Chapter V. Argument.—If We Regard the Anger, and Indignation, and Hatred of God Described in the Sacred Pages, We Must Remember that They are Not to Be Understood as Bearing the Character of Human Vices.

Moreover, if we read of His wrath, and consider certain descriptions of His indignation, and learn that hatred is asserted of Him, yet we are not to understand these to be asserted of Him in the sense in which they are human vices. For all these things, although they may corrupt man, cannot at all corrupt the divine power. For such passions as these will rightly be said to be in men, and will not rightly be judged to be in God. For man may be corrupted by these things, because he can be corrupted; God may not be corrupted by them, because He cannot be corrupted. These things, forsooth, have their force which they may exercise, but only where a material capable of impression precedes them, not where a substance that cannot be impressed precedes them. For that God is angry, arises from no vice in Him. But He is so for our advantage; for He is merciful even then when He threatens, because by these threats men are recalled to rectitude. For fear is necessary for those who want the motive to a virtuous life, that they who have forsaken reason may at least be moved by terror. And thus all those, either angers of God or hatreds, or whatever they are of this kind, being displayed for our medicine,—as the case teaches,—have arisen of wisdom, not from vice, nor do they originate from frailty; wherefore also they cannot avail for the corruption of God. For the diversity in us of the materials of which we consist, is accustomed to arouse the discord of anger which corrupts us; but this, whether of nature or of defect, cannot subsist in God, seeing that He is known to be constructed assuredly of no associations of bodily parts. For He is simple and without any corporeal commixture, being wholly of that essence, which, whatever it be,—He alone knows,—constitutes His being, since He is called Spirit. And thus those things which in men are faulty and corrupting, since they arise from the corruptibility of the body, and matter itself, in God cannot exert the force of corruptibility, since, as we have said, they have come, not of vice, but of reason.

CAPUT V. Cujus si iracundias et indignationes quasdam, et odia descripta in sacris paginis teneamus; non tamen haec intelligi ad humanorum exempla vitiorum.

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Cujus etiam si iracundias legimus, et indignationes quasdam descriptas tenemus, et odia relata cognoscimus, non tamen haec intelligimus ad humanorum relata esse exempla vitiorum. Haec enim omnia, et si hominem possunt corrumpere, divinam vim non possunt omnino vitiare. Passiones enim istae in hominibus merito esse dicentur; in Deo non merito judicabuntur. Corrumpi enim per haec homo potest, quia corrumpi potest: corrumpi per haec Deus non potest, quia nec corrumpi potest. Habent igitur ista vim suam quam exerceant; sed ubi praecedit passibilis 0894D materia, non ubi praecedit impassibilis substantia. Nam et quod irascitur Deus, non ex vitio ejus venit; sed ad remedium nostri illud facit. Indulgens est enim, etiam tunc cum minatur: dum per haec homines 0895A ad recta revocantur. Nam quibus ad honestam vitam deest ratio, metus est necessarius, ut qui rationem reliquerunt, vel terrore moveantur. Et ideo omnes istae vel iracundiae Dei, vel odia, vel quaecumque sunt hujusmodi, dum ad medicinam nostram proferuntur (ut res docet), ex consilio, non ex vitio venerunt: nec ex fragilitate descendunt; propter quod etiam ad corrumpendum Deum valere non possunt. Materiarum enim in nobis ex quibus sumus, diversitas, ad iracundiae consuevit corrumpentem nos excitare discordiam; quae in Deo, vel ex natura vel ex vitio, non potest esse: dum non utique ex coagmentis corporalibus intelligitur esse constructus. Est enim simplex, et sine ulla corporea concretione, quidquid illud est totus, quod se solus scit esse; 0895B quandoquidem Spiritus sit dictus (Joan. IV, 24). Et ideo haec quae in hominibus vitiosa sunt et corrumpentia, dum ex corporis ipsius et materiae corruptibilitate nascuntur, in Deo corruptibilitatis vim exercere non possunt: quandoquidem, ut diximus, non ex vitio, sed ratione venerunt.