God never deserts a man, unless first
he is deserted by that man. For even if a man shall have committed grievous
sins once, and twice, and a third time, God still looks for him, just as He
says through the Prophet, “So that he may be converted and live.” But if a man
begins to continue in his sins, despair is born of the multitude of those sins,
and obduracy is begotten of despair. . . . Obduracy is not effected by the
compelling power of God, but is gotten of the forgiveness and indulgence of
God. And thus, it must be believed that it was not divine power but divine patience
that hardened Pharao. (Caesar of Arles, Sermon 101 (22), 2, ante A.D.
542, The Faith of the Early Fathers,
3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press,
1979], 3:283)
