God looks to the same end not only by scourges, but also by temporal benefits themselves, and always has our salvation proposed. “Although we are unworthy,” Salvian adds1,
good things are sometimes bestowed upon us, because the good Lord, as a most indulgent father, although he sometimes permits us to be humbled for our sins, nevertheless does not suffer us to be afflicted for long; and—
—therefore now chastises his own with bitter circumstances for discipline, now favors them with tranquil ones for indulgence. For just as the best and most skillful physicians furnish dissimilar treatments for dissimilar diseases and assist some through sweet medicines, others through bitter; and cure some by the burning of cauteries, others by the gentleness of poultices; apply to some the hard cutting of iron, and pour upon others the soothing mildness of oil; and yet, although by most diverse treatments, the same health is sought: so also our God, if at any time he restrains us by more austere blows, cures as though by cauteries and incisions; but when he refreshes us with prosperous circumstances, he consoles as though with oil and poultices. For through the diverse aid of medicines he wills to lead us to one health.
“For since,” he proceeds2,
all things are under sacred dominion and the nod of God moderates all things, whatever evils and penalties we daily endure is the censure of the divine hand; and we cause this censure to grow hot and continually move it by our sins. We kindle the fire of heavenly wrath and stir up the conflagrations by which we burn. So that rightly, whenever we endure these evils, that prophetic word3 can also be said to us: “Go into the flame of the fire which you have kindled.” And through this, according to the sacred saying4, each sinner prepares for himself what he suffers. There is therefore nothing which we can impute to God in our calamities. We are the authors of our calamities. For God is pious and merciful, and, as it is written5, wills no one to perish or to be harmed. We therefore do all things against ourselves. Nothing, therefore, nothing is more cruel to us than ourselves: we, I say, we torment ourselves even when God is unwilling. But doubtless I seem to speak against myself, since, although above I said that we are punished by God on account of our sins, now I say that we are punished by ourselves. Both are true. For we are punished by God, but we ourselves bring it about that we are punished. But since we ourselves bring it about that we are punished,—
—who doubts that we punish ourselves by our own crimes? Because whoever supplies the cause for which he is punished punishes himself, according to that saying6: “Each one is bound by the cords of his own sins.” Therefore, if perverse men are bound by the cords of their own sins, without doubt each sinner binds himself when he sins.