Chapter 9
337 | Text and Translation Chapter 9 How he who is wholly just and supremely just spares the wicked; and that it is just to have pity on them
But how is it that you spare the wicked if you are totally just and supremely just? For how is it that one who is wholly and supremely just does something that is not just? Or what kind of justice is it to give everlasting life to one who is deserving of eternal death? How, then, good God— good to both the good and the evil—how is it that you save the evil, if this is not just, but do nothing that is not just?
Or, since your goodness is incomprehensible, is this hidden in the inaccessible light which you inhabit? Truly, in the most lofty and secret element of your goodness is hidden the fount from which the stream of your mercy flows. For while you are wholly and supremely just, you are nonetheless also benign to the wicked, since you are wholly and supremely good.
You would then be less good if you were benign to none of the evil. For he who is good to both the good and the evil is better than one who is good only to the good. And he is better who is good by both punishing and sparing the wicked than only by punishing them. For that reason, then, you are merciful because you are wholly and supremely good. And while we may see why you should repay good with good and evil with evil, it is no doubt astonishing that you, who are wholly just and in need of no one, should allot good to those who are wicked and guilty before you.
O God, the depth of your goodness!
So evident from where your mercy comes, and yet so hard to see.
So obvious whence its streaming flows; so hard to see the source from which its comes.
For it stems from a plenitude of good that you are kind to those who sin against you; but it is hidden in the depths of your goodness what the reason for this is.
And though when you repay good for good and evil for evil, both out of goodness, it can be seen to follow from the nature of your justice;
I PROSLOGION
Cum vero malis bona tribuis: et scitur, quia summe bonus hoc facere voluit, et mirum est, cur summe iustus hoc velle potuit.
O misericordia, de quam opulenta dulcedine et dulci opulentia nobis profluis!
O immensitas bonitatis Dei, quo affectu amanda es peccatoribus!
Iustos enim salvas iustitia comitante; istos vero liberas iustitia damnante.
Illos | meritis adiuvantibus, istos meritis repugnantibus.
Illos bona, quae dedisi, cognoscendo, istos | mala, quae odisti, ignoscendo.
O immensa bonitas, quae sic omnem intellectum excedis, wt veniat super me misericordia illa, quae de tanta opulentia tui procedit!
Influat in me, quae profluit de te.
Parce per clementiam, ne ulciscaris per iustitiam.
Nam etsi difficile sit intelligere, quomodo misericordia tua non absit a tua iustitia, necessarium tamen est credere, quia nequaquam adversatur iustitiae quod exundat ex bonitate, quae nulla est sine iustitia, immo vere concordat iustitiae. Nempe si misericors es, quia es summe bonus, et summe bonus non es, nisi quia es summe iustus: vere idcirco es misericors, quia summe iustus es.
Adiuva me, iuste et misericors Deus, cuius lucem quaero, adiuva me, ut intelligam quod dico. Vere ergo ideo misericors es, quia iustus.
339 | Text and Translation when you allot good to the evil, I know the supremely good has willed it to be thus, and yet I wonder how the supremely just could let it thus be willed.
O mercy, from what abundant sweetness and sweet abundance you stream forth to us!
O the immensity of the goodness of God, with what affection must even sinners love you!
For you save the just ones whom justice commends, and free the unjust whom justice condemns.
The first are saved through the help of their merits, The others are saved despite their demerits.
Acknowledging in the one the good which you gave them, Ignoring in others the evil you hate.
O immense goodness that so exceeds the understanding of us all!
May that mercy come over me which from you so abundantly proceeds.
Let flow into me what flows out of you.
Spare in clemency; do not avenge in justice.
For though it may difficult to understand how your mercy is not incompatible with your justice, it is still necessary to believe that what flows from goodness is not at all opposed to justice but could in no way be without it, indeed, truly coincides with justice. For surely if you are merciful because you are supremely good, and are not supremely good unless you are supremely just, then truly you are merciful because you are supremely just.
Help me, O just and merciful God, whose light I seek, help me to understand what I am saying. Truly, therefore, you are merciful because you are just.
| PROSLOGION
Ergone misericordia tua nascitur ex iustitia tua?
Ergone parcis malis ex iustitia? Si sic est, Domine, si sic est, doce me quomodo est.
An quia iustum est te sic esse bonum, ut nequeas intelligi melior, et sic potenter operari, ut non possis cogitari potentius? Quid enim hoc iustius? Hoc utique non fieret, si esses bonus tantum retribuendo et non parcendo, et si faceres de non bonis tantum bonos et non etiam de malis. Hoc itaque modo iustum est ut parcas malis, et ut facias bonos de malis.
Denique quod non iuste fit, non debet fieri; et quod non debet fieri, iniuste fit. Si ergo non iuste malis misereris, non debes misereri; et si non debes misereri, iniuste misereris. Quod si nefas est dicere, fas est credere te iuste misereri malis.
CAPITULUM X
Quomodo iuste puniat et iuste parcat malis Sed et iustum est, ut malos punias. Quid namque iustius, quam ut boni bona et mali mala recipiant? Quomodo ergo et iustum est ut malos punias, et iustum est ut malis parcas?
An alio modo iuste punis malos, et alio modo iuste parcis malis? Cum enim punis malos, iustum est, quia illorum meritis convenit; cum vero parcis malis, iustum est, non quia illorum meritis, sed quia bonitati tuae condecens est.
Nam parcendo malis ita iustus es secundum te et non secundum nos, sicut misericors es secundum nos et non secundum te. Quoniam salvando nos, quos iuste perderes, sicut misericors es, non quia tu sentias affectum, sed quia nos sentimus effectum: ita iustus es, non quia nobis reddas debitum, sed quia facis quod decet te summe bonum.
Sic itaque sine repugnantia iuste punis et iuste parcis.