Miscellanies 7.2.12

All things, then, that did not prevent a human being's choice from being free, he made and showed to be helps toward virtue, so that somehow, even to those able to see only dimly, the one who alone is truly the one almighty good God may be revealed, saving from age to age through the Son, and in every way wholly without responsibility for evil. For all things have been ordered by the Lord of the universe toward the salvation of the whole, both in general and in part. It is the work, then, of saving justice always to lead each thing to what is better, so far as possible. For toward the salvation and permanence of the better, even the lesser things are governed in proportion to their own characters. So everything virtuous changes to better dwellings, having as the cause of the change the choice of knowledge, which the soul possessed with sovereign power. And the necessary disciplines, through the goodness of the great Judge who oversees all, through the angels close at hand, through various preliminary judgments, and through the final judgment, compel those who have become more “callous” to repent.