CCXL. Corollary XXXVI

COROLLARY XXXVI.

These things having been established and explained, as was fitting, the fullest satisfaction can be given to those asking of what kind the true state and real condition of the human race must finally be judged. For if the merciful love of God is universal and efficacious; if the antecedent and likewise salvific will joined with it is universal and efficacious; and if the redemption procured by the death of Christ shines with the same endowments of universality and efficacy, no one fails to see that these things are such that neither the state of restoration nor the universal condition of salvation can be separated from them. For the state and condition of humanity necessarily borrow and take their account and appellation from the will of God and of his Christ. Since, therefore, the will of each is benign and merciful and looks to this, that it may raise up the fallen posterity of Adam and restore that which was lost, it appears clearer than light that the state of humanity is restored and its condition salvific. The Fathers of the Church also signify this¹ when they disclose the difference in providence between fallen humanity and the rebellious nature of the angels and investigate and propose the most wise causes of this difference. For they hand down that God assumed no other person toward the rebellious angels than that of a judge—

—and discharged no other function than that of most just condemnation; but toward men he assumed the person of a judge in such a way that he softened its rigor by the benignity of a father and decreed medicine and restoration in Christ.