Zechariah 1:3

Indeed, God is good to everyone, but he shows his patient endurance especially to those who sin. And if you want to hear a paradoxical statement—paradoxical because it is not customary, but true for the great piety it reveals—listen. God always seems to be severe to the righteous but good to sinners and quick to clemency. He restores the one who sinned and fell and tells him, "Shall not he who falls arise; or he that turns away, shall he not turn back again?" And "Why did that stupid daughter of Judah turn away with a shameless revolting?" And again, "Return to me, and I will return to you." Elsewhere he assures with an oath the salvation from repentance by much clemency. " 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'I do not desire the death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his way and live.' " To the righteous he says, "If a man achieves every righteousness and truth and later turns from his way and sins, I will not remember his righteousness, but he will die in his sin." O such strictness toward the righteous! O such abundant forgiveness toward the sinner! He finds so many different means, without himself changing, to keep the righteous in check and forgive the sinner, by usefully dividing his rich goodness.

Free will and God's grace are simultaneously commended. When God says, "Turn to me, and I will turn to you," one of these clauses—that which invites our return to God—evidently belongs to our will; while the other, which promises his return to us, belongs to his grace. Here, possibly, the Pelagians think they have justification for their opinion, which they so prominently advance, that God's grace is given according to our merits. In the east, indeed, that is to say, in the province of Palestine, in which is the city of Jerusalem, Pelagius, when examined in person by the bishop, did not venture to affirm this. For it happened that among the objections which were brought up against him, this in particular was objected, that he maintained that the grace of God is given according to our merits, an opinion which was so diverse from Catholic doctrine and so hostile to the grace of Christ that unless he had anathemized it, as laid to his charge, he himself must have been anathemized on its account. He pronounced, indeed, the required anathema upon the dogm;a, but how insincerely his later books plainly show; for in them he maintains absolutely no other opinion than that the grace of God is given according to our merits. Such passages do they collect out of the Scriptures—like the one which I just now quoted, "Turn to me, and I will turn to you"—as if it were owing to the merits of our turning to God that his grace were given us, wherein he himself even turns to us. Now the persons who hold this opinion fail to observe that unless our turning to God were itself God's gift, it would not be said to him in prayer, "Turn us again, O God of hosts," and, "You, O God, will turn and quicken us," and again, "Turn us, O God of our salvation"—with other passages of similar import, too numerous to mention here. […]

If we are entirely devoted to God and humbly implore his mercy, through the mercy of God we may deserve to be healed of all our infirmities, rescued from all our sins, set free from the frequent flooding of waters. We ought to believe for …

It was thus that God's word came to Zechariah, not that he might keep to himself what God had said, but that he might be a faithful dispenser of his truth. With regard to Zechariah, they are mistaken who regard him as the son of Jehoiadah, they are mistaken by Christ in Matthew 23:35.

It is he that speaks, and therefore you are bound to regard what he says." Turn you to me, saith the Lord of hosts (this intimates the authority and obligation of the command), and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts --this intimates the validity and value of the promise; so that it is no vain repetition.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes