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| Chapter XII. The answer on the economy of Divine Grace, with free will still remaining in us.
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Chapter XII.
The answer on the economy of Divine Grace, with free
will still remaining in us.
Paphnutius: This would fairly
influence us, if in every work and practice, the beginning and the end
were everything, and there were no middle in between. And so as we know
that God creates opportunities of salvation in various ways, it is in
our power to make use of the opportunities granted to us by heaven more
or less earnestly. For just as the offer came from God Who called him
“get thee out of thy country,” so the obedience was on the
part of Abraham who went forth; and as the fact that the saying
“Come into the land” was carried into action, was the work
of him who obeyed, so the addition of the
words “which I will show
thee” came from the grace of God Who commanded or promised it.
But it is well for us to be sure that although we practise every virtue
with unceasing efforts, yet with all our exertions and zeal we can
never arrive at perfection, nor is mere human diligence and toil of
itself sufficient to deserve to reach the splendid reward of bliss,
unless we have secured it by means of the co-operation of the Lord, and
His directing our heart to what is right. And so we ought every moment
to pray and say with David “Order my steps in thy paths that my
footsteps slip not:”1246
and “He
hath set my feet upon a rock and ordered my goings:”1247
that He Who is the unseen ruler of the
human heart may vouchsafe to turn to the desire of virtue that will of
ours, which is more readily inclined to vice either through want of
knowledge of what is good, or through the delights of passion. And we
read this in a verse in which the prophet sings very plainly:
“Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall,” where
the weakness of our free will is shown. And “the Lord sustained
me:”1248
again this
shows that the Lord’s help is always joined to it, and by this,
that we may not be altogether destroyed by our free will, when He sees
that we have stumbled, He sustains and supports us, as it were by
stretching out His hand. And again: “If I said my foot was
moved;” viz., from the slippery character of the will, “Thy
mercy, O Lord, helped me.”1249
Once more
he joins on the help of God to his own weakness, as he confesses that
it was not owing to his own efforts but to the mercy of God, that the
foot of his faith was not moved. And again: “According to the
multitude of the sorrows which I had in my heart,” which sprang
most certainly from my free will, “Thy comforts have refreshed my
soul,”1250
i.e., by coming
through Thy inspiration into my heart, and laying open the view of
future blessings which Thou hast prepared for them who labour in Thy
name, they not only removed all anxiety from my heart, but actually
conferred upon it the greatest delight. And again: “Had it not
been that the Lord helped me, my soul had almost dwelt in
hell.”1251
He certainly shows
that through the depravity of this free will he would have dwelt in
hell, had he not been saved by the assistance and protection of the
Lord. For “By the Lord,” and not by free-will, “are a
man’s steps directed,” and “although the righteous
fall” at least by free will, “he shall not be cast
away.” And why? because “the Lord upholdeth him with His
hand:”1252
and this is to
say with the utmost clearness: None of the righteous are sufficient of
themselves to acquire righteousness, unless every moment when they
stumble and fall the Divine mercy supports them with His hands, that
they may not utterly collapse and perish, when they have been cast down
through the weakness of free will.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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