{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050376.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050376.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050376.htm","text":"Chapter XIX\u2014(40.) The Ninth Passage.\n\u201cThis passage, too,\u201d says he, \u201cis quoted by them: \u2018It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.\u2019\u201d 1563 And he observes that the answer to be given to them is derived from the same apostle\u2019s words in another passage: \u201cLet him do what he will.\u201d 1564 And he adds another passage from the Epistle to Philemon, where, speaking of Onesimus, [St. Paul says]: \u201c\u2018Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.\u2019 1565 Likewise, in Deuteronomy: \u2018Life and death hath He set before thee, and good and evil: . . .choose thou life, that thou mayest live.\u2019 1566 So in the book of Solomon: \u2018God from the beginning made man, and left him in the hand of His counsel; and He added for him commandments and precepts: if thou wilt\u2014to perform acceptable faithfulness for the time to come, they shall save thee. He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thine hand unto whether thou wilt. Before man are good and evil, and life and death; poverty and honour are from the Lord God.\u2019 1567 So again in Isaiah we read: \u2018If ye be willing, and hearken unto me, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye be not willing, and hearken not to me, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken this.\u2019\u201d 1568 Now with all their efforts of disguise they here betray their purpose; for they plainly attempt to controvert the grace and mercy of God, which we desire to obtain whenever we offer the prayer, \u201cThy will be done in earth as it is in heaven;\u201d 1569 or again this, \u201cLead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.\u201d 1570 For indeed why do we present such petitions in earnest supplication, if the result is of him that willeth, and him that runneth, but not of God that showeth mercy? Not that the result is without our will, but that our will does not accomplish the result, unless it receive the divine assistance. Now the wholesomeness of faith is this, that it makes us \u201cseek, that we may find; ask, that we may receive; and knock, that it may be opened to us.\u201d 1571 Whereas the man who gainsays it, does really shut the door of God\u2019s mercy against himself. I am unwilling to say more touching so important a matter, because I do better in committing it to the groans of the faithful, than to words of my own.\nPhlm. 1:13, 14.\n174:1566 174:1567 174:1568 174:1569 174:1570 174:1571","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise Concer...","type":"page"}