But man failed himself, wandered from the end proposed to him, and preferred injustice to justice, and vice and impiety to virtue and holiness. What counsel did God therefore undertake, or what did he decree concerning the human race? Titus meets this question splendidly when, opposing1 the Manichaeans—who claimed the Law for the evil principle because of the punishments enjoined and the harshness of its judgments, but the Gospel for the good principle because of its πέλαγος ἀφέσεως, sea of remission—he says:
If, overcome by negligence, they are unwilling to read the Scriptures, let them cease accusing here also. The Savior says2: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I shall refresh you.” Οὐδένα παρείς, μηδένα ἀπολιπών, πάντας περιλαβών, he passed over no one, left no one, embraced all. But David says3: “All nations, clap your hands.” And again4: “Perceive with your ears, all you who inhabit the world, both earthborn men and sons of men, rich and poor together in one.” Πάντες ἐξ εὐαγγελίου, πάντες ἐκ νόμου κεκινημένοι· οὐδένα παραλέλοιπε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον· οὐδένα ἀφῆκεν ὁ νόμος· ἐβόησε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον· μετανοεῖτε, ἤγγικε γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν· πρὸς πάντας ἀφῆκε τὴν ὁμιλίαν ταύτην, πταίουσι διελέγετο· ἐσφαλμένοις ὡμίλει· ἤδη θάνατον ὀφείλουσιν ἐφθέγγετο· ἐλευθερίαν διὰ τοῦ κηρύγματος προεμνηστεύετο. All were stirred in the Gospel, all in the Law. The Gospel left no one, the Law omitted no one. The Gospel cried out5: “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” It issued this discourse to all; it spoke with those who offend; it held discourse with the fallen; it spoke with those who were already liable to death; through its preaching it beforehand procured liberty.
He proceeds6 to confirm that the Law contains things most similar to these and most suitable for commending the mercy of God by those things which are read in Jonah7, and which God utters through Ezekiel8 in these words:—
“I do not will the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live. Ὁ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐπισταμένων ὑμνεῖν δοξολογούμενος, οἰκτίρμων καὶ ἐλεήμων ὁ Κύριος, μακρόθυμος καὶ πολυέλεος· τηλικοῦτον γὰρ πέλαγος ἐστὶν οἰκτιρμῶν παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ, ὡς καὶ τὴν ἐλαχίστην καὶ βραχυτάτην, καὶ τῶν πάνυ φαυλοτάτων πρὸς μετάνοιαν ῥοπὴν, μὴ ἀτίμητον ἐᾶσαι, he who is glorified in praises by those who know how to sing his praises is called the compassionate and merciful Lord, patient and of much mercy. For so immense is the sea of compassions with God that he does not leave unhonored even the least and briefest inclination toward penance of the most thoroughly wicked.”
The history of Ahab9 illustrates this; and from it he concludes that the time of punishment was therefore prolonged, ἵνα καὶ τὴν ἐλαχίστην ῥανίδα τῆς μετανοίας τιμήσῃ τῇ πρεπούσῃ τιμῇ ὁ Θεός, “that God might pursue with fitting honor even the least drop of penance.”
Since, therefore, a twofold condition of the human race can and indeed ought to be considered—one prior to ruin and sin, the other subsequent to transgression—it will have been worthwhile to know what relation must be believed to have intervened, and still to intervene, between God and men for each condition. Titus explains this question with such evidence that he closes every entrance to doubts.
For, according to him, 1) for that condition which precedes guilt and is called the condition of an integral and innocent nature, there existed between God and the human family no other relation than one of love and most inclined beneficence: of love, indeed, by which God, moved, established man according to his own image and directed him toward virtue and supreme felicity; of most inclined beneficence—
—by which he adorned him with gifts far surpassing the power of nature and instructed him with that faculty of choice by which those very gifts would redound unto the material of merit, praise, and glory.
But 2) for that condition which followed transgression and is called the condition of fallen and despoiled nature, love put on the countenance of mercy, and piety succeeded beneficence. Love put on the countenance of mercy because it now regards the wretched and is referred to the unworthy; while piety succeeded beneficence because it now applies medicine to wounds, vindicates captives into liberty, and promises salvation to the lost.
But 3) to all the lost, so that mercy and the order of reparation proceeding from it ought to be considered plainly universal? The answer of Titus returns to this: a) there is no one whom the Savior passed over, no one whom the Gospel abandoned; b) the Savior expended his piety upon all, and the Gospel awakened all from the sleep of death; but c) this indulgence of merciful love and beneficent piety did not begin with the very advent of the Savior, but always existed, since God was always so disposed that he did not will the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live.
These things indeed 4) demonstrate that each universality, both of time and of persons, is so proper to the repaired order that it can in no way be doubted. Hence Titus commands men not to be doubtful concerning the benevolent providence of God, but to rest securely in it and promise themselves every best thing from it. “For,” he says10, “just as most men do not inquire curiously into true and genuine friends, rendering friendship lawful and genuine by this very fact, that they deal with friends without curiosity, οὕτω δὲ καὶ Θεὸς μάλιστα βουλόμενος ἡμᾶς διακεῖσθαι πρὸς ἑαυτόν, οὐχ ἅπασαν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ προνοίας σαφηνίζει τὴν ἐνέργειαν· ἐθέλει γὰρ ἡμᾶς πιστεύειν αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴν οὐδ’ ἅπασαν ἀποκρύπτει, ἀλλὰ δι’ ἐνίων ὑποδειγμάτων ὑπερείδει τρόπον τινὰ τὸν ἡμέτερον νοῦν, thus—”
“—also God, since he especially wills that we be well disposed toward him, does not disclose every force and efficacy of his providence; for he wills that we believe him. Nor, again, does he hide all of it from us, but by certain examples in some manner sustains our mind.”
Sustained by these, the mind ought to persuade itself that even those things which happen to us as harsh and sorrowful are administered by benevolent providence. “For through these11 God admonishes men and dispenses and governs these things, not serving the disturbance of wrath, ἀλλὰ κηδεμονίας καὶ τῆς τῶν δεομένων ἐπιστροφῆς μεταποιούμενος, but embracing the care of converting those who need to be converted. Οὐδὲ γὰρ φιλανθρωπίας τῆς ἀνωτάτω καὶ ἀκριβοῦς ἂν εἴη τὸ ὑποκορίζεσθαι γε χρηστότητι τὰ ἀνθρώπινα πάθη, καὶ τῷ ἀνεπιπλήκτῳ τὴν αὔξησιν αὐτοῖς ἐπιτρέπειν· τοὐναντίον γὰρ τοῦτο πρὸς ἀπανθρωπίαν δρᾷ, εἴγε βουλόμενος τῆς κατὰ τὸ φαινόμενον μὴ ἐξίστασθαι χρηστότητος, ἐπιβούλως συγχωροίη πρὸς ἔκλυσιν κακίας πάντῃ καταπίπτειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. For it would not belong to the highest and perfect charity toward men to lessen human sufferings through lenity and to permit them increase by not rebuking them; indeed, this would rather tend, contrariwise, toward inhumanity, if, while wishing not to depart from that lenity which has only an appearance, he should insidiously permit men to fall utterly into the dissolution of wickedness. But I say that mild things are to be supplied with reason, and those which are judged harsh to be inflicted from necessity. For a father is not inhuman when he beats a delinquent son; rather, on the contrary, if he did not bring him to conversion, he would not appear to possess paternal providence and mercy. Nor is a physician inhuman when he cuts and burns a creeping ulcer; indeed, the more he applies the rationale of his art, the more, in order to heal the sick man, he introduces pain from more severe remedies, since the sick man would perish from the ulcers unless he assisted him in this manner, but would be healed when cutting and burning were applied.”
But to these manifest arguments of reasons and remarkable images for depicting the matter he adds12:—
“Therefore, as this example teaches, ἄνθρωποί εἰσιν, οἱ τὰ γε ἀνιαρὰ ποιοῦντες καθ’ ἑαυτῶν, μᾶλλον ἢ ὁ Θεός· οἱ τὴν χρείαν καὶ τοὺς καιροὺς προθέσει γε οἰκείᾳ προκατασκευάζοντες, διὰ τῶν οἰκείων παθῶν, it is men rather than God who inflict upon themselves things rugged and harsh, who by their own purpose prepare, through their own affections, the need and the opportunities of the time. For just as the physician does not bring it about that burning is needed and that it is time to burn, but the ulcer brings the physician and calls for burning, οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα πάθη προκαλεῖται τῶν εἰς θεραπείαν συντεινόντων· παρὰ Θεοῦ τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν, ἥκιστα γε ἀνεχομένου τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὡς οἰκείου ἔργου μὴ διὰ παντὸς προνοεῖν, so human affections summon God to apply those things which pertain to a cure, since he by no means suffers that provident care should not always look after men as his own work. For he entrusted to men that they should have the free choice of virtue and probity. But what in us is infirm toward the affections he supports and strengthens through those things which he sometimes manifestly applies for admonishing and rebuking; neither perpetually introducing the more austere and harsh things, so that he may not exclude liberty through the necessity and force of grief, nor, again, leaving our appetite wholly released through sloth, lest he leave the anticipations of the affections without a cure. Ἑκάτερα δὲ ἀῤῥήτῳ σοφίᾳ πρὸς ἀνθρώπων ὠφέλειαν οἰκονομεῖ· ἑκάστου τὸν δέοντα καιρὸν ἐπιστάμενος, he dispenses and governs each by ineffable wisdom for the benefit of men, knowing the suitable time of each.”