Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVIII/Chapter 3

Chapter III.&#8212;God Both Good and Just.

And Simon said:&#160; &#8220;I said once for all, &#8216;Every lawgiver, looking to justice, is just.&#8217;&#8221;&#160; And Peter said:&#160; &#8220;If it is the part of him who is good not to lay down a law, but of him who is just to lay down a law, in this way the Framer of the world is both good and just.&#160; He is good, inasmuch as it is plain that He did not lay down a law in writing from the times of Adam to Moses; but inasmuch as He had a written law from Moses to the present times, He is just also.&#8221;&#160; And Simon said:&#160; &#8220;Prove to me from the utterances of your teacher that it is within the power of the same man to be good and just; for to me it seems impossible that the lawgiver who is good should also be just.&#8221;&#160; And Peter said:&#160; &#8220;I shall explain to you how goodness itself is just.&#160; Our teacher Himself first said to the Pharisee who asked Him, &#8216;What shall I do to inherit eternal life?&#8217;&#160; &#8216;Do not call me good; for one is good, even the Father who is in the heavens;&#8217; and straightway He introduced these words, &#8216;But if thou shalt wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.&#8217;&#160; And when he said, &#8216;What commandments?&#8217; He pointed him to those of the law.&#160; Now He would not, if He were indicating some other good being, have referred him to the commandments of the Just One. &#160;That indeed justice and goodness are different I allow, but you do not know that it is within the power of the same being to be good and just.&#160; For He is good, in that He is now long-suffering with the penitent, and welcomes them; but just, when acting as judge He will give to every one according to his deserts.&#8221;