Section CXLV

By this most abundant and forceful discourse of Zeno we are taught: 1) that the benevolent will of God, which he calls charity, is as opulent as it is powerful. And indeed 2) that it is opulent, since a) the benefits which flow from it are innumerable, and pertain to both the natural and the supernatural order; and since b) there is no man whom God does not enrich with his benefits and, having enriched him, promote toward salvation. Then 3) that it is powerful, because it was able to change God into man; because it caused God, made small, to journey for a little while away from the immensity of his majesty; because it bound him for nine months in the virginal prison; because it restored Eve in Mary; because it renewed Adam in Christ; and because it provided the sacred cross unto salvation for a world already lost. Since 4) both the opulence and the power of divine charity are so great, we are taught besides that all of us who are men are situated within that state which must be called and believed to be the state and οἰκονομία both of reparation and of hope.

And it was assuredly necessary that, first of all, the hope of future things be set before us, without which we perceive that not even present things themselves can stand. For, Zeno adds¹:

Take away hope: the whole of humanity grows torpid. Take away hope: all arts and virtues will cease. Take away hope: all things have been destroyed. Why does the boy go to the man of letters if he does not hope for the fruit of letters? Why does the sailor commit his vessel to the deep gulf if neither profit nor the desired port ever meets him? Why does the soldier contemn—not to say the injuries of horrid winter or torrid summer—but his own self, if he does not bear the hope of future glory? Why does the farmer scatter seeds if he does not gather the harvest, the reward of his sweat? Why does the Christian believe in Christ if he does not believe that the time of perpetual felicity promised to him by Christ will come?

Therefore, lest the rationales of human life be utterly overthrown and humanity itself grow torpid, God gave to all the hope of everlasting beatitude and declared his benevolent and merciful will toward all.

On this matter Hippolytus offers an eminent testimony: a doctor of the Church², γλυκύτατος καὶ εὐνούστατος, “most sweet and most benign”; a disciple of Irenaeus³; nearly γνώριμος τῶν ἀποστόλων, “a familiar of the Apostles”⁴; adorned with the most noble encomia by Anatolius of Laodicea⁵, Eusebius of Caesarea⁶, Jerome⁷, Andrew of Caesarea⁸, Cyril of Scythopolis⁹, Leontius of Byzantium¹⁰, Isidore of Seville¹¹, Germanus of Constantinople¹², John Damascene¹³, Photius¹⁴, and George Syncellus¹⁵; and likewise no mean ornament of the churches of Italy¹⁶. For, when the controversy has been proposed, πῶς ἂν¹⁷ πάλαι τοῖς μακαρίοις προφήταις ἀπεκάλυψεν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, αὐτὸς πάλιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ παῖς, ὁ πάλαι μὲν Λόγος, τυχεῖν ἐπιζητεῖς;—“In what manner, you ask to know, did the Word of God manifest himself of old to the blessed prophets, he himself again the servant of God¹⁸ who of old was the Word?”—he immediately resolves it in these words¹⁹:

For because the Word displayed through all the saints τὸ ἑαυτοῦ εὔσπλαγχνον καὶ ἀπροσωπόληπτον, his own mercy and the fact that he is in no way an acceptor of persons, illuminating them and disposing them ὡς ἔμπειρος ἰατρὸς πρὸς τὰ ἡμῖν συμφέροντα, ἐπιστάμενος τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀσθένειαν, like a skilled physician unto those things which are advantageous to us, since he knows the infirmity of men. And indeed he endeavors to teach the ignorant, but converts those who wander to his own true way. And by those indeed who seek in faith he is easily found; but to those who desire to knock at the door with clean eyes and a chaste heart he immediately opens. For he rejects none of his servants as though unworthy of the divine mysteries. He does not esteem the rich man more than the poor, nor does he spurn the poor man on account of his want. He does not reproach the barbarian, nor does he banish the eunuch as though not a man. He does not hate the woman on account of the disobedience of the first origin, nor does he defile the man on account of the guilt of transgression; ἀλλὰ πάντας θέλων καὶ πάντας σώζειν ἐπιθυμῶν, but he wills all and desires to save all. He wills to make all sons of God, and calls all the saints unto one perfect man. For there is also one Son of God, by whose gift we too, having obtained regeneration through the Holy Spirit, desire that all may come together unto one perfect and heavenly man²⁰.