{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050964.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050964.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050964.htm","text":"Chapter 30.\u2014The Grace by Which the Stony Heart is Removed is Not Preceded by Good Deserts, But by Evil Ones.\nIn another passage, also, by the same prophet, God, in the clearest language, shows us that it is not owing to any good merits on the part of men, but for His own name\u2019s sake, that He does these things. This is His language: \u201cThis I do, O house of Israel, 3108 but for mine holy name\u2019s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle you with clean water, and ye shall be clean: from all your own filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and the stony heart shall be taken away out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and will cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.\u201d 3109 Now who is so blind as not to see, and who so stone-like as not to feel, that this grace is not given according to the merits of a good will, when the Lord declares and testifies, \u201cIt is I, O house of Israel, who do this, but for my holy name\u2019s sake\u201d? Now why did He say \u201cIt is I that do it, but for my holy name\u2019s sake,\u201d were it not that they should not think that it was owing to their own good merits that these things were happening, as the Pelagians hesitate not unblushingly to say? But there were not only no good merits of theirs, but the Lord shows that evil ones actually preceded; for He says, \u201cBut for my holy name\u2019s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen.\u201d Who can fail to observe how dreadful is the evil of profaning the Lord\u2019s own holy name? And yet, for the sake of this very name of mine, says He, which ye have profaned, I, even I, will make you good, but not for your own sakes; and, as He adds, \u201cI will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them.\u201d He says that He sanctifies His name, which He had already declared to be holy. Therefore, this is just what we pray for in the Lord\u2019s Prayer\u2014\u201cHallowed be Thy name.\u201d 3110 We ask for the hallowing among men of that which is in itself undoubtedly always holy. Then it follows, \u201cAnd the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you.\u201d Although, then, He is Himself always holy, He is, nevertheless, sanctified in those on whom He bestows His grace, by taking from them that stony heart by which they profaned the name of the Lord.\nIn several editions and mss. there is inserted here the phrase \u201cnot for your sakes.\u201d\n456:3109 456:3110\nMatt. vi. 9. [The word-play is significant in the Latin: \u201cHe says that he sanctifies (sanctificare) His name which He had already declared to be Holy (sanctum).\u201d This is, therefore, what we pray for in the Lord\u2019s Prayer when we say, \u201cHallowed (sanctificatur) be thy name,\u201d etc.\u2014W.]","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Gra...","type":"page"}