Chapter IX.
How we too may overcome pride.
And so we can escape the snare of this most evil spirit, if in the case of every virtue in which we feel that we make progress, we say these words of the Apostle: "Not I, but the grace of God with me," and "by the grace of God I am what I am;" [1042] and "it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure." [1043] As the author of our salvation Himself also says: "If a man abide in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." [1044] And "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." And "Vain is it for you to rise up before light." [1045] For "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy." [1046]
[1042] 1 Cor. xv. 10.
[1043] Phil. ii. 13.
[1044] S. John xv. 5.
[1045] Ps. cxxvi. (cxxvii.) 1, 2.
[1046] Rom. ix. 16.
Chapter X.
How no one can obtain perfect virtue and the promised bliss by his own strength alone.
For the will and course of no one, however eager and anxious, [1047] is sufficiently ready for him, while still enclosed in the flesh which warreth against the spirit, to reach so great a prize of perfection, and the palm of uprightness and purity, unless he is protected by the divine compassion, so that he is privileged to attain to that which he greatly desires and to which he runs. For "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." [1048] "For what hast thou which thou didst not receive? But if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" [1049]
[1047] Quamvis ferventis et cupientis (Petschenig): Quamvis volentis et currentis (Gazæus).
[1048] S. James i. 17.
[1049] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
Chapter XI.
The case of the thief and of David, and of our call in order to illustrate the grace of God.
For if we recall that thief who was by reason of a single confession admitted into paradise, [1050] 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, [1051] 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 in 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.
[1050] Cf. S. Luke xxiii. 40.
[1051] Cf. 2 Sam. xii. 13.