Section CLVI

I would be content with these things and would turn my mind to surveying the other churches which still remain, did I not regard it as a religious duty not to pass over in silence that Church which Irenaeus¹ calls the greatest, most ancient, and known to all; with which², because of its more powerful principality, every church must agree; from which³ the rights of venerable communion flow unto all; and which, just as it is the glory of Italy, so is it the chief glory and most powerful bulwark of the whole Catholic name. Therefore I shall investigate in a few words what the Roman See of Peter and the Roman bishops believed and taught concerning the salvific will of God and the order of human reparation, and what the other churches propagated throughout the whole world drew from these, as though⁴ from their native fountain.

Now I see this head of doctrine especially to have prevailed among them: that although in Christian times divine grace flows much more copiously upon the human race, nevertheless there was never wholly withdrawn from it that which would be necessary and sufficient for conquering guilt and obtaining salvation. “Indeed,” writes the great Leo⁵,

divine goodness always took counsel for the human race in diverse ways and by many measures, and mercifully imparted very many gifts of its providence throughout all past ages. But in the last times it exceeded every abundance of its accustomed benignity, when in Christ mercy itself descended to sinners, truth itself to the erring, life itself to the dead, so that that Word, coeternal and coequal with the Begetter, might assume the nature of our lowliness into the unity of his divinity, and, born God from God, might also be born man from man. This indeed had been promised from the foundation of the world and had always been prophesied by many significations of things and words. But how great a portion of men would those figures and shadowed mysteries save, unless Christ by his advent fulfilled the long and hidden promises, and what then profited the few who believed it was to be done should now profit innumerable faithful as accomplished?

But that the mystery of the Incarnation, while yet to be done, profited few cannot be derived from the supposition that the goodness of God neglected many. “For⁶ the benignity of God remains over all and denies his mercy to no one, since without distinction he lavishes many goods upon all, and prefers to invite by benefits those whom he could deservedly subject to punishments. For the postponement of vengeance gives a place⁷ for penance. Nor, however, can it be said that there is no—”

“—vengeance where there is no conversion, because a hard and ungrateful mind is already a punishment to itself and suffers in its own conscience whatever is deferred by the goodness of God.”

Therefore it must be derived from this: that we neither consider the ineffable liberality of the divine gifts toward us nor judge it to belong to our part to cooperate with the grace of God which works in us. “For⁸ the kingdom of heaven does not come to sleepers, nor is the beatitude of eternity bestowed upon those who grow torpid in idleness and sloth; but because, as the Apostle⁹ says, ‘if we suffer together, we shall also be glorified together,’ we must run that way which the Lord himself¹⁰ testified that he is. With no merits of works assisting us, he took counsel for us both by a sacrament and by an example: that by the former he might advance unto salvation those called to adoption, and by the latter train them for labor.”

To this, therefore, returns the rationale of the providence by which we are ruled, and to this the divine economy by which we are governed. No sooner a) are we born and reckoned among men than the merciful benignity of God has received us. By it b) we are increased with benefits; by it we are advanced unto adoption; and by it we are trained for labor. Lest this c) befall us as burdensome and troublesome beyond our strength,¹¹ grace holds forth aid and obedience softens the command.

For d) the words of God thunder daily in our ears, and every man is convicted of knowing what is pleasing to divine justice. But because e) that judgment, in which¹² each one will receive according as he has done, whether good or evil, is deferred by the patience and goodness of him who will judge, the unbelieving hearts of the wicked promise themselves impunity and suppose that the qualities of human acts do not fall under the judgment of divine providence—as though deeds done evilly are not very often punished by most evident penalties, or the terror of heavenly threats is not frequently displayed. By these, indeed, faith is both admonished and unbelief rebuked. And it f) is rebuked for so long as¹³ the end of this life finds unbelievers in their acts; since in hell there is no correction, nor is a remedy of satisfaction given where an action of the will no longer remains, as the prophet David¹⁴ says: “For in death there is no one who remembers you; but in hell who will confess to you?”

Now what sort of order shall we judge that to be in which clemency and goodness claim the first parts for themselves; in which justice succeeds only in the second rank; and in which, for as long as we live this mortal life, the very functions of justice are tempered by mercy and directed toward assisting and advancing the attainment of salvation? Shall we judge it to be an order of reparation and salvation, or, on the contrary, of condemnation and death? Those who do not most constantly profess the former must not even understand the words. God, therefore, selected an order of reparation in which no necessity of perishing would lie upon men and in which the power of obtaining salvation would be readily available.

But did he select that order in which so happy a power would be available to absolutely all men? Leo teaches and repeats that divine goodness always took counsel for the human race and mercifully imparted very many gifts of its providence throughout all past ages; that God’s benignity remains over all; and that mercy is denied to no one, by which many goods are bestowed without distinction upon all. Therefore God not only chose the order of reparation—

but chose an entirely universal order, so that only those suffer the loss of salvation who, growing torpid in idleness and sloth, do not join free cooperation to the grace working within them.