Arnobius the Younger

For God is necessary to all things, but nothing is necessary to him. Because, however, he loved everything he created, by the great grace of his kindness he deemed it worthy to invite the soul to come to him through the law, through trials of virtue, through sorrows of the heart, and through the greatness of human works. He gave not only the bread of angels, therefore, but also the flesh of innumerable birds to the concupiscent, even to the ungrateful. And lest their descendants fail to fear the unpunished crime of the ungrateful, “the wrath of God came upon them when their food was still in their mouths” because they did not believe in his wonders.“Their days vanished in emptiness and their years in partying.” Truly, as I have said, you will not desire to do good unless you are compelled by the fear of suffering evil: “When he killed them,” it says, “they sought him, repented, and came to him immediately.” It was then that “they remembered that God is their helper and their defense.” But only those who said, “You are our God” are the ones who “lied to him with their tongues, for their hearts were not right within them.” Consequently the Lord said, “This people loves me with its lips, but its heart is far from me.” Why these people in particular? Because “they did not have faith in his covenant.” For “without faith,” said the apostle, “it is impossible to please God.”