約伯倫理 第 1366 章

38. The grace of God is free. — By which two verses He set forth both the might of His power and the whole weight of the reason. For concerning His power He said: For who is able to resist My countenance? And concerning the reason He subjoined: Who hath first given to Me, that I should repay him? As if He said: I do not raise him up as though cruel, since out of his strength I both powerfully deliver Mine own who are cast out, and again I condemn the reprobate not unjustly but reasonably; that is, both those whom I graciously choose I can wondrously deliver, and those whom I reject I not unjustly forsake. For no one has first conferred anything upon God, that the divine grace should follow him. For if we anticipate God by working well, where is that which the Prophet says: His mercy shall go before me (Psalm)

LVIII, 11), where would it stand? If we have given anything of good working, so as to merit His grace, where is that which the Apostle says: By grace ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God, not of works (Ephesians 2:8)? If our love goes before God, where is that which the Apostle John says: Not that we loved God, but that He first loved us (1 John 4:10)? Where is that which the Lord says by Hosea: I will love them freely (Hosea 14:5)? If without His gift we follow God by our own strength, where is that which the Truth attests through the Gospel, saying: Without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:5)? Where is that which He says: No man can come to Me, except the Father who sent Me draw him (Ibid.

6:44)? Where is that which He again says: Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you (Ibid. 15:16)? If at least by our own strength we anticipate the gifts of good works by thinking well, where is that which is again said through Paul so wholesomely, that all confidence of the human mind in itself may be cut away from the very root of the heart, when he says: Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God (2 Corinthians 3:5)? No one therefore anticipates God by merits, so as to be able to hold Him as it were a debtor; but in a wondrous manner the Creator, just to all, both foreknows and chooses some, and justly forsakes some in their own depraved ways. 39.

Neither is mercy shown to the elect without justice, nor justice to the reprobate without mercy. — Yet He does not show mercy to His elect without justice, for here He presses them with hard afflictions; nor again does He exercise justice upon the reprobate without mercy, for here He bears with equal patience those whom at length He condemns forever. If therefore both the elect follow the grace that goes before them, and the reprobate receive according to what they merit, the elect find in mercy that which they may praise, and the reprobate have in justice nothing whereof to accuse. Well therefore is it said: Who hath first given to Me, that I should repay him? As if it were openly said: To spare the reprobate I am by no reasoning compelled, since I am not held their debtor out of their own action.

For they by no means receive the eternal rewards of the heavenly fatherland, because now, while they were able to earn them, they despised them by their free will. Which free will indeed is formed unto good in the elect, when their mind is by inspiring grace lifted up from earthly desires. 40. The good that we do is both God's and ours. — For the good that we do is both God's and ours: God's through the grace that goes before, ours through the freely obeying will. For if it were not God's, whence do we give Him thanks forever? Again, if it were not ours, whence do we hope that rewards will be repaid to us? Because therefore we not undeservedly give thanks, we know that we are anticipated by His gift;

and again, because we not undeservedly seek recompense, we know that by our freely obeying will we chose the good things which we were to do. It follows: All things that are under heaven are Mine. It is plain to all that not only those things which are under heaven, but those very things also which are established above the heavens and are called heavenly, serve the will of Him by whom they remember themselves to have been created. Why therefore, speaking only of the lower things, does He say: