Chapter XXI.—The purpose1223    Jer., Contr. Pelag., bk. iii.for which God in His foreknowledge created persons who would sin and not repent.

God in His goodness1224    Damasc., Dialog contra Manich. brought what exists into being out of nothing, and has foreknowledge of what will exist in the future. If, therefore, they were not to exist in the future, they would neither be evil in the future nor would they be foreknown. For knowledge is of what exists and foreknowledge is of what will surely exist in the future. For simple being comes first and then good or evil being. But if the very existence of those, who through the goodness of God are in the future to exist, were to be prevented by the fact that they were to become evil of their own choice, evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Wherefore God makes all His works good, but each becomes of its own choice good or evil. Although, then, the Lord said, Good were it for that man that he had never been born1225    St. Mark xiv. 21., He said it in condemnation not of His own creation but of the evil which His own creation had acquired by his own choice and through his own heedlessness. For the heedlessness that marks man’s judgment made His Creator’s beneficence of no profit to him. It is just as if any one, when he had obtained riches and dominion from a king, were to lord it over his benefactor, who, when he has worsted him, will punish him as he deserves, if he should see him keeping hold of the sovereignty to the end.

Τίνος ἕνεκεν προγινώσκων ὁ θεὸς τοὺς ἁμαρτάνειν καὶ μὴ μετανοεῖν μέλλοντας ἔκτισεν

Ὁ θεὸς δι' ἀγαθότητα ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παράγει τὰ γινόμενα καὶ τῶν ἐσομένων προγνώστης ἐστίν. Εἰ μὲν οὖν μὴ ἔμελλον ἔσεσθαι, οὐδ' ἂν κακοὶ ἔμελλον ἔσεσθαι οὐδ' ἂν προεγινώσκοντο. Τῶν γὰρ ὄντων αἱ γνώσεις, καὶ τῶν πάντως ἐσομένων αἱ προγνώσεις: πρῶτον γὰρ τὸ εἶναι, καὶ τότε τὸ καλὸν ἢ κακὸν εἶναι. Εἰ δὲ μέλλοντας ἔσεσθαι διὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγαθότητα τὸ κακοὺς ἐξ οἰκείας προαιρέσεως μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι ἐκώλυσεν αὐτοὺς γενέσθαι, τὸ κακὸν ἐνίκα ἂν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγαθότητα. Ποιεῖ τοιγαροῦν ὁ θεὸς ἀγαθὰ ἅπαντα, ἃ ποιεῖ: ἕκαστος δὲ ἐξ οἰκείας προαιρέσεως καλός τε καὶ κακὸς γίνεται. Εἰ καὶ τοίνυν ἔφη ὁ κύριος: «Συνέφερε τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ, εἰ οὐκ ἐγεννήθη», οὐ τὴν οἰκείαν κτίσιν κακίζων ἔλεγεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐξ οἰκείας προαιρέσεως καὶ ῥαθυμίας ἐπιγενομένην τῷ κτίσματι αὐτοῦ κακίαν. Ἡ γὰρ τῆς οἰκείας γνώμης ῥαθυμία ἄχρηστον αὐτῷ τὴν τοῦ δημιουργοῦ εὐεργεσίαν ἐποίησεν, ὥσπερ ἄν, εἴ τις πλοῦτον καὶ ἀρχὴν παρὰ βασιλέως ἐγχειρισθεὶς τυραννήσει τὸν εὐεργέτην, ὃν ἀξίως χειρωσάμενος τιμωρήσεται, εἰ μέχρι τέλους τῇ τυραννίδι κατίδοι τοῦτον ἐναπομένοντα.