{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/211/2110857.htm","path":"chr/ecf/211/2110857.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/211/2110857.htm","text":"Of the grace of God; to the effect that it transcends the narrow limits of human faith.\nBut let no one imagine that we have brought forward these instances to try to make out that the chief share in our salvation rests with our faith, according to the profane notion of some who attribute everything to free will and lay down that the grace of God is dispensed in accordance with the desert of each man: but we plainly assert our unconditional opinion that the grace of God is superabounding, and sometimes overflows the narrow limits of man\u2019s lack of faith. And this, as we remember, happened in the case of the ruler in the gospel, who, as he believed that it was an easier thing for his son to be cured when sick than to be raised when dead, implored the Lord to come at once, saying: \u201cLord, come down ere my child die;\u201d and though Christ reproved his lack of faith with these words: \u201cExcept ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe,\u201d yet He did not manifest the grace of His Divinity in proportion to the weakness of his faith, nor did He expell the deadly disease of the fever by His bodily presence, as the man believed he would, but by the word of His power, saying: \u201cGo thy way, thy son liveth.\u201d 1856 And we read also that the Lord poured forth this superabundance of grace in the case of the cure of the paralytic, when, though he only asked for the healing of the weakness by which his body was enervated, He first brought health to the soul by saying: \u201cSon, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.\u201d After which, when the scribes did not believe that He could forgive men\u2019s sins, in order to confound their incredulity, He set free by the power of His word the man\u2019s limb, and put an end to his disease of paralysis, by saying: \u201cWhy think ye evil in your hearts? Whether is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith He to the sick of the palsy: Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.\u201d 1857 And in the same way in the case of the man who had been lying for thirty-eight years near the edge of the pool, and hoping for a cure from the moving of the water, He showed the princely character of His bounty unasked. For when in His wish to arouse him for the saving remedy, He had said to him: \u201cwillest thou to be made whole,\u201d and when the man complained of his lack of human assistance and said: \u201cI have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled,\u201d the Lord in His pity granted pardon to his unbelief and ignorance, and restored him to his former health, not in the way which he expected, but in the way which He Himself willed, saying: \u201cArise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house.\u201d 1858 And what wonder if these acts are told of the Lord\u2019s power, when Divine grace has actually wrought similar works by means of His servants! For when Peter and John were entering the temple, when the man who was lame from his mother\u2019s womb and had no idea how to walk, asked an alms, they gave him not the miserable coppers which the sick man asked for, but the power to walk, and when he was only expecting the smallest of gifts to console him, enriched him with the prize of unlooked for health, as Peter said: \u201cSilver and gold have I none: but such as I have, give I unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.\u201d 1859\nS. John iv. 48-50.\n433:1857\nS. Matt. ix. 2-6.\n433:1858\nS. John v. 6-8.\n433:1859","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XI: The Works of John Cassian.: Chapter XVI. Of the grace of God; to the effect that it transcends the narrow limits of human faith.","type":"page"}