Augustine of Hippo, on Ezek 18:21

“But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die.”

“There are people who, as soon as they begin to think about the evil things they have done, assume that they can not be pardoned; and on the assumption that they can not be pardoned, they give their souls over to destruction from that moment.… They perish from despair, whether before they come to believe at all or whether they are already Christians and have fallen by evil living into various sins and vicious forms of behavior.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.