Chapter 23.—Why for the People of Tyre and Sidon, Who Would Have Believed, the Miracles Were Not Done Which Were Done in Other Places Which Did Not Believe.

For if we are asked why such miracles were done among those who, when they saw them, would not believe them, and were not done among those who would have believed them if they had seen them, what shall we answer? Shall we say what I have said in that book47    Epistle 102, question 2; see the first volume of this series, p. 418. wherein I answered some six questions of the Pagans, yet without prejudice of other matters which the wise can inquire into? This indeed I said, as you know, when it was asked why Christ came after so long a time: “that at those times and in those places in which His gospel was not preached, He foreknew that all men would, in regard of His preaching, be such as many were in His bodily presence,—people, namely, who would not believe on Him, even though the dead were raised by Him.” Moreover, a little after in the same book, and on the same question, I say, “What wonder, if Christ knew in former ages that the world was so filled with unbelievers, that He was, with reason, unwilling for His gospel to be preached to them whom He foreknew to be such as would not believe either His words or His miracles”? Certainly we cannot say this of Tyre and Sidon; and in their case we recognise that those divine judgments had reference to those causes of predestination, without prejudice to which hidden causes I said that I was then answering such questions as those. Certainly it is easy to accuse the unbelief of the Jews, arising as it did from their free will, since they refused to believe in such great wonders done among themselves. And this the Lord, reproaching them, declares when He says, “Woe unto thee, Chorazin and Bethsaida, because if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you, they would long ago have repented in dust and ashes.”48    Luke x. 13. But can we say that even the Tyrians and Sidonians would have refused to believe such mighty works done among them, or would not have believed them if they had been done, when the Lord Himself bears witness to them that they would have repented with great humility if those signs of divine power had been done among them? And yet in the day of judgment they will be punished; although with a less punishment than those cities which would not believe the mighty works done in them. For the Lord goes on to say, “Nevertheless, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.”49    Matt. xi. 22. Therefore the former shall be punished with greater severity, the latter with less; but yet they shall be punished. Again, if the dead are judged even in respect of deeds which they would have done if they had lived, assuredly since these would have been believers if the gospel had been preached to them with so great miracles, they certainly ought not to be punished; but they will be punished. It is therefore false that the dead are judged in respect also of those things which they would have done if the gospel had reached them when they were alive. And if this is false, there is no ground for saying, concerning infants who perish because they die without baptism, that this happens in their case deservedly, because God foreknew that if they should live and the gospel should be preached to them, they would hear it with unbelief. It remains, therefore, that they are kept bound by original sin alone, and for this alone they go into condemnation; and we see that in others in the same case this is not remitted, except by the gratuitous grace of God in regeneration; and that, by His secret yet righteous judgment—because there is no unrighteousness with God—that some, who even after baptism will perish by evil living, are yet kept in this life until they perish, who would not have perished if bodily death had forestalled their lapse into sin, and so come to their help. Because no dead man is judged by the good or evil things which he would have done if he had not died, otherwise the Tyrians and Sidonians would not have suffered the penalties according to what they did; but rather according to those things that they would have done, if those evangelical mighty works had been done in them, they would have obtained salvation by great repentance, and by the faith of Christ.

23. Si enim quaeratur a nobis, cur apud eos tanta miracula facta sint qui videntes ea non fuerant credituri, et apud eos facta non sint qui crederent si viderent; quid respondebimus? Numquid dicturi sumus, quod in libro illo dixi, ubi sex quibusdam quaestionibus Paganorum, sine praejudicio tamen aliarum causarum, quas prudentes possunt vestigare, respondi? Hoc quippe, ut scitis, cum Christus quare post tam longa tempora venerit, quaereretur, dixi, quod his temporibus et his locis quibus Evangelium ejus non est praedicatum, tales omnes in ejus praedicatione futuros esse praesciebat, quales multi in ejus corporali praesentia fuerunt, qui in eum nec suscitatis ab eo mortuis credere voluerunt. Item paulo post in eodem libro, atque in eadem quaestione: Quid mirum, inquam, si tam infidelibus plenum orbem terrarum Christus prioribus saeculis noverat, ut eis praedicari merito nollet, quos nec verbis nec miraculis suis credituros esse praesciebat (Epist. 102, quaest. 2)? Haec certe de Tyro et Sidone non possumus dicere, et in eis cognoscimus ad eas causas praedestinationis haec divina judicia pertinere, sine quarum causarum latentium praejudicio tunc ista respondere me dixi. Facile est quippe ut infidelitatem accusemus Judaeorum de libera voluntate venientem, 1006 qui factis apud se tam magnis virtutibus credere noluerunt. Quod et Dominus increpans arguit, et dicit: Vae tibi, Chorozain et Bethsaida: quia si in Tyro et Sidone factae fuissent virtutes, quae factae sunt in vobis. olim in cilicio et cinere poenitentiam egissent. Sed numquid possumus dicere, etiam Tyrios et Sidonios talibus apud se virtutibus factis credere noluisse, aut credituros non fuisse, si fierent? cum eis ipse Dominus attestetur, quod acturi essent magnae humilitatis poenitentiam, si in eis facta essent divinarum illa signa virtutum. Et tamen in die judicii punientur, quamvis minori supplicio quam illae civitates, quae apud se virtutibus factis credere noluerunt. Secutus enim Dominus ait: Verumtamen dico vobis, Tyro et Sidoni remissius erit in die judicii quam vobis (Matth. XI, 21, 22). Severius ergo punientur isti, illi remissius; sed tamen punientur. Porro si etiam secundum facta quae facturi essent si viverent, mortui judicantur; profecto, quia fideles futuri erant isti, si eis cum tantis miraculis fuisset Evangelium praedicatum, non sunt utique puniendi; punientur autem; falsum est igitur et secundum ea mortuos judicari, quae facturi essent si ad viventes Evangelium perveniret. Et si hoc falsum est, non est cur dicatur de infantibus qui pereunt sine Baptismate morientes, hoc in eis eo merito fieri, quia praescivit eos Deus, si viverent, praedicatumque illis fuisset Evangelium, infideliter audituros. Restat igitur ut solo peccato originali teneantur obstricti, et propter hoc solum eant in damnationem; quod videmus aliis eamdem habentibus causam, non nisi per Dei gratuitam gratiam regeneratione donari; et ejus occulto, justo tamen judicio, quoniam non est iniquitas apud Deum (Rom. IX, 14), quosdam etiam post Baptismum pessime vivendo perituros, in hac tamen vita quo usque pereant detineri; qui non perirent, si eis corporis mors, lapsum eorum praeveniens, subveniret. Quoniam nullus mortuus judicatur ex bonis seu malis, quae fuerat si non moreretur acturus: alioquin Tyrii et Sidonii non secundum ea quae gesserunt poenas luerent; sed potius secundum ea quae gesturi fuerant, si in eis illae virtutes evangelicae factae fuissent, per grandem poenitentiam et per Christi fidem consequerentur salutem.