How, then, did Christ say, All things that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you,^[1] except in this way, that what he was certainly going to accomplish through the Holy Spirit, he spoke to us as if he had already accomplished it? Therefore, whenever we hear that one who believes in Christ will not be judged, we are to understand that he will not be condemned. The word judged is used in place of condemned, as where the apostle says, Let not him who does not eat condemn him who eats,^[2] that is, let him not think evil of him. And the Lord says, Do not judge that you may not be judged.^[3] He does not take from us the power to judge, since the prophet also declares, If you truly love justice, judge right things, O sons of men. And the Lord says, Judge not according to personal considerations, but render a just judgment.^[4] But, in that passage where he forbids judging, he admonishes us not to condemn a person whose purpose is hidden from us, or when we do not know how a person will turn out later on. Accordingly, when he said, He shall not come to judgment,^[5] he meant that he will not come to damnation. And in saying but he who does not believe is already judged, he meant that such a person stands already condemned in the foreknowledge of God, who knows what is in store for nonbelievers.

Atticus:^[1] I grant you that they are just men, but I cannot agree with you at all that they are without sin. For I say that humanity can be without fault, which in Greek is called kakia [wickedness], but I deny that it is anamartētos [faultless], that is to say sine peccato [without sin]. For this is a virtue that befits God alone; and every creature is subject to sin and stands in need of the mercy of God, as Scripture says: The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.^[2] And lest I seem to be discussing certain little faults, so to speak, of the saints, into which they slipped through error, I shall produce a few testimonies that refer not to individuals but rather to all people in general. In the thirty-first psalm, it is written, I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord, and you have forgiven the wickedness of my heart.^[3] And it continues immediately, For this (that is to say, for this impiety or iniquity, for both words can be understood in this passage) shall everyone that is holy pray to you in a seasonable time.^[4] If one is holy, what is his reason for praying for forgiveness of his iniquity? If one has iniquity, in what sense is he called holy? In the sense, to be sure, that it is also written in another place: A just person shall fall seven times and shall rise again.^[5] And, The just is accuser of himself in the beginning of his speech.^[6] And in another place: The wicked are alienated from the womb, they have gone astray from the womb, they have spoken false things. They became sinful at the very moment they were born in the likeness of Adam’s sin, who was a figure of the one who was to come, or at the moment when Christ was born of a virgin. It has been written about him: Every one who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.^[7]

Therefore, having been taught by these examples,^[1] I did not want to bite back at him who bites back at me or to retaliate in kind; and I chose rather to charm out the fury of a madman^[2] by incantation and to pour the antidote of a single look into a poisoned heart. But I am afraid that my efforts are in vain and that I shall be forced to sing the well-known song of David and console myself with these words: The sinners are alienated from the assembly; they have gone astray from the womb; they have spoken false things. Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmers nor of the wizard that charms wisely. God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouths; the Lord shall break the teeth of the lions. They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he has bent his bow until they are weakened. Like wax that melts, they shall be taken away: fire has fallen on them, and they have not seen the sun. And again: The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge of the wicked; he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.^[3] And people shall say, If, indeed, there is a reward to the just, there is, indeed, a God who judges them on the earth.^[4]

The heavens were opened, and Stephen saw the chief of martyrs; he saw Jesus standing at the Father’s right hand; he saw, so that he would not keep quiet. As for his persecutors, they could not see, but they could be envious; and the reason they did not see was that they were envious.^[1] As for Stephen, he did not keep quiet about what he saw, in order to reach the one whom he saw. Behold, he said, I can see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of majesty.^[2] Immediately they covered their ears, as against a blasphemy. You can recognize them in the psalm: Like the deaf cobra, it says, that blocks its ears, in order not to hear the voice of the charmer and the spell cast by the wise one.^[3] Just as snakes, you see, in order to avoid bursting out and leaving their dens when they are being charmed, are said to press one ear to the ground and block the other with their tails—and yet the charmer brings them out. So also Stephen’s persecutors were still hissing in their dens, while seething in their hearts. They were not yet bursting out; they blocked their ears. Let them burst out now, let them show what they really are; let them rush for the stones. They rushed, they stoned him.

Though it appears that the serpent’s nature is being delineated in the foregoing,^[1] rather, every vessel of evil is being delineated, and every serpent of depravity who casts himself down on the belly and hides his poison inside himself and ponders it inwardly in his breast. He^[2] is slippery in his thoughts, he advances in his deceits and wraps himself in his deceptions; he is always moving and stirring his poisons by thought and treading on his belly as well, that is, the seedbed of his heart. For this reason, David fittingly says, Sinners are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb; they have spoken false things. Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp that stops its ears, that will not hear the voice of the charmers or of the wizard that are invoked by the wise person.^[3] For this reason, the statement that we read in the prophetic book also seems fitting, My heart, my heart is in pain!^[4] For wickedness exists there, where there ought to be guiltlessness; what should be more calm in us experiences the greater suffering. It is trodden down by the footsteps of evil, pricked by its claws and agitated by a kind of advance and increase of depravity where there exists the procreative seed of an everlasting posterity.

We hide away our sin, cloaking it over in the depth of our soul, like some festering and malignant disease, as if by escaping human notice we could escape the mighty eye of God and justice. Or else we make excuses for our sins^[1] by devising pleas in defense of our falls or by tightly closing our ears. Like the snake that stops its ears, we are obstinate in refusing to hear the voice of the charmer and be treated with the medicines of wisdom, by which spiritual sickness is healed.

And do you wish that I should speak of another instance of God’s goodness? It is not only this,^[1] but that he does not allow the good to become bad. For if they were destined to meet with the same things, they would all be bad. But now this also greatly consoles the good. For hear the prophet, saying, The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance on the ungodly; he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner. Not rejoicing on account of it, God forbid, but fearing that he might suffer the same things, he will render his own life more pure. This then is a mark of God’s great care. Yes, you say, but he ought only to threaten and not to punish also. But if he does punish, and still you say it is a matter of threat, and on that account become more slothful, if it were really just a threat, would you not become more lazy? If the Ninevites had known it was a matter of threat, they would not have repented. But because they repented, they caused the threat to stop at words only. Do you wish it to be a threat only? You have the disposal of that matter. Become a better person, and it stops only at the threat. But if, which be far from you, you despise the threat, you will come to the experience of it. Those who lived before the flood, if they had feared the threat, would not have experienced the execution of it. And we, if we fear the threat, shall not expose ourselves to experience the reality. God forbid we should. And may the merciful God grant that we all henceforth, having been brought to sound mind, may obtain those unspeakable blessings.

There is no advantage for vessels fitted for destruction that God patiently endures them, to destroy them in due order and to use them as a means of salvation for those on whom he has mercy. But there is advantage for those for whose salvation God uses this means. As it is written, The just shall wash his hands in the blood of the wicked, that is, he shall be cleansed from evil works by the fear of God when he sees the punishment of sinners. That God shows his wrath in bearing with vessels of wrath avails to set a useful example to others but also to make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy that he prepared for glory.^[1] The hardening of the ungodly demonstrates two things—that a person should fear and turn to God in piety and that thanks should be given for his mercy to God who shows by the penalty inflicted on some the greatness of his gift to others. If the penalty he exacts from the former is not just, he makes no gift to those from whom he does not exact it. But because it is just, and there is no unrighteousness with God who punishes, who is sufficient to give thanks to him? For he remits a debt which, if God wanted to exact it, no per-son could deny was justly due.