Conferences of John Cassian, Part I — Source paragraphs and footnotes

Chapter XIX.; original source section: Chapter 19; original book/conference: III. Conference of Abbot Paphnutius.

2 complete historical source paragraphs and 0 editorial footnotes. Author and edition credits are shown for each record; original wording is retained.

Date uncertain | John Cassian

That the beginning of our good will and its completion comes from God.

Complete source paragraph · Conferences of John Cassian, Part I, Chapter XIX.; original source section: Chapter 19; original book/conference: III. Conference of Abbot Paphnutius., source paragraph 2 · Original source

Date uncertain | John Cassian

And this plainly teaches us that the beginning of our good will is given to us by the inspiration of the Lord, when He draws us towards the way of salvation either by His own act, or by the exhortations of some man, or by compulsion; and that the consummation of our good deeds is granted by Him in the same way: but that it is in our own power to follow up the encouragement and assistance of God with more or less zeal, and that accordingly we are rightly visited either with reward or with punishment, because we have been either careless or careful to correspond to His design and providential arrangement made for us with such kindly regard. And this is clearly and plainly described in Deuteronomy. “When,” says he, “the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which thou art going to possess, and shall have destroyed many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Gergeshite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations much more numerous than thou art and stronger than thou, and the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy them.