Section CLXXXIII

For asserting and defending these things, nothing occurs more opportune than what the most cultivated and at the same time most ancient¹ author of the Epistle to Diognetus writes and most copiously explains—

—After describing² the divine majesty and nature of the Only-begotten, and proceeding immediately to recount the mystery of the incarnation³, he says:

He sent this one to men. Was it, as anyone might think, for the sake of exercising tyranny and striking terror? Οὐ μενοῦν· ἀλλ᾽ ἐν ἐπιεικείᾳ, πραΰτητι· ὡς βασιλεὺς πέμπων υἱὸν βασιλέα ἔπεμψεν· ὡς Θεὸν ἔπεμψεν, ὡς πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἔπεμψεν, ὡς σώζων ἔπεμψεν, ὡς πείθων, οὐ βιαζόμενος· βία γὰρ οὐ πρόσεστι τῷ Θεῷ· ἔπεμψεν ὡς καλῶν, οὐ διώκων· ἔπεμψεν ὡς ἀγαπῶν, οὐ κρίνων· πέμψει γὰρ αὐτὸν κρίνοντα, καὶ τίς αὐτοῦ τὴν παρουσίαν ὑποστήσεται; By no means; but in clemency, in gentleness. As a king sending a royal son, he sent him; as God he sent him; he sent him to men; he sent him as saving us, as persuading, not employing violence—for violence is not present in God. He sent him as calling, not persecuting; he sent him as loving, not judging. For he will send him to judge, and who will endure his advent?

Therefore God provided for men, and provided for them ἐν ἐπιεικείᾳ, πραΰτητι, in clemency, in gentleness. But he provided not for these or those, but absolutely for all, since the King sent the King, God sent God, not to these or those but to all, that through the King and through God he might call and save men, not judge them, but at last judge them if they should not obey the King and God who loves, calls, and saves.

But although God disclosed his love, clemency, and gentleness chiefly by sending the Son, nevertheless he was never so forgetful of the human race as utterly to forsake it. For⁴:

Ὁ δεσπότης καὶ δημιουργὸς τῶν ὅλων Θεός, ὁ ποιήσας τὰ πάντα καὶ κατὰ τάξιν διακρίνας, οὐ μόνον φιλάνθρωπος ἐγένετο, ἀλλὰ καὶ μακρόθυμος· ἀλλ᾽ οὗτος ἦν μὲν ἀεὶ τοιοῦτος, καὶ ἔστι, καὶ ἔσται, χρηστὸς καὶ ἀγαθὸς καὶ ἀόργητος καὶ ἀληθής· καὶ μόνος ἀγαθός ἐστιν· ἐννοήσας δὲ μεγάλην καὶ ἄφραστον ἔννοιαν, ἣν ἐκοινώσατο μόνῳ τῷ παιδί· ἐν ὅσῳ μὲν οὖν κατεῖχεν ἐν μυστηρίῳ καὶ διετήρει τὴν σοφὴν αὐτοῦ βουλήν, ἀμελεῖν ἡμῶν καὶ ἀφροντιστεῖν ἐδόκει· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀπεκάλυψε διὰ τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ παιδός, καὶ ἐφανέρωσε τὰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἡτοιμασμένα—

—πάνθ᾽ ἅμα παρέσχεν ἡμῖν, καὶ μετασχεῖν εὐεργεσιῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἰδεῖν καὶ⁵ ψηλαφῆσαι αὐτόν· ταῦτα τίς ἂν πώποτε προσεδόκησεν ἡμῶν; πάντ᾽ οὖν ᾔδει παρ᾽ ἑαυτῷ σὺν τῷ παιδὶ οἰκονομικῶς. God, the Lord and maker of all, who made all things and distinguished each according to its order, was not only a lover of men but was also patient. But he was always such, and is, and will be: benign and good and free from anger and true; and he alone is good. But he conceived in his mind something great and ineffable, which he communicated to the Son alone. Therefore, so long as he retained and preserved his wise counsel in secret, he seemed to neglect us and to take no care for us; but after he revealed through the beloved Son and disclosed the things prepared from the beginning, he furnished us all things at once: both to partake of his benefits and to see and touch him. Who among us would ever have expected these things? Therefore he knew all things within himself together with his Son according to the economy.

Therefore two things must be diligently and accurately distinguished: a) the benign will of God toward the human race; and b) its manifold manifestation by works performed and benefits conferred. God was never not most inclined toward men, since he is φιλάνθρωπος, a lover of men, and was always such, is, and will continue to be; he never failed to provide for them, although at some time he seemed to take no care for them. Nevertheless, in the fullness of times, when he accomplished by the work of the Lord’s incarnation that μεγάλην καὶ ἄφραστον ἔννοιαν, great and ineffable counsel, then indeed he surpassed every expectation and demonstrated his inexhaustible mercy.

But in the former time, the author continues⁶, he allowed us to be driven according to our pleasure by disordered impulses, led by pleasures and desires—not indeed because he in any way rejoiced in our sins, but tolerating them; nor approving that time of iniquity, but forming⁷ a mind for justice—so that—

—when at that time we had been found unworthy of life by our own works, now the benignity of God might deem us worthy of it; and when we had made it manifest that it was ours not to be able to enter the kingdom of God, by the power of God we might be made capable of it. But when our wickedness had been completed, and it had been fully manifested that its reward—punishment and death—was imminent, and the time appointed by God had arrived for thereafter declaring his benignity and power, ὡς⁸ ὑπὸ τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης φιλανθρωπίας καὶ ἀγάπης, on account of his overflowing benevolence and love toward men, he did not hate us, nor reject us, nor show himself mindful of our wickedness, but patiently bore and endured it; he himself received our sins; he himself gave his own Son as the price of redemption for us, the holy for the iniquitous, the one free from evil for the evil, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for mortals. For what else could cover our sins but his justice? In whom else can we, iniquitous and impious, be justified but in the Son of God alone? O sweet exchange! O inscrutable arrangement! O benefits surpassing every expectation: that the iniquity of many should be hidden in one just man, while the justice of one should justify many unjust men! Ἐλέγξας οὖν ἐν μὲν τῷ πρόσθεν χρόνῳ τὸ ἀδύνατον τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως εἰς τὸ τυχεῖν ζωῆς, νῦν δὲ τὸν Σωτῆρα δείξας, δυνατὸν σώζειν καὶ τὰ ἀδύνατα, ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἐβουλήθη πιστεύειν ἡμᾶς τῇ χρηστότητι αὐτοῦ, αὐτὸν ἡγεῖσθαι τροφέα, πατέρα, διδάσκαλον, σύμβουλον, ἰατρόν, νοῦν, φῶς, τιμήν, δόξαν, ἰσχύν, ζωήν. Therefore, when in the former time he had convicted us that our nature was unable to obtain life, but now had shown the Savior who is able to save even those things which could not be saved, through both he willed us to believe in his benignity and to regard him as nourisher—

—father, master, counselor, physician, wisdom, light, honor, glory, strength, life.

Therefore God conferred his benefits upon men by certain steps, as it were; nor did he always enrich them with one and the same abundance of graces. Times preceded in which, although God did not withhold necessary things from men, he nevertheless conducted himself more sparingly with them; but there followed times in which he bestowed benefits surpassing every expectation and declared his overflowing benevolence and love toward men. But whether he was more generous or more restricted in dispensing his gifts, each economy had this purpose: that we should believe in his benignity and regard him as father, nourisher, and physician.