Section CLXVIII

Since, therefore, two orders are distinguished, one of mercy and profuse clemency, the other of severity and justice, they nevertheless so relate to one another and mutually succeed one another that the former goes before, the latter follows after; the former emanates from God of its own accord—

—the latter takes its origin and occasion from men; the former is universal and infinitely extensive, while the latter is confined within limits, and so confined that it is put into execution only with the salvation of men proposed as its end, for as long as they live. For if you ask the Bishop of Bostra what most of all rules and tempers that penal order by which men are chastised in this mortality, you will hear that there presides over it, in a certain manner, a) the merciful will by which God desires that men be well disposed toward him and trust in his benignity; there presides b) the paternal love by which he punishes in order to heal, strikes in order to strengthen, and burns lest the ulcer creep onward even unto death; there presides c) an extraordinary and incredible φιλανθρωπία, by which he restrains and checks with the scourges set before it the human race rushing headlong; there presides d) the benevolent care by which he continually takes counsel for his own work; and, finally, there presides e) the vigilant solicitude by which he dispenses even temporal punishments for the benefit of men. Now, if not even the penal order is separated from goodness and mercy; if, even when he seems to be angry, God loves; and if, even when he punishes, he undertakes nothing which he does not will to be directed toward the salvation of men, will there be those who doubt either the universal amplitude of the repaired order or the benevolent mercy which cherishes absolutely all men in its bosom, liberates them by its graces, and leads them by its gifts to the inheritance proper to sons?

Those certainly will not doubt who examine the matter itself somewhat more deeply, who weigh without indolence the testimonies brought forward, who reflect within themselves that none perish except those who in the present life have despised each order, both that of mercy and justice and that of benefits and punishments, and who finally turn their mind to those things which James, Bishop of Nisibis—adorned with the highest encomiums of praise by Athanasius¹, Theodoret², Gennadius³, Gregory of Narek⁴, and Dionysius⁵, Patriarch of the Jacobites—committed to writing—

—and who went to the Council of Nicaea, τῶν ὀρθῶν ὑπερμαχήσων δογμάτων, οἷά τις ἀριστεὺς καὶ πρόμαχος ἁπάσης τῆς φάλαγγος, to contend for the true dogmas as a most valiant warrior and leader of the whole battle line⁶. For, after recounting the endowments of charity⁷, and then turning his discourse⁸ to God, who is its origin and perennial fountain, he cries out:

O King of the terrestrial globe, we adore you because you are long-suffering toward your creatures. All who work hidden things are manifest before you, and you know the thoughts of all men. Many are apostates from you, and many blaspheme you; and they receive a garment from your sustenance and defraud you in your works; yet you are beneficent and long-suffering toward all men. You have not judged us before your judgment; you have not corrected us, nor constituted us guilty; and you do not remove the benefits of your graces from the wicked.

But God is therefore beneficent and long-suffering toward all men and does not remove the benefits of his graces even from the wicked, because this truth, which attracts penitents and joins them to the just, is indubitable⁹:

This world is a world of grace, and until the consummation of its end there is in it a place for penance. The time approaches¹⁰ when grace will pass away and truth will reign. Penance does not exist at that time, because by his will grace has held dominion in its own time. And when the time of judgment has arrived, he does not will to receive penitents, because the term of penance has been set and fulfilled, and thereafter there is no longer a place for it.

But because this world is a world of grace, therefore¹¹ “the covenant which God promised¹² that he would give is this, that all may know him, from the little one even to the old man.”—

Hence¹³, “long before, and much earlier, the nations from all tongues had been called into the inheritance of the Most High than Israel was called.” He likewise never denied them a time for returning to their senses¹⁴, but, on account of the clemency of his mercy, gave a place for penance, so that men might have nothing which they could answer. But if at some time he shortened this period¹⁵, this is to be attributed to the same clement mercy¹⁶, which did not suffer men, hardened in despising the divine long-suffering, to bind themselves with graver faults and merit more atrocious punishments. With these agree well those things which, after relating the slaughter of the Amalekites and recalling the Lord’s command to Moses¹⁷, he adds¹⁸:

Employing this long-suffering of his, God spared the Amalekites, so that if perhaps, when they heard those things which had been written in the sacred books, they were converted to him, he himself would have mercy upon them. For if they had been converted to him, there would have been for them a place of penance, just as a place of penance was given to the Ninevites when overthrow was preached against them, and they displayed penance, and the fury of wrath was turned away from them. And just as a hand was extended to the Gibeonites¹⁹, and they were not slain with the Canaanites; and just as a hand was given to Rahab²⁰, because she believed; so the penance of the Amalekites would have been admitted if they had believed. For through four hundred years God spared them. But when this entire period had elapsed, when he had seen that they had not been converted, the fury of his wrath²¹ rushed upon them.—