Chapter 49.—Further References to Cyprian and Ambrose.

Wherefore, the above-mentioned most excellent commentators on the divine declarations both preached the true grace of God as it ought to be preached,—that is, as a grace preceded by no human deservings,—and urgently exhorted to the doing of the divine commandments, that they who might have the gift of obedience should hear what commands they ought to obey. For if any merits of ours precede grace, certainly it is the merit of some deed, or word, or thought, wherein also is understood a good will itself. But he very briefly summed up the kinds of all deservings who said, “We must glory in nothing, because nothing is our own.” And he who says, “Our heart and our thoughts are not in our own power,” did not pass over acts and words also, for there is no act or word of man which does not proceed from the heart and the thought. But what more could that most glorious martyr and most luminous doctor Cyprian say concerning this matter, than when he impressed upon us that it behoves us to pray, in the Lord’s Prayer, even for the adversaries of the Christian faith, showing what he thought of the beginning of the faith, that it also is God’s gift, and pointing out that the Church of Christ prays daily for perseverance unto the end, because none but God gives that perseverance to those who have persevered? Moreover, the blessed Ambrose, when he was expounding the passage where the Evangelist Luke says, “It seemed good to me also,” 124    Luke i. 3. says, “What he declares to have seemed good to himself cannot have seemed good to him alone. For not alone by human will did it seem good, but as it pleased Him who speaks in me, Christ, who effects that that which is good may also seem good to us: for whom He has mercy on He also calls. And therefore he who follows Christ may answer, when he is asked why he wished to become a Christian, ‘It seemed good to me also.’ And when he says this, he does not deny that it seemed good to God; for the will of men is prepared by God. For it is God’s grace that God should be honoured by the saint.”125    Ambrose On Luke, in the exposition of the prologue. Moreover, in the same work,—that is, in the exposition of the same Gospel, when he had come to that place where the Samaritans would not receive the Lord when His face was as going to Jerusalem,—he says, “Learn at the same time that He would not be received by those who were not converted in simpleness of mind. For if He had been willing, He would have made them devout who were undevout. And why they would not receive Him, the evangelist himself mentioned, saying, ‘Because His face was as of one going towards Jerusalem.’126    Luke ix. 53. But the disciples earnestly desired to be received into Samaria. But God calls those whom He makes worthy, and makes religious whom He will.”127    Ambrose, On Luke, Book 7, ch. 27. What more evident, what more manifest do we ask from commentators on God’s word, if we are pleased to hear from them what is clear in the Scriptures? But to these two, who ought to be enough, let us add also a third, the holy Gregory, who testifies that it is the gift of God both to believe in God and to confess what we believe, saying, “I beg of you confess the Trinity of one godhead; but if ye wish otherwise, say that it is of one nature, and God will be besought that a voice shall be given to you by the Holy Spirit;” that is, God will be besought to allow a voice to be given to you by which you may confess what you believe. “For He will give, I am certain. He who gave what is first, will give also what is second.”128    Greg. of Nazianz. Orat. 44 in Pentecosten. He who gave belief, will also give confession.

49. Unde supra dicti tractatores excellentissimi divinorum eloquiorum, et gratiam Dei veram, sicut praedicanda est, praedicarunt, id est, quam nulla merita humana praecedunt; et ad facienda divina praecepta instanter hortati sunt, ut qui haberent donum obedientiae, quibus jussis obediendum esset, audirent. Si enim gratiam merita ulla nostra praecedunt, profecto aut facti alicujus, aut dicti, aut cogitationis est meritum, ubi et ipsa intelligitur voluntas bona: sed brevissime 1024 complexus est omnium genera meritorum, qui dicit, «In nullo gloriandum, quando nostrum nihil sit.» Qui vero ait, «Non est in nostra potestate cor nostrum, et nostrae cogitationes,» nec ipsa facta et dicta praeteriit: non enim est ullum factum dictumvi hominis, quod non ex corde et cogitatione procedat. Quid autem amplius de hac re agere Cyprianus martyr gloriosissimus et doctor lucidissimus potuit, quam ubi nos in oratione dominica etiam pro inimicis fidei christianae orare oportere commonuit? ubi de initio fidei, quod etiam hoc donum Dei sit, quid sentiret ostendit: et pro perseverantia usque in finem, quia et ipsam nonnisi Deus eis qui perseveraverint donat, Ecclesiam Christi quotidie orare monstravit. Beatus quoque Ambrosius cum exponeret quod ait Lucas evangelista, Visum est et mihi (Luc. I, 3): «Potest,» inquit, «non soli visum esse, quod sibi visum esse declarat. Non enim voluntate tantum humana visum est, sed sicut placuit ei qui in me loquitur Christus, qui ut id quod bonum est, nobis quoque videri bonum possit, operatur: quem enim miseratur, et vocat. Et ideo qui Christum sequitur, potest interrogatus cur esse voluerit christianus, respondere, Visum est et mihi. Quod cum dicit, non negat Deo visum; a Deo enim praeparatur voluntas hominum» (Prov. VIII, sec. LXX). «Ut enim Deus honorificetur a sancto, Dei gratia est» (Super Lucam, in expositione prooemii). Itemque in eodem opere, hoc est, in Expositione ejusdem Evangelii, cum ad illum venisset locum, ubi Dominum ad Jerusalem pergentem Samaritani recipere noluerunt: «Simul disce,» inquit, «quia recipi noluit a non simplici mente conversis. Nam si voluisset, ex indevotis devotos fecisset. Cur autem non receperint eum, Evangelista ipse commemoravit dicens: Quia facies ejus erat euntis in Jerusalem» (Luc. IX, 53). «Discipuli autem recipi intra Samariam gestiebant. Sed Deus quos dignatur vocat, et quem vult religiosum facit» (Lib. 7 in Lucam, n. 27). Quid evidentius, quid illustrius a verbi Dei tractatoribus quaerimus, si et ab ipsis quod in Scripturis clarum est, audire delectat? Sed his duobus, qui sufficere debuerunt, sanctum Gregorium addamus et tertium, qui et credere in Deum, et quod credimus confiteri, Dei donum esse testatur, dicens: «Unius deitatis, quaeso vos, confitemini Trinitatem: si vero aliter vultis, dicite unius esse naturae; et Deus vocem dari vobis a sancto Spiritu deprecabitur:» id est, rogabitur Deus, ut permittat vobis dari vocem, 1025 qua quod creditis, confiteri possitis. «Dabit enim, certus sum; qui dedit quod primum est, dabit et quod secundum est» (Gregorius Nazianzenus, Orat. 44 in Pentecosten); qui dedit credere, dabit et confiteri.