Section CXXXV

But the doctrine which the bishops and writers of Italy professed had such agreement with these things that the faith of Gaul and of Italy rightly and deservedly appears expressed according to the same norm. Indeed, from the apostolic age even unto the sixth century, it is not possible to find even one Italian doctor whose constant faith and settled judgment was not this: I. that God is good and benevolent by his nature and substance, and can be addressed by no name more truly than that of a most clement father; II. that by the clemency connatural to himself he is the cause of death and ruin to no one; indeed III. that he does not take notice of men by severity and justice before he has shown himself pious and merciful toward them; that therefore IV. the very severity and justice, as long as men live mortal life, are so tempered by him that each ought to be judged medicine rather than penalty, and the fruit rather of the will which loves and supplies aid than of the will which is angry and rages with wrath; that V. to this merciful will must be attributed the counsel and purpose by which he awaited the repentance of the nations even unto the advent of Christ, by which in the last times he sent his Only-begotten into this world, and by which he decreed that he who was God over all, blessed unto the ages and ὁμοούσιος, consubstantial, with himself, should become man and related to us by nature, put on the form of a servant, and, made in it obedient unto death, undergo the Passion of the cross and pour forth divine blood; that he should VI. pour it forth so as to heal all, wash the world, free all from darkness, recall them to the kingdom of God, repair the damages inflicted, and, as the new Adam, restore the power of attaining salvation which had been lost by the fault and crime of the first; whereby VII. it would come about that however many perish do not stumble into so great a destruction because they could not avoid it, but because they preferred darkness to light and esteemed death above life.

In order to elucidate and confirm all these things in the order in which I proposed them, first of all I shall bring forward Ambrose, whose exceptional praises were celebrated by Basil¹,—

—Jerome², Rufinus³, Augustine⁴, Paulinus⁵, Cassian⁶, Prosper⁷, Theodoret⁸, Idacius⁹, Vigilius of Thapsus¹⁰, Gelasius¹¹, Marcellinus¹², Gregory¹³, Cassiodorus¹⁴, and¹⁵ Isidore. On the words¹⁶ of the Psalm, “Thou art good, O Lord, and in thy goodness teach me thy justifications,” he writes¹⁷:

It is proper to God that he be good. Finally, you have in the Gospel¹⁸ that a good tree makes good fruits. His fruits are angels; his fruits are men, that is, rational and holy, if they keep the commandments of the Lord; his fruits are those who are born upon the earth; his fruits are the virtues of men. Rightly, therefore, a good tree makes good fruits.

An argument of his connatural and infinite goodness is also this, Ambrose adds: that¹⁹ God permitted us to call him Father, whose servant it is a virtue to be; and that, from the clemency²⁰ with which he follows all, he claimed for himself in the first place the name and appellation of God.

Jerome²¹ agrees and, explaining in a commentary²² the words²³ of Paul, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, in Christ,” says:

Just as God, good according to substance and nature, has made us good by communion with himself, and speaks²⁴ to Israel, “Be holy, for I am holy,” so may he who is blessed grant us to be blessed.

But elsewhere²⁵ he writes:

God is merciful by nature and ready to save by clemency those whom he cannot save by justice; but we, through our own fault, lose and abandon mercy prepared and offering itself of its own accord. And he did not say²⁶, “those who do vanities” (“vanity of vanities, and all is vanity”), lest he seem to condemn all and to deny mercy to the entire human race; but “those who keep vanities,” or falsehood, who have passed into the affection of the heart; who not only do vanities but so keep them as though they love them and think that they have found a treasure. And at the same time observe the magnanimity of the prophet: covered in eternal night in the depth of the sea, in the belly of so great a beast, he does not think of his own danger, but of the nature of things; he philosophizes by a general sentence.

“They will abandon their mercy,” he says. Although mercy has been offended—which we can understand as God himself, for “the Lord is merciful²⁷ and compassionate, patient and of much mercy”—nevertheless he does not abandon or detest those who keep vanities, but awaits their return; they, however, of their own accord abandon mercy standing and offering itself freely.

Struck by this image²⁸, Jerome exclaims, “O how great is the clemency of God!” Indeed, he adorns God himself by no title²⁹ more willingly than that of the wisest and most clement physician.

Therefore Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia, most closely joined by the bond of friendship to Jerome as well as to Ambrose³⁰, John Chrysostom, Heliodorus, and Rufinus, considering the form of prayer prescribed³¹ by Christ, says:

The Lord therefore established this form of prayer for his disciples unto the hope of human salvation, saying: “Our Father³², who art in heaven.” How great is the love of the Lord toward us! How great his mercy and piety, which granted us the gift of so great a grace, that we servants may dare freely to call our Lord and God Father! By this word he shows that we are now not only servants, but also sons of God. And although it would have been enough and more than enough for grace that we should merit merely to be called servants, the charity of God so abounded that we are called not only servants, but also sons of God through adoption.