{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050865.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050865.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050865.htm","text":"Chapter 23.\u2014Nothing is Commanded to Man Which is Not Given by God.\nSince these things are so, I see that nothing is commanded to man by the Lord in the Holy Scriptures, for the sake of trying his free will, which is not found either to begin by His goodness, or to be asked in order to demonstrate the aid of grace; nor does man at all begin to be changed by the beginning of faith from evil to good, unless the unbought and gratuitous mercy of God effects this in him. Of which one recalling his thought, as we read in the Psalms, says, \u201cShall God forget to be gracious? or will He restrain His mercies in His anger? And I said, Now have I begun; this change is of the right hand of the Most High.\u201d 2675 When, therefore, he had said, \u201cNow have I begun,\u201d he does not say, \u201cThis change is of my will,\u201d but \u201cof the right hand of the Most High.\u201d So, therefore, let God\u2019s grace be thought of, that from the beginning of his good changing, even to the end of his completion, he who glorieth may glory in the Lord; because, as no one can perfect good without the Lord, so no one can begin it without the Lord. But let this be the end of this book, that the attention of the reader may be refreshed and strengthened for what follows.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise Agains...","type":"page"}