De arte praedicatoria

The following authorities can invite a person to mercy: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.¹ I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.² Likewise: Blessed is the man who shows mercy and lends.³ And James in his canonical Epistle: Mercy exalts itself above judgment.⁴ Likewise Solomon: Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is strengthened by clemency.⁵ And in the Gospel: Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them; this is the law and the prophets.⁶

O man, if you considered carefully the mercy of God, you could have in yourself the pattern for showing mercy. What made Christ take flesh, if not mercy? What subjected him to our misery, if not his clemency? This alone is the way of man to God, and of God to man. O blessed way, which alone acknowledges the exchange of our salvation, which alone directs man to God, and brings God down to man! It alone, as mediator, reconciles those turned away, joins those separated, in a certain way makes equal those who are unequal, humbling God, raising us up, drawing him down to the depths, lifting us to the heights; yet in such a way that his descent is not abject, and our exaltation is not proud but glorious. For mercy had such great power that it alone could draw God from heaven to earth, and lead man back from exile to his homeland. O great bond of mercy, by which God could be bound, and bound man broke the chains of iniquity!

O man, if you considered your own misery, in God's dealings toward you, you would find nothing but mercy. It is mercy if he bears with the sinner, if he scourges him so that he may be corrected, if he frees him from sin, if he preserves him in righteousness: it is mercy too if he punishes eternally, because this falls short of what is deserved, and mercy if he rewards eternally, because this exceeds what is deserved. Nor is his justice diminished by this, since his justice itself requires the exercise of mercy. For justice must always have mercy as its companion, because the truth of justice turns into severity unless it is seasoned with the sweetness of mercy. Hence it is said: Mercy and truth have met each other, justice and peace have kissed.⁷ For justice ought in a sense to kiss mercy, so that justice does not depart from the path of mercy, and mercy does not overstep the line of justice.

Hence judgment is said to belong to mercy above the altar, because justice is plunged into the abyss of cruelty unless it is relaxed by the grace of mercy. Mercy is the seasoning of justice, the medicine of judgment. Yet mercy should not be common or indiscriminate on account of misery alone, for as Seneca says: "To forgive everyone is as much cruelty as to forgive no one." For discipline or mercy is greatly destroyed if one is kept without the other, but both must be present in rulers toward their subjects, mercy justly consoling, and discipline piously punishing. Let us consider how much Moses loved the people, for whose life he asked to be blotted out, and with what zeal for righteousness, once he had obtained pardon, he said to the people: Let every man put his sword on his thigh, etc.⁸ Behold, he who asked for the life of the people at the cost of his own death, destroyed the life of a few by the sword; inwardly burning with the fire of love, outwardly he was kindled with zeal for severity before God. On both sides a strong ambassador, he pleaded the people's cause before God with prayers, and God's cause before the people with swords.

O man, pursue mercy toward your neighbor, not out of regard for fortune, but for cause; let not sickness of mind but the charity of God's clemency stir you. For there are many who are moved by the tears of the most guilty, who, if it were permitted, would break open the prison; these are moved not by charity, but by weakness of mind. Let charity, then, render compassion to man, and let equity punish the enormity of vice. Above all, one must strive earnestly in works of mercy, that the hungry be fed, the thirsty refreshed, the naked clothed, the stranger received, the orphan comforted, the sick visited. These are the works of mercy which the just man will arrange in judgment,⁹ which will plead for him on the day of judgment. For only the works of mercy will plead for man in the final cause; because judgment shall be without mercy to him who has not shown mercy.¹⁰

O man, recognize yourself in another's misery, and read your own misery in another's. If you are righteous, you can fall; if you are rich, it is a gift of fortune, not of nature. If you are healthy, illness either threatens or presses close. If you are wise, human wisdom has no constancy. O man, if you turn from the path of clemency, so far as it lies in you, you disturb the fountain of mercy; you who have experienced in God the fountain of mercy and pity, at least allow a little stream of mercy to flow toward your neighbor. What will it be if your Savior is clement and kind, and you are merciless and harsh toward your neighbor? You have received mercy from the Lord, and you commit malice against your neighbor. You can read in God's mercy what you ought to do, what rule of clemency you should keep. And indeed, you are bound to embrace mercy rather than justice. For every man ought naturally to be more inclined to mercy than to justice; because mercy brings forth love, justice brings forth fear; because charity excludes fear, and love is worthier than fear.

There are also many things that admonish us to relax something of justice: the weakness of human nature, the usefulness of the matter, and also the dignity of mercy, which exalts itself above judgment. Let mercy, then, arise not from negligence, not from faintheartedness, not from lack of discretion, not from weakness of mind, but let it be circumscribed in every way, so that it keeps what is properly its own, and does not take away what is owed to justice. See, O man, in Joseph the mercy that forgot his brothers' injury.¹¹ Read in David the grace of clemency, who wept for the madness of the son who persecuted him.¹² Set these and similar examples before yourself, if you wish to follow the right path of mercy. If you close the bowels of mercy to one in need, you close for yourself the door of Christ's mercy. For mercy is the key by which heaven is unlocked, which dissolves guilt. This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it. This is the mercy which illuminates the New Testament, and softens the rigor of the old law. This is the wood that sweetens the waters of Mara.¹³ With this salt Elisha destroyed the bitterness of the waters.¹⁴ With this flour Elisha removed death from the pot.¹⁵ This is the oil the Samaritan poured on the wounds of the wounded man.¹⁶ Clemency makes a man not only honorable, but also safe. Clemency is the ornament of princes, and their surest light. It alone divides the cruel from the pious, the king from the tyrant. The king is armed with clemency, the tyrant provokes hatred with weapons. O man, where would you stand, if clemency did not come to your aid? If God dealt with you by strict justice, no punishment could be devised that would answer your deserts, no penalty that would equal your crimes. Attribute everything, then, to God's mercy, and likewise extend mercy toward your neighbor; do not be stingy in showing mercy, since you have experienced the generosity of mercy in God.