the Gods appear on the scene, Apollo and Jupiter, to make you distinguish between divine foreknowledge and providence.  I have shown that Apollo and foreknowledge do not impair freedom; but I cannot satisfy you on the decrees of Jupiter’s will, that is to say, on the orders of providence.  ANT.—­You have dragged me out of one abyss, and you [369] plunge me back into another and greater abyss.  LAUR.—­Remember our contract:  I have given you dinner, and you ask me to give you supper also.

412.  ANT.—­Now I discover your cunning:  You have caught me, this is not an honest contract.  LAUR.—­What would you have me do?  I have given you wine and meats from my home produce, such as my small estate can provide; as for nectar and ambrosia, you will ask the Gods for them:  that divine nurture is not found among men.  Let us hearken to St. Paul, that chosen vessel who was carried even to the third heaven, who heard there unutterable words:  he will answer you with the comparison of the potter, with the incomprehensibility of the ways of God, and wonder at the depth of his wisdom.  Nevertheless it is well to observe that one does not ask why God foresees the thing, for that is understood, it is because it will be:  but one asks why he ordains thus, why he hardens such an one, why he has compassion on another.  We do not know the reasons which he may have for this; but since he is very good and very wise that is enough to make us deem that his reasons are good.  As he is just also, it follows that his decrees and his operation do not destroy our freedom.  Some men have sought some reason therein.  They have said that we are made from a corrupt and impure mass, indeed of mud.  But Adam and the Angels were made of silver and gold, and they sinned notwithstanding.  One sometimes becomes hardened again after regeneration.  We must therefore seek another cause for evil, and I doubt whether even the Angels are aware of it; yet they cease not to be happy and to praise God.  Boethius hearkened more to the answer of philosophy than to that of St. Paul; that was the cause of his failure.  Let us believe in Jesus Christ, he is the virtue and the wisdom of God:  he teaches us that God willeth the salvation of all, that he willeth not the death of the sinner.  Let us therefore put our trust in the divine mercy, and let us not by our vanity and our malice disqualify ourselves to receive it.

413.  This dialogue of Valla’s is excellent, even though one must take exception to some points in it:  but its chief defect is that it cuts the knot and that it seems to condemn providence under the name of Jupiter, making him almost the author of sin.  Let us therefore carry the little fable still further.  Sextus, quitting Apollo and Delphi, seeks out Jupiter at Dodona.  He makes sacrifices and then he exhibits his complaints.  Why have you condemned me, O great God, to be wicked and unhappy?  Change [370] my lot and my heart, or acknowledge your error.  Jupiter answers him:  If you