Mercy And Justice

Debet ergo et a bonis et a malis tam misericordia diligi quam iustitia formidari: ne vel boni diligentes misericordiam Dei, iustitiam non timeant, et laqueos diaboli seducentis incurrant; vel mali solam iustitiae severitatem considerantes, non quaerant, cum invenire possunt per conversionem, misericordiae beneficium, ac sic obdurati non solum remissionem peccatorum denegent, quin etiam peccata multiplicare non cessent. Hoc enim bicipiti laqueo frequenter diabolus captivat incautos; ut aut spe vana futurae remissionis obtusi, nolint iustitiae timore converti; aut remissionem omnimodis desperantes, conversionem negligant, et habenas iniquitatibus relaxantes, dum desperant indulgentiam, currant praecipites in gehennam. Ac sic ille callidus humani generis inimicus, alios desperationis temeritate praecipitat, alios autem fallacis spei deceptione supplantat. Sanctus Fulgentius Ruspensis, De Remissione Peccatorum, Lib I, Cap IX Source: Migne PL 65.533d-534a

Therefore God's mercy should be loved by the good and the wicked as much as His justice is feared, lest either good men who love the mercy of God fear not His justice and run into the snares of the seductions of the devil, or the wicked, considering only the severity of His justice, seek not the blessing of his mercy, which they are able to find in their conversion, and so hardened, not only refuse the forgiveness of sins, but even do not cease to increase them. The devil frequently catches the incautious in this twofold trap, so that either dulled by vain hope of future forgiveness they are unwilling to be converted by the fear of justice, or despairing in every way of forgiveness they care not for their way of living, and loosening the reins of iniquity, while they are in despair of forgiveness, they plunge headlong into hell. And so the clever enemy of the human race casts down some by the recklessness of despair, while he trips up others by the deception of false hope. Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, On the Forgiveness of Sins, Book 1, Chap 9