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Will some one say, Why, then, was this divine compassion extended
even to the ungodly and ungrateful? Why, but because it was the mercy
of Him who daily "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." For though
some of these men, taking thought of this, repent of their wickedness
and reform, some, as the apostle says, "despising the riches of His
goodness and long-suffering, after their hardness and impenitent
heart, treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every
man according to his deeds:" nevertheless does the patience of God
still invite the wicked to repentance, even as the scourge of God
educates the good to patience. And so, too, does the mercy of God
embrace the good that it may cherish them, as the severity of God
arrests the wicked to punish them. To the divine providence it has
seemed good to prepare in the world to come for the righteous good
things, which the unrighteous shall not enjoy; and for the wicked evil
things, by which the good shall not be tormented. But as for the good
things of this life, and its ills, God has willed that these should
be common to both; that we might not too eagerly covet the things which
wicked men are seen equally to enjoy, nor shrink with an unseemly fear
from the ills which even good men often suffer.
There is, too, a very great difference in the purpose served both by
those events which we call adverse and those called prosperous. For
the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor
broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by
this world's happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness.
Yet often, even in the present distribution of temporal things, does
God plainly evince His own interference. For if every sin were now
visited with manifest punishment, nothing would seem to be reserved for
the final judgment; on the other hand, if no sin received now a
plainly divine punishment, it would be concluded that there is no
divine providence at all. And so of the good things of this life: if
God did not by a very visible liberality confer these on some of those
persons who ask for them, we should say that these good things were not
at His disposal; and if He gave them to all who sought them, we
should suppose that such were the only rewards of His service; and
such a service would make us not godly, but greedy rather, and
covetous. Wherefore, though good and bad men suffer alike, we must
not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves,
because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in
the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the
sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are
not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow
brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is
beaten small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not
mixed with the oil, though squeezed out of the vat by the same
pressure, so the same violence of affliction proves, purges,
clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked. And
thus it is that in the same affliction the wicked detest God and
blaspheme, while the good pray and praise. So material a difference
does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers
them. For, stirred up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible
stench, and ointment emits a fragrant odor.
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