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AND from this it is clearly gathered by those who, led not by
chattering words but by experience, measure the magnitude of grace, and the
paltry limits of man's will, that "the race is not to the swift nor the
battle to the strong, nor food to the wise, nor riches to the prudent, nor
grace to the learned," but that "all these worketh that one and the
selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." And
therefore it is proved by no doubtful faith but by experience which can (so
to speak) be laid hold of, that God the Father of all things worketh
indifferently all things in all, as the Apostle says, like some most kind
father and most benign physician; and that now He puts into us the very
beginnings of salvation, and gives to each the zeal of his free will; and
now grants the carrying out of the work, and the perfecting of goodness;
and now saves men, even against their will and without their knowledge,
from ruin that is close at hand, and a headlong fall; and now affords them
occasions and opportunities of salvation, and wards off headlong and
violent attacks from purposes that would bring death; and assists some who
are already willing and running, while He draws others who are unwilling
and resisting, and forces them to a good will. But that, when we do not
always resist or remain persistently unwilling, everything is granted to us
by God, and that the main share in our salvation is to be ascribed not to
the merit of our own works but to heavenly grace, we are thus taught by the
words of the Lord Himself: "And you shall remember your ways and all your
wicked doings with which you have been defiled; and you shall be displeased
with yourselves in your own sight for all your wicked deeds which you have
committed. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have done
well by you for My own name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor
according to your wicked deeds, O house of Israel." And therefore it is
laid down by all the Catholic fathers who have taught perfection of heart
not by empty disputes of words, but in deed and act, that the first stage
in the Divine gift is for each man to be inflamed with the desire of
everything that is good, but in such a way that the choice of free will is
open to either side: and that the second stage in Divine grace is for the
aforesaid practices of virtue to be able to be performed, but in such a way
that the possibilities of the will are not destroyed: the third stage also
belongs to the gifts of God, so that it may be held by the persistence of
the goodness already acquired, and in such a way that the liberty may not
be surrendered and experience bondage. For the God of all must be held to
work in all, so as to incite, protect, and strengthen, but not to take away
the freedom of the will which He Himself has once given. If however any
more subtle inference of man's argumentation and reasoning seems opposed to
this interpretation, it should be avoided rather than brought forward to
the destruction of the faith (for we gain not faith from understanding, but
understanding from faith, as it is written: "Except ye believe, ye will not
understand") for how God works all things in us and yet everything can
be ascribed to free will, cannot be fully grasped by the mind and reason of
man.
Strengthened by this food the blessed Chaeremon prevented us from
feeling the toil of so difficult a journey.
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