Chapter 41.—Even in Judgment God’s Mercy Will Be Necessary to Us.

For the Holy Scripture testifies that God’s mercy is then also necessary for them, when the Saint says to his soul concerning the Lord its God, “Who crowneth thee in mercy and compassion.”147    Ps. ciii. 4. The Apostle James also says: “He shall have judgment without mercy who hath showed no mercy;”148    Jas. ii. 13. where he sets forth that even in that judgment in which the righteous are crowned and the unrighteous are condemned, some will be judged with mercy, others without mercy. On which account also the mother of the Maccabees says to her son, “That in that mercy I may receive thee with thy brethren.”149    2 Macc. vii. 29. “For when a righteous king,” as it is written, “shall sit on the throne, no evil thing shall oppose itself to him. Who will boast that he has a pure heart? or who will boast that he is pure from sin?”150    Prov. xx. 8. And thus God’s mercy is even then necessary, by which he is made “blessed to whom the Lord has not imputed sin.”151    Ps. xxxii. 2. But at that time even mercy itself shall be allotted in righteous judgment in accordance with the merits of good works. For when it is said, “Judgment without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy,” it is plainly shown that in those in whom are found the good works of mercy, judgment shall be executed with mercy; and thus even that mercy itself shall be returned to the merits of good works. It is not so now; when not only no good works, but many bad works precede, His mercy anticipates a man so that he is delivered from evils,—as well from evils which he has done, as from those which he would have done if he were not controlled by the grace of God; and from those, too, which he would have suffered for ever if he were not plucked from the power of darkness, and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.152    Col. i. 13. Nevertheless, since even that life eternal itself, which, it is certain, is given as due to good works, is called by so great an apostle the grace of God, although grace is not rendered to works, but is given freely, it must be confessed without any doubt, that eternal life is called grace for the reason that it is rendered to those merits which grace has conferred upon man. Because that saying is rightly understood which in the gospel is read, “grace for grace,”153    John i. 16.—that is, for those merits which grace has conferred.

41. Nam et tunc esse illis Dei misericordiam necessariam sancta Scriptura testatur, ubi sanctus de Domino Deo suo dicit animae suae, Qui coronat te in miseratione et misericordia (Psal. CII, 4). Dicit etiam Jacobus apostolus, Judicium sine misericordia illi qui non fecit misericordiam (Jacobi II, 13): ubi ostendit etiam in illo judicio, in quo justi coronantur, injustique damnantur, alios cum misericordia, alios sine misericordia judicandos. Propter quod etiam mater Machabaeorum filio suo dicit, Ut in illa miseratione cum fratribus te recipiam (II Machab. VII, 29). Cum enim rex justus, sicut scriptum est, sederit in throno, non adversabitur ante eum omne malum. Quis gloriabitur castum se habere cor? aut quis gloriabitur mundum se esse a peccato (Prov. XX, 8, 9, sec. LXX)? Ac per hoc etiam ibi Dei misericordia necessaria est, qua fit beatus, cui non imputavit Dominus peccatum (Psal. XXXI, 2). Sed tunc pro bonorum operum meritis justo judicio etiam ipsa misericordia tribuetur. Cum enim dicitur, Judicium sine misericordia illi qui non fecit misericordiam; manifestatur in his in quibus inveniuntur bona opera misericordiae, judicium cum misericordia fieri; ac per hoc etiam ipsam misericordiam meritis bonorum operum reddi. Non sic est nunc, quando non solum 0942 nullis bonis, sed etiam multis malis operibus praecedentibus, misericordia ejus praevenit hominem, ut liberetur a malis, et quae fecit, et quae facturus fuerat nisi Dei gratia regeretur , et quae passurus fuerat in aeternum nisi erueretur a potestate tenebrarum, et transferretur in regnum Filii charitatis Dei (Coloss. I, 13). Verumtamen quia et ipsa vita aeterna, quam certum est bonis operibus debitam reddi, a tanto Apostolo gratia Dei dicitur (Rom. VI, 23), cum gratia non operibus reddatur, sed gratis detur; sine ulla dubitatione confitendum est, ideo gratiam vitam aeternam vocari, quia his meritis redditur, quae gratia contulit homini. Recte quippe ipsa intelligitur quae in Evangelio legitur , Gratia pro gratia (Joan. I, 16), id est, pro his meritis quae contulit gratia.