Apostle⁶: “Those who have sinned in the Law will be judged through the Law.” God, therefore, will judge his people; but in his servants he will be consoled, namely, in those concerning whom the Lord says⁷: “He who believes in me will not be judged, but will pass from death into life; but he who does not believe has already been judged.” But the Lord will be consoled in his servants when Israel has been judged. For in all the faithful⁸ of the earth he will have solace from his loss.

But to whom must this loss arising from the judgment and destruction of the people be attributed? Hilary immediately adds⁹:

God would have willed that his people, whom he had chosen in their fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, should not be judged: on their account he had afflicted Egypt with diverse plagues; on their account he had stood by in a pillar of fire and cloud; on their account he had divided the sea, cast water forth from the rock, sent manna from heaven, imposed the Law, granted pardon for so many sacrileges, overthrown so many kingdoms of the irreligious, sent prophets, and willed his Only-begotten to be born as man. But the people, ungrateful for so many and such benefits, and the tenant first chosen for the vineyard, laid parricidal hands in the vineyard upon the Lord himself¹⁰, putting God to death in man, insofar as it lay in them. But servants were chosen to whom the vineyard would be delivered as they rendered its fruit: in them the Lord, when his people had been judged, would be consoled for the loss suffered by his piety. Therefore, the nations console him—

—rendering to him in his martyrs and confessors and faithful the fruits of the grace committed by him to themselves.

Whom, therefore, does God finally punish, whom does he cast away and condemn? Are they those whom he himself first neglected and whom he disapproved and proscribed solely by his own nod? On the contrary, by the will of justice he punishes no one, he condemns no one, except one whom he first endeavored, insofar as it was from himself, to lead to salvation by the will of goodness. God does not first move his hand to scourges, nor does he first reject men from himself, before he has heaped every kind of benefit upon them and experienced losses to his piety. Before he approaches the supreme sentence of condemnation, as though almost compelled, he moves heaven and earth and leaves nothing untried. Therefore, 1) the effects of benignity and clemency precede justice and judgment; and 2) they so precede them as to be altogether universal; but judgment and penalty fall only upon those who, having spurned mercy, have procured wrath for themselves; whence 3) there is no one who perishes for this reason, that he could not have been saved; and therefore 4) however many men there have been, are, and will hereafter be, they have lived, live, and will live indeed in the state of fallen and ruined nature, but a nature raised and repaired by the benevolent mercy of God.