We can attain by thought nothing other [as the reason] than [what was] done in these [cases] — [that] which we read of the Canaanites, Genesis 15, v. 16, where he was unwilling to give the possession of the Canaanite land to Abraham at once, but only after the fourth generation. “For not yet,” he says, “are the iniquities of the Amorites filled up unto the present time.” For God is, before all others, that one who is praised by some poet [or other]:
A prince slow to punishments, swift to rewards.
To sinners he willingly grants — [and] awaits — a time of penance and amendment, as long as he can, most patiently. Altogether unwillingly, and against his will, and — if it be right to say [so] — in a manner as though compelled, he proceeds to avenging and destroying. St. Chrysostom explains this somewhere; and [it] is clearly set before us [in] Genesis 18 and 19, where he did not approach to burn Sodom until, concerning their outrages, [there] was not [merely] a rumor — even a true [one] — but an outcry, and indeed a very great [one], when their sin was exceedingly aggravated (v. 20); and yet he still says: “I will go down and see whether they have done in deed [according to] the cry that is come to me, [or] whether it be not so, that I may know.” And, not content with so great a solicitude and clemency as would restrain [his] wrath and fires, he disclosed all [things] to his highest friend and intercessor Abraham — [saying] that, if even the very fewest [persons] were found in that city who might be spared, safety and life would be granted to all, for the sake of that one intercessor. From this indeed we learn, First, how [it] behooves us to take care not to abuse so great a clemency and goodness [of his], but, when we have sinned, and do not immediately feel his thunderbolts hurled against us, [that] we then and there come to our senses, return to that Lord [who is] so easy and so placable, and beg pardon. Otherwise the most just punishment will indeed be deferred, but not taken away; nay rather, [it] will most justly be increased. So indeed St. [Paul the] Apostle warns us (Romans 2): “Dost thou think,” he says, “O man, that judgest them who do such things, and dost the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and patience, and long-suffering — being ignorant that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God.” Where indeed the word “to treasure up” signifies a great and heaped-up force and abundance of divine wrath. For there is no treasure where [things] are few and scanty. And “wrath” is taken as much for the causes of wrath as for [its] effects. For those whom this divine forbearance does not correct heap up, day by day, more and greater sins, by which God is moved to wrath; and the same [men] shall therefore receive more and more vehement torments, which are wont to be inflicted by the angered deity. Secondly, we learn also this (Luke 6, v. 36): that we be merciful, placable, long-suffering, just as our Father is merciful, placable, and long-suffering. “Thus,” says the Gentile Philosopher [Seneca] (book 1 On Clemency, ch. 7), “they are placable, and do not at once pursue the offenses of sinners with thunderbolts. By how much more equitable is it that a man set over men exercise his command with a mild spirit, and consider which state of the world is more pleasing and more beautiful to the eyes — [that] of a serene and
Iosue. [running foot]
(col. 98)
clear day, or [that] when all things are shaken with frequent crashes, and fires flash here and there? But there is no other aspect of a quiet and moderate rule than of a serene and shining sky.”