Chapter 33.—God Gives Both Initiatory and Persevering Grace According to His Own Will.

From all which it is shown with sufficient clearness that the grace of God, which both begins a man’s faith and which enables it to persevere unto the end, is not given according to our merits, but is given according to His own most secret and at the same time most righteous, wise, and beneficent will; since those whom He predestinated, them He also called,66    Rom viii. 30. with that calling of which it is said, “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”67    Rom. xi. 29. To which calling there is no man that can be said by men with any certainty of affirmation to belong, until he has departed from this world; but in this life of man, which is a state of trial upon the earth,68    Job vii. 1. he who seems to stand must take heed lest he fall.69    1 Cor. x. 12. Since (as I have already said before)70    Above, ch. xiv. those who will not persevere are, by the most foreseeing will of God, mingled with those who will persevere, for the reason that we may learn not to mind high things, but to consent to the lowly, and may “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”71    Phil. ii. 12, 13. We therefore will, but God worketh in us to will also. We therefore work, but God worketh in us to work also for His good pleasure. This is profitable for us both to believe and to say,—this is pious, this is true, that our confession be lowly and submissive, and that all should be given to God. Thinking, we believe; thinking, we speak; thinking, we do whatever we do;72    2 Cor. iii. 5. but, in respect of what concerns the way of piety and the true worship of God, we are not sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.73    Ambrose, On Flight from the World, ch. 1. For “our heart and our thoughts are not in our own power;” whence the same Ambrose who says this says also: “But who is so blessed as in his heart always to rise upwards? And how can this be done without divine help? Assuredly, by no means. Finally,” he says, “the same Scripture affirms above, ‘Blessed is the man whose help is of Thee; O Lord,74    Ps. lxxxiv. 5 [LXX.] ascent is in his heart.’”75    LXX.: “In his heart he has purposed to go up.” Assuredly, Ambrose was not only enabled to say this by reading in the holy writings, but as of such a man is to be without doubt believed, he felt it also in his own heart. Therefore, as is said in the sacraments of believers, that we should lift up our hearts to the Lord, is God’s gift; for which gift they to whom this is said are admonished by the priest after this word to give thanks to our Lord God Himself; and they answer that it is “meet and right so to do.” 76    [An allusion to the Sursum Corda in the “Preface” of the Communion service. For its history see Smith and Cheetham’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, p. 1693. Cyprian in his treatise on the Lord’s Prayer already mentions it. It still has a place in the liturgies of the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.—W.] For, since our heart is not in our own power, but is lifted up by the divine help, so that it ascends and takes cognizance of those things which are above,77    Col. iii. 1. where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, and, not those things that are upon the earth, to whom are thanks to be given for so great a gift as this unless to our Lord God who doeth this,—who in so great kindness has chosen us by delivering us from the abyss of this world, and has predestinated us before the foundation of the world?

33. Unde satis dilucide ostenditur, et inchoandi, et usque in finem perseverandi gratiam Dei non secundum merita nostra dari; sed dari secundum ipsius secretissimam, eamdemque justissimam, sapientissimam, beneficentissimam voluntatem: quoniam quos praedestinavit, ipsos et vocavit (Id. VIII, 30) vocatione illa de qua dictum est, Sine poenitentia sunt dona et vocatio Dei (Id. XI, 29). Ad quam vocationem pertinere nullus est homo ab hominibus certa asseveratione dicendus, nisi cum de hoc saeculo exierit: in hac autem vita humana quae tentatio est super terram (Job VII, 1), qui videtur stare, videat ne cadat (I Cor. X, 12). Ideo quippe (sicut jam supra diximus [Cap. 8, n. 19]) non perseveraturi perseveraturis providentissima Dei voluntate miscentur, ut esse discamus non alta sapientes, sed humilibus consentientes (Rom. XII, 16), et cum timore et tremore nostram ipsorum salutem operemur: Deus est enim qui operatur in nobis et velle et operari, pro 1013 bona voluntate (Philipp. II, 12 et 13). Nos ergo volumus, sed Deus in nobis operatur et velle: nos ergo operamur, sed Deus in nobis operatur et operari, pro bona voluntate. Hoc nobis expedit et credere et dicere: hoc est pium, hoc verum, ut sit humilis et submissa confessio, et detur totum Deo. Cogitantes credimus, cogitantes loquimur, cogitantes agimus quidquid agimus: quod autem attinet ad pietatis viam et verum Dei cultum, non sumus idonei cogitare aliquid tanquam ex nobismetipsis, sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est (II Cor. III, 5). «Non enim est in potestate nostra cor nostrum et nostrae cogitationes:» unde idem qui hoc ait, item dicit Ambrosius (De Fuga saeculi, cap. 1), «Quis autem tam beatus qui in corde suo semper ascendat? Sed hoc sine divino auxilio qui fieri potest? nullo profecto modo. Denique,» inquit, «supra eadem Scriptura dicit, Beatus vir cujus est auxilium ejus abs te, Domine; ascensus in corde ejus» (Psal. LXXXIII, 6). Hoc utique ut diceret, non solum in Litteris sacris legebat, sed sicut de illo viro sine dubitatione credendum est, etiam in corde suo sentiebat Ambrosius. Quod ergo in sacramentis fidelium dicitur, ut sursum cor habeamus ad Dominum, munus est Domini: de quo munere ipsi Domino Deo nostro gratias agere, a sacerdote post hanc vocem quibus hoc dicitur admonentur; et dignum ac justum esse respondent (In praefatione ad canonem Missae). Cum enim non sit in nostra potestate cor nostrum, sed divino sublevetur auxilio, ut ascendat, et quae sursum sunt sapiat, ubi Christus est in dextra Dei sedens, non quae super terram (Coloss. III, 1, 2): cui de hac tanta re agendae sunt gratiae, nisi hoc facienti Domino Deo nostro, qui nos per tale beneficium liberando de profundo hujus mundi, elegit, et praedestinavit ante constitutionem mundi?