The library · Edition and sources
Philo: On the Unchangableness of God
C. D. Yonge (1854–1855) · Translated text
Section XVI
XVI. (74) On which account God now says, that Noah found grace in his sight, when all the rest of mankind appearing ungrateful were about to receive punishment, in order that he might mingle saving mercy with judgment against sinners. As the psalmist has said somewhere, "My song shall be of mercy and judgment."16 (75) For if God were to choose to judge the race of mankind without mercy, he would pass on them a sentence of condemnation; since there has never been a single man who, by his own unassisted power, has run the whole course of his life, from the beginning to the end, without stumbling; but since some men have fallen into voluntary, and some into involuntary sins, (76) that therefore the human race might still subsist, even though many of the subordinate members of it go to destruction.
God mingles mercy with his justice, which he exercises towards the good actions of even the unworthy; and he not only pities them while judging, but judges them while pitying them, for mercy is older than justice in his sight, inasmuch as he knew the man who deserved punishment, not after he had passed sentence on him, but also before sentence.
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