{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050951.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050951.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050951.htm","text":"Chapter 17.\u2014The Faith that He Kept Was the Free Gift of God.\nHis last clause runs thus: \u201cI have kept the faith.\u201d But he who says this is the same who declares in another passage, \u201cI have obtained mercy that I might be faithful.\u201d 3046 He does not say, \u201cI obtained mercy because I was faithful,\u201d but \u201cin order that I might be faithful,\u201d thus showing that even faith itself cannot be had without God\u2019s mercy, and that it is the gift of God. This he very expressly teaches us when he says, \u201cFor by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.\u201d 3047 They might possibly say, \u201cWe received grace because we believed;\u201d as if they would attribute the faith to themselves, and the grace to God. Therefore, the apostle having said, \u201cYe are saved through faith,\u201d added,\u201d And that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God.\u201d p. 451 And again, lest they should say they deserved so great a gift by their works, he immediately added, \u201cNot of works, lest any man should boast.\u201d 3048 Not that he denied good works, or emptied them of their value, when he says that God renders to every man according to his works; 3049 but because works proceed from faith, and not faith from works. Therefore it is from Him that we have works of righteousness, from whom comes also faith itself, concerning which it is written, \u201cThe just shall live by faith.\u201d 3050","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Gra...","type":"page"}