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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput VIII: De commodis atque incommodis, quae bonis ac malis plerumque communia sunt.

Dicet aliquis: cur ergo ista diuina misericordia etiam ad inpios ingratosque peruenit? cur putamus, nisi quia eam ille praebuit, qui cottidie facit oriri solem suum super bonos et malos et pluit super iustos et iniustos? quamuis enim quidam eorum ista cogitantes paenitendo ab inpietate se corrigant, quidam uero, sicut apostolus dicit, diuitias bonitatis et longanimitatis dei contemnentes secundum duritiam cordis sui et cor inpaenitens thesaurizent sibi iram in die irae et reuelationis iusti iudicii dei, qui reddet unicuique secundum opera eius: tamen patientia dei ad paenitentiam inuitat malos, sicut flagellum dei ad patientiam erudit bonos; itemque misericordia dei fouendos amplectitur bonos, sicut seueritas dei puniendos corripit malos. placuit quippe diuinae prouidentiae praeparare in posterum bona iustis, quibus non fruentur iniusti, et mala inpiis, quibus non excruciabuntur boni; ista uero temporalia bona et mala utrisque uoluit esse communia, ut nec bona cupidius adpetantur, quae mali quoque habere cernuntur; nec mala turpiter euitentur, quibus et boni plerumque adficiuntur. interest autem plurimum, qualis sit usus uel earum rerum, quae prosperae, uel earum, quae dicuntur aduersae. nam bonus temporalibus nec bonis extollitur nec malis frangitur; malus autem ideo huiuscemodi infelicitate punitur, quia felicitate corrumpitur. ostendit tamen deus saepe etiam in his distribuendis euidentius operationem suam. nam si nunc omne peccatum manifesta plecteret poena, nihil ultimo iudicio seruari putaretur; rursus si nullum nunc peccatum puniret aperta diuinitas, nulla esse diuina prouidentia crederetur. similiter in rebus secundis, si non eas deus quibusdam petentibus euidentissima largitate concederet, non ad eum ista pertinere diceremus; itemque si omnibus eas petentibus daret, nonnisi propter talia praemia seruiendum illi esse arbitraremur, nec pios nos faceret talis seruitus, sed potius cupidos et auaros. haec cum ita sint, quicumque boni et mali pariter adflicti sunt, non ideo ipsi distincti non sunt, quia distinctum non est quod utrique perpessi sunt. manet enim dissimilitudo passorum etiam in similitudine passionum, et licet sub eodem tormento non est idem uirtus et uitium. nam sicut sub uno igne aurum rutilat palea fumat, et sub eadem tribula stipulae comminuuntur frumenta purgantur, nec ideo cum oleo amurca confunditur, quia eodem praeli pondere exprimitur: ita una eademque uis inruens bonos probat purificat eliquat, malos damnat uastat exterminat. unde in eadem adflictione mali deum detestantur atque blasphemant, boni autem precantur et laudant. tantum interest, non qualia, sed qualis quisque patiatur. nam pari motu exagitatum et exhalat horribiliter caenum et suauiter fragrat unguentum.

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The City of God

Chapter 8.--Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men.

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." ¹ 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:" ² 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. ³ 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.