Section CLV

But if Christ’s willing is common to all; if Christ’s Testament pertains to all, not to one or to a few; if all are inscribed in it as heirs; if the remission of sins is denied to no one; if reformation extends to all; and if grace is bestowed upon all—whence, then, shall we judge it to have come about that many lie wretched in corrupted oldness, lose the benefit of grace and reparation, and, though inscribed as heirs, are nevertheless deprived of the inheritance itself? We shall judge that it came about by this law: that it is plainly one thing to possess the faculty of obtaining the inheritance, and another thing to attain the inheritance itself. For the power of attaining the inheritance is universal and common to absolutely all, because it neither depends upon nor proceeds from anything other than God’s pious purpose and Christ’s benevolent economy. But the attainment of the inheritance is particular—

and belongs uniquely to those who obey God’s pious purpose and join themselves to Christ the Savior. The power of entering upon the inheritance is a gift of the mercy of the Repairer conferred upon universal nature; but possession of the inheritance is a reward repaid to each individual person by a most equitable distribution. Finally, the power of entering upon the inheritance is in us without us; but the happiness of attaining it comes to us under this one law: if we freely cooperate with God.

Concerning this law, nothing is more splendid than these things which Ambrose writes¹:

You see, therefore, that God the Word both provokes the idle man and awakens the sleeper. For he who comes and knocks at the door always wishes to enter. But it rests with us that he does not always enter, does not always remain. Let your door lie open to him who comes; open your soul; expand the bosom of your mind, that he may see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the sweetness of grace. Enlarge your heart; run to meet the sun of eternal light, which illuminates every man. And that true light indeed shines for all; but if anyone closes his windows, he will defraud himself of the eternal light. Christ, therefore, is also shut out if you close the door of your mind; and though he can enter, nevertheless he does not wish to rush in importunately; he does not wish to compel the unwilling. Having arisen from the Virgin, he came forth from the womb, irradiating the whole universe, so that he might shine for all. Those who desire it receive the brightness of perpetual splendor, which no night interrupts. For upon this sun which we behold daily a dark night follows; but the sun of justice never sets, because malice does not succeed wisdom.

To this these things likewise pertain²:

The Lord has mercy, lest anyone fail on the way. If anyone, therefore, has failed, he fails not through the Lord Jesus but through himself; nor do you have anything which you may ascribe to the Lord, who conquers when he is judged. For what will you say to him who conferred upon you all the supports of virtue? Did he not beget you? Did he not feed you? His food is virtue; his food is fortitude. But if through your negligence you lost the virtue which you had received, it was not the supports of the heavenly nourishment but those of your own mind which failed you. Finally, just as the Lord rains upon the—

“—just and the unjust, so also he feeds the unjust and the just.”

And again³:

The Lord Jesus, therefore, distributes the food. And he indeed wishes to give to all; he denies it to no one, for he is the dispenser of all. But when he breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples, if you do not extend your hands so that you may receive the food for yourself, you will fail on the way; nor will you be able to transfer your fault to him who has mercy and distributes. But he distributes to those who remain with him even in the desert, who do not withdraw on the first, second, or third day⁴… . Therefore⁵, do not fall away from the discipline of the Lord, nor grow weary when you are rebuked by him. Do not grow weary now, lest you grow weary afterward. For what will you answer him, or how will you excuse yourself, if you have lost the strength of the food which he ministers? You cannot say that he did not give the food, because he gives to all. You cannot say that he did not will to make you good, before whom he placed good and evil, so that your good might be not from necessity but voluntary. For there is a great difference between him who unwillingly does something from necessity and him who by his will chooses what is good; for⁶, if I do this unwillingly, a stewardship has been entrusted to me; if willingly, I have a reward. Let us therefore consider that we shall stand before the tribunal of Christ, and if our work should burn, we shall have nothing whereby we can excuse ourselves. For he will say what he has already spoken through the prophet⁷: ‘My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I been troublesome to you? Answer me.’ He will also say to him who has failed on the way: ‘For what reason did you fail on the way? Did I not break the loaves? Did I not bless them? Did I not command that they be given? But why were you unwilling to receive?’

From these things it is manifest what can, and indeed must, be answered to those asking how it comes about that so many among men endowed with reason fall away from salvation and are eternally condemned. Does it a) come about from this, that original guilt infected the human stock and destroyed it after it had been infected? By no means: both because on this account no one could be safe, and because divine reparation in Christ and through Christ comes to the aid of original—

corruption. Does it b) come about from this, that the order of reparation is particular and does not extend to the universal posterity of Adam? Nothing less; since God, in accordance with his mercy, took counsel for all, and Christ was born for all, died for all, and rose again for all. Does it c) come about from this, that the order of reparation is sterile and that the aids necessary for salvation do not flow from it unto all? Not at all, since that order is efficacious and was therefore divinely chosen so that every occasion of excuse might be cut off and all might be endowed with the faculty of obtaining salvation.

How, then, does it come about that, although all are able by heavenly liberality, nevertheless not all possess heavenly happiness? Although, as Nicetas⁸, bishop of Aquileia, speaks, Christ is for all the Son of Man, because for us men he deigned to be born man; for all a priest, because he offered his own body as an oblation and victim to God the Father for us, and deigns to be offered by us each day⁹; for all the way, because through him we proceed to salvation; for all the vine, because, extending the branches of his arms upon the cross, he supplied to the world the great fruit of sweetness; for all redemption, because he redeemed us, long ago lost, at the price of his blood; for all a physician, because by his visitation he cured our infirmities and wounds; and¹⁰ for all peace, because he gathered those who were at variance into one and reconciled them to God the Father—nevertheless, how are so many found who either never recover the divine likeness or at last lose it after it has once been recovered?

It comes about precisely 1) from this: that the faculty allotted to all does not profit unless it is freely accepted and, when accepted, freely employed as is fitting.

It comes about 2) from this: that the supply for obtaining salvation is not without reason compared with food, without which no one lives, but with which all those die who do not suitably turn it to their own benefit. It comes about 3) from this: that there is a very great difference between the power of obtaining salvation and an imposed necessity of attaining it. Now God, who imparts the power to all, constrains and compels no one by necessity. Finally, it comes about 4) from this: that the wise and good God decreed that the attainment of the inheritance should bear the force and rationale not more of a gift than of a reward: of a gift, indeed, because the faculty of attaining it is a gift; but of a reward, because the inheritance ought to be conferred only upon those who did not neglect the gift received but joined their own care and industry to it.