To this, assuredly, the doctrine of Theophilus returns; to this those things which we copied from him look; and to this are referred the following things which he adds after narrating the murder of Abel1:
From these beginnings death, having been introduced into this world, has pervaded the whole human race until now. ὁ δὲ Θεὸς ἐλεήμων ὤν, καὶ βουλόμενος ἀφορμὴν μετανοίας καὶ ἐξομολογήσεως παρασχεῖν τῷ Κάϊν, καθάπερ καὶ τῷ Ἀδάμ, εἶπε· ποῦ Ἄβελ ὁ ἀδελφός σου; But since God is merciful and wished to open an approach to penance and confession for Cain, just as also for Adam, he thus addressed him: “Where is Abel your brother?”—
To this likewise pertain those things by which, commending divine providence2, he says:
Ὁ μέν τοι γε Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ καὶ κτίστης τῶν ὅλων, οὐκ ἐγκατέλιπε τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα, ἀλλὰ ἔδωκεν νόμον, καὶ ἔπεμψε προφήτας ἁγίους, πρὸς τὸ καταγγεῖλαι καὶ δεῖξαι3 τὸ γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, εἰς τὸ ἕνα ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ἀνανῆψαι καὶ ἐπιγνῶναι, ὅτι εἷς ἐστι Θεός. But God, the Father and Maker of all, did not abandon the human race, but gave a law and sent holy prophets, who would announce to the human race and command that each one of us, awakening, should recognize that there is one God. By the same we have been taught to abstain from the impious worship of idols, … from all lasciviousness and impurity, and not to do to another those things which each would not will to be done to himself; καὶ οὕτως ὁ δικαιοπραγῶν ἐκφύγῃ τὰς αἰωνίους κολάσεις, καὶ καταξιωθῇ τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, and thus the cultivator of justice may escape eternal punishments and obtain eternal life from God.
To the same pertain the things which, after describing the benefits of the natural order of which no one is deprived, he has when, comparing the world with the sea4, he says:
In the sea a certain similitude with the world is displayed to us. For just as the sea, unless it were nourished by the influx of rivers and fountains, would long ago have been dried up and burned by its saltness, so the world, unless it had possessed the law of God and the prophets, from whom flow and spring forth meekness, mercy, justice, and the doctrine of the holy commandments of God, would long ago have failed because of wickedness and the sins multiplied in it. And just as in the sea there are certain habitable islands, healthful in waters, fruitful, secured by roadsteads and harbors, that they may be a refuge for those tossed by a storm, so God gave holy churches to the world fluctuating and surging beneath sins, in which the doctrine of truth is preserved as in the roadsteads of harboring islands; to these flee those who desire to attain salvation, having become lovers of truth and wishing to flee the wrath and judgment of God.—
And just as there are other rocky islands, … uninhabited, placed for the destruction of seafarers and those undergoing a storm, upon which ships are shattered and those who approach utterly perish, so are doctrines of error, I mean heresies, those who approach which utterly perish; for they do not follow the word of truth as leader. But just as pirates, when they have filled ships, drive them into the aforesaid places in order to destroy them there, the same thing happens to those who wander from the truth, that they are sunk by error.
Therefore the heavenly clemency which raised man scarcely had he fallen was always present to the human race and never abandoned it. It was present to Cain and strove to lead the lost fratricide to penance and confession. It was present to the rest and, by a manifold dispensation and a certain incredible variety of offices and gifts, endeavored that men should be advanced to the worship of the one God after casting away idols, should be aroused to fulfilling the offices of the virtues, should be exempted from eternal punishments, and should be endowed with eternal felicity. Theophilus confirms this on the occasion of the Israelite people5, saying:
But when the people transgressed the law given to them by God, ἀγαθὸς ὢν καὶ οἰκτίρμων ὁ Θεός, μὴ βουλόμενος διαφθεῖραι αὐτούς, πρὸς τὸ δεδωκέναι τὸν νόμον, ὕστερον δὲ καὶ προφήτας ἐξέπεμψεν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτῶν, πρὸς τὸ διδάσκειν καὶ ἀναμιμνήσκειν τὰ τοῦ νόμου αὐτούς, καὶ ἐπιστρέφειν εἰς μετάνοιαν, τοῦ μηκέτι ἁμαρτάνειν, God, being benign and merciful and not willing to destroy them, added this also to the law which he had given them: that thereafter he should send them prophets from among their brethren, who would teach them and recall to their memory the ordinances of the law and convert them to penance so that they should no longer sin… Concerning penance, therefore, Isaiah the prophet addresses κοινῶς μὲν πρὸς πάντας, all indeed in common, but the people by name.
And immediately after relating the exhortations to penance of Isaiah6, Ezekiel7, and Jeremiah8, he adds—
—:
πολλὰ μὲν οὖν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀναρίθμητά ἐστιν ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις γραφαῖς εἰρημένα περὶ μετανοίας, ἀεὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ βουλομένου ἐπιστρέφειν τὸ γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν. Many things indeed, or rather innumerable things, are said concerning penance in the sacred Scriptures, God always willing to convert the human race from all sins.
Whence, therefore, shall we judge it to come about that so many never return to their senses from sins but persevere in them even unto the end and are punished with eternal death? We shall assuredly derive it from this: that they themselves do not join their own will with the benevolent will of God, but rebelliously oppose it and procure destruction and ruin for themselves.
Therefore Theophilus, turning his discourse to Autolycus, addresses him with these words9:
Therefore do not be unbelieving, but rather believe; for I too did not believe that it would happen, but now I believe after I considered these things more attentively, and also because I encountered the sacred Scriptures of the holy prophets, who through the Holy Spirit foretold both past things in the same manner in which they were done, present things in the same manner in which they are being done, and future things in the same order in which they will be accomplished. Since, therefore, those things which occur and were foretold furnish me a demonstration, I am not unbelieving, but I believe, obeying God; ᾧ εἰ βούλει, καὶ σὺ ὑποτάγηθι, πιστεύων αὐτῷ, μὴ νῦν ἀπιστήσας, πεισθῇς ἀνιώμενος τότε ἐν αἰωνίοις τιμωρίαις, whom you also, if you will, obey, believing him, lest, if you are now unbelieving, you believe then when tormented in eternal punishments. Since these punishments had been foretold by the prophets, poets and philosophers born later than they stole them from the sacred Scriptures, that they might procure authority for their opinions. But these too foretold future punishments for the impious and unbelieving, that they might be attested to all, πρὸς τὸ μὴ εἰπεῖν τινας ὅτι οὐκ ἠκούσαμεν, οὐδὲ ἔγνωμεν, lest some should say, “We did not hear, nor did we know.”
You also, if it thus seems good to you, read the prophetic Scriptures studiously, καὶ αὐταί σε τρανότερον ὁδηγήσουσι πρὸς τὸ ἐκφυγεῖν τὰς αἰωνίους κολάσεις, καὶ τυχεῖν τῶν αἰωνίων ἀγαθῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ, and you will have their light as a safer guide, that you may flee eternal punishments and attain the perpetual goods of God.