Chapter 36 [XXXII.]—Pride Even in Such Things as are Done Aright Must Be Avoided. Free Will is Not Taken Away When Grace is Preached.

So will He bestow on us whatever pleases Him, that if there be anything displeasing to Him in us, it will also be displeasing to us. “He will,” as the Scripture has said, “turn aside our paths from His own way,”96    See Ps. xliv. 18. and will make that which is His own to be our way; because it is by Himself that the favour is bestowed on such as believe in Him and hope in Him that we will do it. For there is a way of righteousness of which they are ignorant “who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,”97    Rom. x. 2. and who, wishing to frame a righteousness of their own, “have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.”98    Rom. x. 3. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth;”99    Rom. x. 4. and He has said, “I am the way.”100    John xiv. 6. Yet God’s voice has alarmed those who have already begun to walk in this way, lest they should be lifted up, as if it were by their own energies that they were walking therein. For the same persons to whom the apostle, on account of this danger, says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure,”101    Phil. ii. 12. are likewise for the self-same reason admonished in the psalm: “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling. Accept correction, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the righteous way, when His wrath shall be suddenly kindled upon you.”102    Ps. ii. 11, 12. He does not say, “Lest at any time the Lord be angry and refuse to show you the righteous way,” or, “refuse to lead you into the way of righteousness;” but even after you are walking therein, he was able so to terrify as to say, “Lest ye perish from the righteous way.” Now, whence could this arise if not from pride, which (as I have so often said, and must repeat again and again) has to be guarded against even in things which are rightly done, that is, in the very way of righteousness, lest a man, by regarding as his own that which is really God’s, lose what is God’s and be reduced merely to what is his own? Let us then carry out the concluding injunction of this same psalm, “Blessed are all they that trust in Him,”103    Ps. ii. 12. so that He may Himself indeed effect and Himself show His own way in us, to whom it is said, “Show us Thy mercy, O Lord;”104    Ps. lxxxv. 7. and Himself bestow on us the pathway of safety that we may walk therein, to whom the prayer is offered, “And grant us Thy salvation;”105    Ps. lxxxv. 7. and Himself lead us in the self-same way, to whom again it is said, “Guide me, O Lord, in Thy way, and in Thy truth will I walk;”106    Ps. lxxxvi. 11. Himself, too, conduct us to those promises whither His way leads, to whom it is said, “Even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me;”107    Ps. cxxxix. 10. Himself pasture therein those who sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom it is said, “He shall make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”108    Luke xii. 37. Now we do not, when we make mention of these things, take away freedom of will, but we preach the grace of God. For to whom are those gracious gifts of use, but to the man who uses, but humbly uses, his own will, and makes no boast of the power and energy thereof, as if it alone were sufficient for perfecting him in righteousness?

CAPUT XXXII.

36. Superbia etiam in recte factis cavenda. Liberum arbitrium non tollitur cum gratia praedicatur. Ita enim quod ei placet dabit nobis, si quod ei displicet in nobis, displiceat et nobis. Avertet, sicut scriptum est, semitas nostras a via sua (Psal. XLIII, 19), et nostram faciet esse quae sua est; quoniam ab ipso praebetur credentibus in eum, et sperantibus in eum ut ipse faciat. Ipsa est enim via justa, quam ignorantes qui zelum Dei habent, sed non secundum scientiam; et suam volentes constituere justitiam, justitiae Dei non sunt subjecti. Finis enim legis Christus, ad justitiam omni credenti (Rom. X, 2-4), qui dixit, Ego sum via (Joan. XIV, 6). In qua jam ambulantes tamen terruit vox divina, ne quasi de propriis in ea viribus extollantur. Nam quibus propter hoc ait Apostolus, Cum timore et tremore vestram ipsorum operamini salutem; Deus enim est qui operatur in vobis et velle et operari, pro bona voluntate (Philipp. II, 12, 13): eis propter hoc ipsum dicit etiam Psalmus, Servite Domino in timore, et exsultate ei cum tremore; apprehendite disciplinam, ne quando irascatur Dominus, et pereatis de via justa, cum exarserit in brevi ira ejus super vos. Non ait, ne quando irascatur Dominus, et non vobis ostendat viam justam, 0265 aut, non vos introducat in viam justam: sed jam illic ambulantes sic terrere potuit ut diceret, ne pereatis de via justa. Unde, nisi quia superbia, quod toties dixi, et saepe dicendum est, etiam in ipsis recte factis cavenda est, id est, in ipsa via justa; ne homo dum quod Dei est deputat suum, amittat quod Dei est, et redeat ad suum? Ideo, quo psalmus iste concluditur, faciamus: Beati omnes qui confidunt in eo (Psal. II, 11-13): utique ut ipse faciat, ipse ostendat viam suam, cui dicitur, Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam: et ipse det salutem, ut ambulare possimus, cui dicitur, Et salutare tuum da nobis (Psal. LXXXIV, 8): ipse in eadem via deducat, cui dicitur, Deduc me, Domine, in via tua, et ambulabo in veritate tua (Psal. LXXXV, 11): ipse ad illa, quo via ducit, promissa perducat, cui dicitur, Etenim illuc manus tua deducet me, et perducet me dextera tua (Psal. CXXXVIII, 10): ipse ibi pascat recumbentes cum Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, de quo dictum est, Faciet eos recumbere, et transibit, et ministrabit eis (Luc XII, 37). Non enim, cum ista commemoramus, arbitrium voluntatis tollimus, sed Dei gratiam praedicamus. Cui enim prosunt ista nisi volenti, sed humiliter volenti, non se de voluntatis viribus, tanquam ad perfectionem justitiae sola sufficiat, extollenti?