Section CLXV

Having set forth these things concerning the doctrine and faith of the Roman Church, and explained them according to the faculty which was in us, we are in a certain manner admonished by the very nature of things immediately to question the Church of Antioch and diligently to inquire what it thought and determined concerning the salvific will of God and the order of reparation. For we judge that no one can be found who does not know that each Church is bound by a most intimate bond, since one and the same Peter presided over each, governed Antioch for some time, but governed Rome even unto death, and enriched it with his prerogatives and supreme principality. But it will not be difficult for us to discover the faith and profession of the diocese of Antioch and, when discovered, to bring it to light, since witnesses concerning it are available both more numerous in number and most weighty in authority, while they speak testimonies of such a kind as are deservedly and rightly judged most clear.

And to the sound teachers of the East nothing was more ancient and nothing more solemn than to extol the innate goodness of God and the beneficence poured forth from it upon—

—all, and by repeated judgments to confirm the universal amplitude of the salvific will. To each head pertain not a few of those things which Nemesius¹, a Christian philosopher of the fourth century and likewise honored with the amplest praises by Maximus², Anastasius of Sinai³, and Moses Bar-Cepha⁴, clearly embraces⁵ in his golden little book Περὶ φύσεως ἀνθρώπου, On the Nature of Man. For in that chapter⁶ which he entitles Περὶ προνοίας, On Providence, he speaks precisely thus: Ἄλλως τε ἀγαθός ἐστιν ὁ Θεός· ἀγαθὸς δὲ ὤν, εὐεργετικός· εἰ δὲ εὐεργετικός, καὶ προνοητικός. “Moreover, God is good; and since he is good, he is inclined to benefit; and if inclined to benefit, he is also provident.”

While other things ought to be attributed to this providence proceeding from benignity, this especially ought to be attributed: that to absolutely all men, and at any time in this present life, power is divinely given to recover their senses and to obtain salvation and immortality. “For⁷ man has been affected by a twofold kind of honor and gift: both because he alone obtains by penance pardon of sins, and because his body alone—”

“—although mortal and perishable, is rendered eternal and immortal. Of these, the former, which pertains to the body, he attained on account of the soul; the latter, which pertains to the soul, on account of the body. Μόνος γὰρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῶν λογικῶν ἐξαίρετον ἔσχε τὸ συγγνώμης ἐν τῷ μετανοεῖν ἀξιοῦσθαι. For man alone among all things endowed with reason has this distinction: that his error is pardoned by penance. For neither demons nor angels can obtain pardon of offenses through penance. Καὶ ἐν τούτῳ μάλιστα καὶ δίκαιος καὶ ἐλεήμων ὁ Θεὸς δείκνυταί τε καὶ λέγεται. In this especially God is both shown and called just and merciful. For since angels have no necessary cause which impels them to sin, but by nature are free from every affection of the body, from want, and from pleasure, deservedly they cannot aspire to pardon through penance. But man is not only a participant in reason but also an animal; and the necessary uses of animal life and turbulent motions very often weaken and undermine reason. Therefore, when he returns to health and, after declining the turbulent motions of the soul, embraces virtue, just mercy—that is, pardon—is bestowed upon him. And just as it is proper to his nature to laugh, for it is present both to him alone, to every one, and always, so among things constituted not by the law of nature but by God’s benefit toward us, it is proper to man above all things endowed with reason that through penance he be liberated from every guilt. Καὶ γὰρ μόνῳ ἀνθρώπῳ τοῦτο δεδώρηται, καὶ παντί, καὶ ἀεὶ παρὰ τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἐγκοσμίου ζωῆς, μετὰ δὲ θάνατον οὐκέτι. For to man alone, and to every man, and always, for as long as he lives upon earth, has this been given; but after death, no longer.”

From these things two consequences follow, and they most illustrious. First, that God conducted and still conducts himself in one way with the sinning angels and in another with fallen men. For he himself gave no opportunity of penance to the angels, but condemned them guilty forever; but he treated men far more benignly and, although all sinned in one, nevertheless granted to all time and the faculty to return to a better mind. Second, that with the angels he acted according to the norm of equity and justice; but with men he was far milder and so far indulged mercy that he instituted for them the order of universal reparation—

—for them. For the institution of this order it is necessary and sufficient if 1) no necessity of perishing lies upon men, although infected by the stain and bound by sin; if 2) to all and each of men is conferred all that whereby they themselves can recover their senses and be liberated from the bonds of sins; and if 3) it is conferred for as long as they live this present and mortal life. For these things cannot agree and flow together into one sum, as it were, without the order of universal reparation arising from them.

Now what does Nemesius teach and testify? He teaches a) that it is a prerogative of the human race that it can obtain pardon of sins by penance. He teaches b) that it must be attributed to divine justice and mercy that God conferred this prerogative upon the human race; and that c) he conferred it μόνῳ ἀνθρώπῳ, καὶ παντί, καὶ ἀεὶ παρὰ τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἐγκοσμίου ζωῆς, upon man alone, upon every man, and always, for as long as he lives upon earth. So much so that d) it ought to be ascertained⁸, ὡς οἱ τὴν μετάνοιαν οὐ δεχόμενοι τὴν ἐξαίρετον δωρεὰν καὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ἀνθρώπου περιγράφουσιν, that those who reject penance take away the principal gift proper to man. Nemesius is therefore a rich authority for the divinely instituted reparation which has always so embraced all men that it has not excluded even one either at any time or now.

Therefore not only the things which God does, but even those which he permits, although more than once they appear to us neither sufficiently advantageous nor opportune, are nevertheless directed by divine benignity toward procuring the salvation of men. Nemesius hands this down at greater length in that chapter⁹ in which he investigates περὶ τοῦ τίνων ἐστὶ πρόνοια, of what things there is providence, and in which, among other things, he writes¹⁰: “Ἄλλο τε συγχωρεῖ τῶν ἀτόπων τι πραχθῆναι, ἵνα διὰ τῆς πράξεως τῆς δοκούσης ἀτόπου, μέγα τι καὶ θαυμαστὸν κατορθώσῃ, ὡς διὰ τοῦ σταυροῦ τὴν σωτηρίαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων. At another time he permits something absurd to be done, so that through an act which seems—”

“—absurd he may accomplish a certain great and admirable thing, as through the cross the salvation of the human race.”

By these last words the meritorious cause of the decreed universal reparation is shown. It was the cross which Christ ascended for all; and it was the death which Christ underwent for all. Nemesius speaks of this elsewhere also¹¹, when, enumerating the arguments which ought to persuade Jews and Christians of providence, he says: Χριστιανοὺς δὲ καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἅπαντα διδάσκει πρόνοιαν εἶναι· μάλιστα δὲ τὸ θειότατον καὶ δι’ ὑπερβολὴν φιλανθρωπίας ἀπιστότατον ἔργον τῆς προνοίας, ἡ δι’ ἡμᾶς ἐνσωμάτωσις τοῦ Θεοῦ. “But Christians are taught both by all these things¹² that there is providence, and especially by that most divine and, because of its extraordinary love for the human race, supremely incredible work of providence by which God, for our sake, clothed himself with a body.”

Nothing is more illustrious than these things, whether a) that the principal cause of reparation may be known, which is nothing other than the ὑπερβολὴ φιλανθρωπίας, the extraordinary love for the human race, with which God pursues the human race; or b) that its meritorious cause may become known, which is the ἐνσωμάτωσις τοῦ Θεοῦ, the embodiment of God; or finally c) that its amplitude may be declared, which extends no less widely than human nature itself extends.