Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans 31
31 To Punish and to Forgive Sins Belong Equally to God PL 42, 561
Likewise because it belongs to divine judgment, not human, what sort of punishment and how great is due to every fault, it is thus written: "O the height of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how inscrutable are His judgments and his ways past finding out!" Likewise because by the goodness of God sins are forgiven to the converted, the very fact that Christ was sent sufficiently shows, who not in His own nature as God, but in our nature, which He assumed from a woman, died for us; which goodness of God with reference to us, and which love of God, the apostle thus sets forth: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; much more now being justified in His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved in His life." But because even when due punishment is rendered to sinners, there is no unrighteousness on God’s part, he thus says: "What shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath?" But in one place he has briefly admonished that goodness and severity are alike from Him, saying: "Thou seest then the goodness and severity of God; toward them that have fallen, severity, but towards thee goodness, if thou shouldst continue in goodness."
Punire ac donare peccata peraeque ad Deum pertinere. Item quia cuique culpae qualis et quanta debeatur poena, divini judicii est, non humani, sic scriptum est: O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei! quam inscrutabilia sunt judicia ejus, et investigabiles viae ejus ! Item quia bonitate Dei donantur peccata conversis, hoc ipsum quod Christus missus est, satis ostendit; qui non in sua natura qua Deus est, sed in nostra quam de femina assumpsit, pro nobis mortuus est: quam Dei bonitatem circa nos et dilectionem sic praedicat Apostolus: Commendat, inquit, suam charitatem Deus in nobis, quoniam cum adhuc peccatores essemus, Christus pro nobis mortuus est: multo magis nunc justificati in sanguine ipsius, salvi erimus ab ira per ipsum. Si enim, cum inimici essemus, reconciliati sumus Deo per mortem Filii ejus; multo magis reconciliati, salvi erimus in vita ipsius . Quia vero etiam cum peccatoribus poena debita redditur, non est iniquitas apud Deum, sic dicit: Quid dicemus? Numquid iniquus Deus, qui infert iram ? Uno autem loco et bonitatem et severitatem ab illo esse breviter admonuit, dicens: Vides ergo bonitatem et severitatem Dei: in eos quidem qui ceciderunt, severitatem; in te autem bonitatem, si permanseris in bonitate .