{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050239.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050239.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050239.htm","text":"But inasmuch as it may be said that the instances which I have been quoting are divine works, whereas to live righteously is a work that belongs to ourselves, I undertook to show that even this too is a divine work. This I have done in the present book, with perhaps a fuller statement than is necessary, although I seem to myself to have said too little against the opponents of the grace of God. And I am never so much delighted in my treatment of a subject as when Scripture comes most copiously to my aid; and when the question to be discussed requires that \u201che that glorieth should glory in the Lord;\u201d 1081 and that we should in all things lift up our hearts and give thanks to the Lord our God, from whom, \u201cas the Father of lights, every good and every perfect gift cometh down.\u201d 1082 Now if a gift is not God\u2019s gift, because it is wrought by us, or because we act by His gift, then it is not a work of God that \u201ca mountain should be removed into the sea,\u201d inasmuch as, according to the Lord\u2019s statement, it is by the faith of men that this is possible. Moreover, He attributes the deed to their actual operation: \u201cIf ye have faith p. 112 in yourselves as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, \u201cBe thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and it shall be done, and nothing shall be impossible to you.\u201d 1083 Observe how He said \u201cto you,\u201d not \u201cto Me\u201d or \u201cto the Father;\u201d and yet it is certain that no man does such a thing without God\u2019s gift and operation. See how an instance of perfect righteousness is unexampled among men, and yet is not impossible. For it might be achieved if there were only applied so much of will as suffices for so great a thing. There would, however, be so much will, if there were hidden from us none of those conditions which pertain to righteousness; and at the same time these so delighted our mind, that whatever hindrance of pleasure or pain might else occur, this delight in holiness would prevail over every rival affection. And that this is not realized, is not owing to any intrinsic impossibility, but to God\u2019s judicial act. For who can be ignorant, that what he should know is not in man\u2019s power; nor does it follow that what he has discovered to be a desirable object is actually desired, unless he also feel a delight in that object, commensurate with its claims on his affection? For this belongs to health of soul.\nCompare Matt. 17:20, Mark 11:23, Luke 17:6.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on the...","type":"page"}