Kindness And Penitence

Ignoras quoniam benignitas Dei ad poenitentiam te adducit? Bonitas Dei inaestimabiles divitiae sunt, quia sicut solem suum oriri facit, sic etiam caetera bona sua diffundere non cessat super bonos et malos. Patientia vero Dei est in eos qui contemnunt, longanimitas in eos qui infirmitate potius quam proposito delinquunt. Perseverantibus quippe peccatoribus in nequitia, perservat Deus in patientia, per pauca in hoc saeculo puniens, ne divina providentia non esse credatur, multa extremo examini reservans, ut futurum judicium commendetur. Animus vero male sibi conscius jam totus datus in poenam, cum nullam sibi poenam videtur pati, credit quia non judicet Deus, Ipse est sensus reprobus, ipsa est caecitas et obduratio cordis; ipsae sunt interiores tenebrae, quibus ab interiori luce Dei peccator secludatur; non autem penitus quandia in hac vita est. Sunt enim tenebrae exteriores, quae magis ad diem judicii pertinere intelliguntur, ut penitus extra Deum sit qui corrigi non vult, dum tempus habet. Penitus autem esse extra Deum, quid est, nisi esse in summa caecitate? Siquidem Deus habitat lucem inaccessibilem, quo ingrediuntur quibus dicitur: Intra in gaudium Domini tui. Ignoras, inquit, quoniam benignitas Dei ad poenitentiam te adducit? Hoc, quandiu tempus est misericordiae. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber I Source: Migne PG 180.629a-b

Do you not know that kindness of God is that it lead you to penitence? 1 The kindness of God is inestimable wealth, because as He makes His sun rise, so indeed without cease He pours out all His goods on the good and the wicked. The patience of God, however, is for those who scorn Him, His long suffering over those who stray in weakness rather than by intent. Certainly with those sinners who persevere in wickedness, God perseveres in patience, striking them with little things in this world, lest Divine Providence be doubted, and reserving most for the final examination, that future when judgement shall be given. However the soul wickedly conscious of itself now, that it is utterly given over to punishment, when it seems to itself to suffer no punishment, so thinks that God will not judge it. This is the understanding of the reprobate, it is blindness and hardness of heart, it is the interior darkness, by which the sinner is shut out from the light of God within, not however utterly while in this life. For there is the exterior darkness, which is better understood to be the day of judgement, so that without God within is the man who does not wish to be corrected while he has the time. And to be without God, what is it, but the depths of blindness? Since God dwells in inaccessible light, 2 into which they enter to whom it is said: 'Enter into the joy of your Lord.' 3 Do you not know, he says, that the kindness of God is to lead you to penitence? And this while there is still time for mercy. William of St Thierry, Commentary on Romans, Book 5 1 Rom 2.4 2 1 Tim 6.16 3 Mt 25.34