Chapter 10
341 | Text and Translation Is not your mercy then born of your justice? Do you not then spare the evil out of justice? And if this is so, lord, if it is so, teach me how it is.
Is it because it is just for you to be so good that you cannot be understood to be better, and to be operating with so much power that you cannot be thought to be more powerful? For what is more just than this? But surely this would not be if you were good only through retribution and not by sparing, and if you made good only those who are not good, and not those who are evil as well. In this way, then, it is just that you spare the evil, and from the evil make good.
In the end, what is not just ought not to be; and what ought not to be is unjust. If, then, it is not just for you to be merciful to the evil, you ought not to be merciful; and if you should not be merciful, your mercy is unjust. But if it is irreverent to say this, then it is right to believe that it is just for you to have mercy on the wicked.
Chapter 10 How he justly punishes and justly spares the wicked But it is also just that you punish the wicked. For what is more just than that the good receive good and the evil evil? How, then, is it both just that you punish the evil and just that you spare the evil?
Or do you in one way justly punish the evil and in another way justly spare the evil? For when you punish the evil, it is just because it meets their merits; when, however, you spare the evil, it is just not because of their merits but because it is meted out of your goodness.
For by so sparing the evil you are just with respect to yourself, not with regard to us, just as you are full of mercy with regard to us but not with respect to yourself. Thus, just as you are full of mercy not because you feel its affect but because we feel its effect, so, by saving us, whom you might justly abandon, you are just not because you return to us what would seem to be required but because you do what is seemly of you as supremely good.
Without inconsistency, then, you both justly punish and justly spare.
3421 PROSLOGION
CAPITULUM XI
Quomodo universae viae Domini misericordia et veritas, et tamen iustus Dominus in omnibus viis suis Sed numquid etiam non est iustum secundum te, Domine, ut malos punias? Iustum quippe est te sic esse iustum, ut iustior nequeas cogitari. Quod nequaquam esses, si tantum bonis bona et non malis mala redderes.
Iustior enim est qui et bonis et malis, quam qui bonis tantum merita retribuit. Iustum igitur est secundum te, iuste et benigne Deus, et cum punis et cum parcis.
Vere igitur universae viae Domini misericordia et Ps 24:10
Ps 144:17 veritas et tamen iustus Dominus in omnibus viis suis.
Et utique sine repugnantia; quia quos vis punire, non est iustum salvari, et quibus vis parcere, non est iustum damnari. Nam id solum iustum est quod vis, et non iustum quod non vis.
Sic ergo nascitur der iustitia tua misericordia tua, quia iustum est te sic esse bonum, ut et parcendo sis bonus. Et hoc est forsitan, cur summe iustus potest velle bona malis. Sed si utcumque capi potest, cur malos potes velle salvare: illud certe nulla ratione comprehendi potest, cur de similibus malis hos magis salves quam illos per summam bonitatem, et illos magis damnes quam istos per summam iustitiam.
Sic ergo vere es sensibilis, omnipotens, misericors et impassibilis, quemadmodum vivens, sapiens, bonus, beatus, aeternus, et quidquid melius est esse quam non esse.
CAPITULUM XII
Quod Deus sit ipsa vita qua vivit, et sic de similibus Sed certe quidquid es, non per aliud es quam per teipsum. Tu es igitur ipsa vita qua vivis, et sapientia qua sapis, et bonitas ipsa qua bonis et malis bonus es; et ita de similibus.