[74] And therefore it now says that when the others who had proved ungrateful were doomed to pay the penalty, Noah found grace with Him, that so He might mingle His saving mercy with the judgement pronounced on sinners. And so the Psalmist said somewhere (Ps. 100 [101] 1), “I will sing to thee of mercy and judgement.”
[75] For if God should will to judge the race of mortals without mercy, His sentence will be one of condemnation, since there is no man who self-sustained has run the course of life from birth to death without stumbling, but in every case his footsteps have slipped through errors, some voluntary, some involuntary.
[76] So then that the race may subsist, though many of those which go to form it are swallowed up by the deep, He tempers His judgement with the mercy which He shews in doing kindness even to the unworthy. And not only does this mercy follow His judgement but it also precedes it. For mercy with Him is older than justice, since He knows who is worthy of punishment, not only after judgement is given, but before it.