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De Paenitentia

I.

[1] Paenitentiam hoc genus homines quod et ipsi retro fuimus, caeci sine domini lumine, natura tenus norunt passionem animi quandam esse quae obveniat de offensa sententiae prioris. [2] Ceterum a ratione eius tantum absunt quantum ab ipso rationis auctore. Quippe res dei ratio quia deus omnium conditor nihil non ratione providit disposuit ordinavit nihilque non ratione tractari intellegique voluit. [3] Igitur ignorantes quique deum rem quoque eius ignorent necesse est quia nullius omnino thesaurus extraneis patet. Itaque universam vitae conversationem sine gubernaculo rationis transfretantes inminentem saeculo procellam evitare non norunt. [4] Quam autem in paenitentiae actu inrationabiliter deversentur, vel uno isto satis erit expedire cum illam etiam in bonis factis suis adhibent. Paenitet fidei amoris simplicitatis liberalitatis patientiae misericordiae: [5] prout quid in ingratiam cecidit, semetipsos execrantur quia benefecerint, eamque maxime paenitentiae speciem quae optimis operibus inrogatur in corde figunt meminisse curantes ne quid boni rursus praestent. Contra paenitentiae malorum levius incubant: denique facilius per eandem delinquunt quam per eandem recte faciunt.

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On Repentance

Chapter I.--Of Heathen Repentance.

Repentance, men understand, so far as nature is able, to be an emotion of the mind arising from disgust ¹ at some previously cherished worse sentiment: that kind of men I mean which even we ourselves were in days gone by--blind, without the Lord's light. From the reason of repentance, however, they are just as far as they are from the Author of reason Himself. Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason--nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house ² at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world. ³ Moreover, how irrationally they behave in the practice of repentance, it will be enough briefly to show just by this one fact, that they exercise it even in the case of their good deeds. They repent of good faith, of love, of simple-heartedness, of patience, of mercy, just in proportion as any deed prompted by these feelings has fallen on thankless soil. They execrate their own selves for having done good; and that species chiefly of repentance which is applied to the best works they fix in their heart, making it their care to remember never again to do a good turn. On repentance for evil deeds, on the contrary, they lay lighter stress. In short, they make this same (virtue) a means of sinning more readily than a means of right-doing.