15. And there are also they who in excuse of their sins so accuse God, as to say that sins are pleasing to Him. For, if they were displeasing, say they, surely by His most Almighty power He would by no means suffer them to take place. As though indeed God suffered sins to be unpunished, even in the case of those whom by remission of sins He frees from eternal punishment! No one forsooth receives pardon of more grievous punishment due, unless he hath suffered some punishment, be it what it may, although far less than what was due: and the fullness of mercy is so conveyed, as that the justice also of discipline is not abandoned. For also sin, which seems unavenged, hath its own attendant punishment, so that there is no one but by reason of what he hath done either suffers pain from bitterness, or suffers not through blindness. As therefore you say, Why doth He permit those things, if they are displeasing? so I say, Why doth He punish them, if they are pleasing? And thus, as I confess that those things would not take place at all, unless they were permitted by the Almighty, so confess thou that what are punished by the Just One ought not to be done; in order that, by not doing what He punishes, we may deserve to learn of Him, why He permits to exist what He punishes. For, as it is written, “solid food is for the perfect,”51    Heb. v. 14 wherein they who have made good progress already understand, that it pertained rather unto the Almighty power of God, to allow the existence of evils coming from the free choice of the will. So great forsooth is His Almighty goodness, as that even of evil He can make good, either by pardoning, or by healing, or by fitting and turning unto the profit of the pious, or even by most justly taking vengeance. For all these are good, and most worthy a good and Almighty God: and yet they are not made save of evils. What therefore better, what more Almighty, than He, Who, whereas He maketh no evil, even of evils maketh well? They who have done ill cry unto Him, “Forgive us our debts;”52    Matt. vi. 12 He hears, He pardons. Their own evils have hurt the sinners; He helps and heals their sicknesses. The enemies of His people rage; of their rage He makes martyrs. Lastly, also, He condemns those, whom He judges worthy of condemnation; although they suffer their own evils, yet He doeth what is good. For what is just cannot but be good, and assuredly as sin is unjust, so the punishment of sin is just.

CAPUT VI.

15. Contra alios qui ut se excusent, dicunt placere Deo peccata. Deus et de malis facit bona. Homo cum potestate peccandi factus, pro praemio accepturus non posse peccare. Sunt et qui eo modo in excusatione peccatorum suorum accusant Deum, ut dicant ei placere peccata. Nam si displicerent, inquiunt, nullo modo ea fieri omnipotentissima utique potestate permitteret. Quasi vero peccata Deus impunita esse permiserit, etiam in eis quos a supplicio sempiterno remissione liberat peccatorum. Nullus quippe debitae gravioris poenae accipit veniam, nisi qualemcumque, etsi longe minorem quam debebat, solverit poenam: atque ita impartitur largitas misericordiae, ut non relinquatur etiam justitia disciplinae. Nam et peccatum quod inultum videtur, habet pedissequam poenam suam, ut nemo de admisso nisi aut amaritudine doleat, aut caecitate non doleat. Sicut ergo tu dicis, Cur permittit ista, si displicent? ita ego dico, Cur punit ista, si placent? Ac per hoc sicut ego confiteor quod omnino ista non fierent, nisi ab Omnipotente permitterentur; ita tu confitere facienda non esse quae a justo puniantur: ut non faciendo quae 0359 punit, mereamur ab eo discere cur permittit esse quae puniat. Perfectorum est enim, sicut scriptum est, solidus cibus (Hebr. V, 14): in quo hi qui bene profecerunt, jam intelligunt ad omnipotentiam Dei potius id pertinuisse, ut ex libero arbitrio voluntatis venientia mala esse permitteret. Tanta quippe est omnipotens ejus bonitas, ut etiam de malis possit facere bona, sive ignoscendo, sive sanando, sive ad utilitates piorum coaptando atque vertendo, sive etiam justissime vindicando. Omnia namque ista bona sunt, et Deo bono atque omnipotente dignissima: nec tamen fiunt nisi de malis. Quid igitur melius, quid omnipotentius eo qui cum mali nihil faciat, bene etiam de malis facit? Clamant ad eum qui male fecerunt, Dimitte nobis debita nostra (Matth. VI, 12): exaudit, ignoscit. Nocuerunt sua mala peccantibus: subvenit eorum medeturque languoribus. Saeviunt suorum hostes: de illorum saevitia facit martyres. Postremo etiam condemnat eos quos damnatione judicat dignos: sua licet illi mala patiantur, facit tamen ille quod bonum est. Non potest enim bonum non esse, quod justum est: et utique sicut injustum est peccatum, ita justum est peccati supplicium.