{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050945.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050945.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050945.htm","text":"Chapter 11.\u2014Other Passages of Scripture Which the Pelagians Abuse.\nThen, again, there is the Scripture contained in the second book of the Chronicles: \u201cThe Lord is with you when ye are with Him: and if ye shall seek Him ye shall find Him; but if ye forsake Him, He also will forsake you.\u201d 3017 This passage, no doubt, clearly manifests the choice of the will. But they who maintain that God\u2019s grace is given according to our merits, receive these testimonies of Scripture in such a manner as to believe that our merit lies in the circumstance of our \u201cbeing with God,\u201d while His grace is given according to this merit, so that He too may be with us. In like manner, that our merit lies in the fact of \u201cour seeking God,\u201d and then His grace is given according to this merit, in order that we may find Him.\u201d Again, there is a passage in the first book of the same Chronicles which declares the choice of the will: \u201cAnd thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts; if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever.\u201d 3018 But these people find some room for human merit in the clause, \u201cIf thou seek Him,\u201d and then the grace is thought to be given according to this merit in what is said in the ensuing words, \u201cHe will be found of thee.\u201d And so they labour with all their might to show that God\u2019s grace is given according to our merits,\u2014in other words, that grace is not grace. For, as the apostle most expressly says, to them who receive reward according to merit \u201cthe recompense is not reckoned of grace but of debt.\u201d 3019","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Gra...","type":"page"}