游斯丁護教辭與對話 第 3-141 章

But that you may not have a pretext to say that Christ had to be crucified, or that there had to be among your race those who transgress, and that it could not have been otherwise, I have said briefly already that God, willing both angels and men to follow His counsel, willed to make them free agents toward righteous action, with reason to know Him by whom they were made, and for whose sake they exist, not having existed before, and with a law by which they are judged by Him, if they act contrary to right reason; and by our own doing we, both men and angels, shall be convicted of having done wickedly, unless we make haste to repent.

And if the word of God foretells that certain angels and men shall by all means be punished, it foretold these things because He foreknew that they would become unchangeably wicked, but not because God made them such. So that, if they repent, all who wish to obtain the mercy from God are able, and the Word foretells them blessed, saying: 'Blessed is he to whom the Lord shall in no wise reckon sin'—that is, he who, having repented of his sins, receives from God remission of his sins; but not, as you deceive yourselves, and certain others like you in this respect, who say that even if they are sinners but know God, the Lord will not reckon to them sin.

And we have a testimony of this in the one transgression of David that came about through his boasting, which was then forgiven, when he so wept and lamented as it is written. But if forgiveness was not given to such a man before he repented, but only when this great king and christ and prophet so wept and acted, how can the impure and utterly reckless, unless they lament and mourn and repent, have hope that the Lord will not reckon to them sin?

And this one act of David's transgression with the wife of Uriah, O men, I said, shows that the patriarchs had many wives not as fornicators, but that a certain dispensation and all mysteries were accomplished through them; since, if it were permitted to take whatever wife one wishes, and as one wishes, and as many as one wishes—as the men of your race do, in every land where they sojourn or are sent, leading away women under the name of marriage—much more would this have been permitted David to do.

Having said these things, my most dear Marcus Pompeius, I ceased.