Chapter II.—True Repentance a Thing Divine, Originated by God, and Subject to His Laws.

But if they acted as men who had any part in God, and thereby in reason also, they would first weigh well the importance of repentance, and would never apply it in such a way as to make it a ground for convicting themselves of perverse self-amendment. In short, they would regulate the limit of their repentance, because they would reach (a limit) in sinning too—by fearing God, I mean.  But where there is no fear, in like manner there is no amendment; where there is no amendment, repentance is of necessity vain, for it lacks the fruit for which God sowed it; that is, man’s salvation. For God—after so many and so great sins of human temerity, begun by the first of the race, Adam, after the condemnation of man, together with the dowry of the world4    Sæculi dote. With which he had been endowed. Comp. Gen. i. 28; Ps. viii. 4–8. after his ejection from paradise and subjection to death—when He had hasted back to His own mercy, did from that time onward inaugurate repentance in His own self, by rescinding the sentence of His first wrath, engaging to grant pardon to His own work and image.5    i.e., man. And so He gathered together a people for Himself, and fostered them with many liberal distributions of His bounty, and, after so often finding them most ungrateful, ever exhorted them to repentance and sent out the voices of the universal company of the prophets to prophesy. By and by, promising freely the grace which in the last times He was intending to pour as a flood of light on the universal world6    Orbi. through His Spirit, He bade the baptism of repentance lead the way, with the view of first preparing,7    Componeret. by means of the sign and seal of repentance, them whom He was calling, through grace, to (inherit) the promise surely made to Abraham. John holds not his peace, saying, “Enter upon repentance, for now shall salvation approach the nations”8    Comp. Matt. iii. 1, 2; Mark i. 4; Luke iii. 4–6.—the Lord, that is, bringing salvation according to God’s promise. To Him John, as His harbinger, directed the repentance (which he preached), whose province was the purging of men’s minds, that whatever defilement inveterate error had imparted, whatever contamination in the heart of man ignorance had engendered, that repentance should sweep and scrape away, and cast out of doors, and thus prepare the home of the heart, by making it clean, for the Holy Spirit, who was about to supervene, that He might with pleasure introduce Himself there-into, together with His celestial blessings. Of these blessings the title is briefly one—the salvation of man—the abolition of former sins being the preliminary step. This9    i.e., man’s salvation. is the (final) cause of repentance, this her work, in taking in hand the business of divine mercy. What is profitable to man does service to God.  The rule of repentance, however, which we learn when we know the Lord, retains a definite form,—viz., that no violent hands so to speak, be ever laid on good deeds or thoughts.10    See the latter part of c. i. For God, never giving His sanction to the reprobation of good deeds, inasmuch as they are His own (of which, being the author, He must necessarily be the defender too), is in like manner the acceptor of them, and if the acceptor, likewise the rewarder. Let, then, the ingratitude of men see to it,11    Viderit. if it attaches repentance even to good works; let their gratitude see to it too, if the desire of earning it be the incentive to well-doing: earthly and mortal are they each. For how small is your gain if you do good to a grateful man! or your loss if to an ungrateful! A good deed has God as its debtor, just as an evil has too; for a judge is rewarder of every cause. Well, since, God as Judge presides over the exacting and maintaining12    Or, “defending.” of justice, which to Him is most dear; and since it is with an eye to justice that He appoints all the sum of His discipline, is there room for doubting that, just as in all our acts universally, so also in the case of repentance, justice must be rendered to God?—which duty can indeed only be fulfilled on the condition that repentance be brought to bear only on sins. Further, no deed but an evil one deserves to be called sin, nor does any one err by well-doing. But if he does not err, why does he invade (the province of) repentance, the private ground of such as do err? Why does he impose on his goodness a duty proper to wickedness? Thus it comes to pass that, when a thing is called into play where it ought not, there, where it ought, it is neglected.

CAPUT II.

Quod si Dei ac per hoc rationis quoque compotes agerent, merita primo poenitentiae expenderent, nec unquam eam ad argumentum perversae emendationis adhiberent; modum denique poenitendi temperarent, quia et delinquendi tenerent; timentes Dominum scilicet . Sed ubi metus nullus, emendatio proinde nulla. Ubi emendatio nulla, poenitentia 1228B necessario vana: quia caret fructu suo, cui eam Deus sevit, id est, hominis saluti. Nam Deus post tot ac tanta delicta humanae temeritatis, a principe generis 1229A Adam auspicata (Gen. III), post condemnatum hominem cum saeculi dote post ejectum paradiso, mortique subjectum, cum rursus ad suam misericordiam maturavisset , jam inde in semetipso poenitentiam dedicavit , rescissa sententia irarum pristinarum, ignoscere pactus operi et imagini suae (Gen. VIII et IX). Itaque et populum sibi congregavit, et multis bonitatis suae largitionibus fovit, et ingratissimum totiens expertus, ad poenitentiam semper hortatus est (Gen. XII); et prophetando universorum prophetarum emisit ora , mox gratiam pollicitus, quam in extremitatibus temporum per Spiritum suum universo orbi illuminaturus esset, praeire intinctionem poenitentiae jussit , si quos per gratiam vocaret ad promissionem semini Abraham 1229B destinatam, per poenitentiae subsignationem ante componeret . Non tacet Joannes, Poenitentiam initote, dicens (Matth. III): jam enim salus nationibus appropinquabit, Dominus scilicet , afferens secundum Dei promissum, cui praeministrans, poenitentiam destinabat purgandis mentibus propositam, uti quicquid error vetus inquinasset, quicquid in corde hominis ignorantia contaminasset , id poenitentia verrens et radens, et foras abjiciens mundam pectoris domum superventuro Spiritui Sancto paret, quo se ille cum coelestibus bonis libens 1230A inferat . Horum bonorum unus est titulus, salus hominis, criminum pristinorum abolitione praemissa. Haec poenitentiae caussa: haec opera negotium divinae misericordiae curans: quod homini proficit , Deo servit. Caeterum ratio ejus, quam cognito Domino discimus, certam formam tenet, ne bonis unquam factis cogitatisve quasi violenta aliqua manus injiciatur , Deus enim reprobationem bonorum ratam non habet utpote suorum, quorum cum auctor et defensor sit, necesse est proinde et acceptator; si acceptator, etiam remunerator. Viderit ergo ingratia hominum, si etiam bonis factis poenitentiam cogit. Viderit et gratia, si captatio ejus ad benefaciendum incitamento est, terrena, mortalis utraque. Quantulum enim compendii, si grato benefeceris? 1230B vel dispendii, si ingrato? Bonum factum Deum habet debitorem, sicuti et malum: quia judex omnis remunerator est caussae. At cum judex Deus justitiae carissime sibi exigendae tuendaeque praesideat, et in eam omnem summam disciplinae suae sanciat: dubitandum est sicut in universis actibus nostris, ita in poenitentiae quoque caussa, justitiam Deo praestandam esse? quod quidem ita impleri licebit, si peccatis solummodo adhibeatur. Porro peccatum, nisi malum factum, dici non meretur; nec quisquam benefaciendo delinquit. Quod si non delinquit, 1231A cur poenitentiam invadit, delinquentium privatum cur malitiae officium bonitati suae imponit? ita evenit, ut cum aliquid ubi non oportet adhibetur, illic ubi oportet negligatur.