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FOR if we recall that thief who was by reason of a single confession
admitted into paradise, we shall feel that he did not acquire such bliss
by the merits of his life, but obtained it by the gift of a merciful God.
Or if we bear in mind those two grievous and heinous sins of King David,
blotted out by one word of penitence, we shall see that neither here
were the merits of his works sufficient to obtain pardon for so great a
sin, but that the grace of God superabounded, as, when the opportunity for
true penitence was taken, He removed the whole weight of sins through the
full confession of but one word. If we consider also the beginning of the
call and salvation of mankind, in which, as the Apostle says, we are saved
not of ourselves, nor of our works, but by the gift and grace of God, we
can clearly see how the whole of perfection is "not of him that willeth nor
of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy," who makes us victorious
over our faults, without any merits of works and life on our part to
outweigh them, or any effort of our will availing to scale the difficult
heights of perfection, or to subdue the flesh which we have to use: since
no tortures of this body, and no contrition of heart, can be sufficient for
the acquisition of that true chastity of the inner man so as to be able to
gain that great virtue of purity (which is innate m the angels alone and
indigenous as it were to heaven) merely by human efforts, i.e., without the
aid of God: for the performance of everything good flows from His grace,
who by multiplying His bounty has granted such lasting bliss, and vast
glory to our feeble will and short and petty course of life.
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