Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

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of all the other operations of mercy and grace, which are all of
them as free, and as much depending on God, as that original
operation. Luke i. 38.
23. God himself has given us an idea of the almighty operation
of his grace, representing it to us hy that power, whereby he produces
the creatures out of nothing, and restores life to the dead.
Rom. iv. 17.
24. Tiie just idea which the centurion has of the almighty
power of God, and of Jesus Christ, in healing bodies by the sole
motion of his will, is the emblem of that idea which we ought to
frame, concerning the almighty power of his grace in healing
souls of concupiscence. Luke vii. 7.
25. God enlightens and heals the soul as well as the body, by
the sole motion of his will ; he commands, and is immediately
obeyed. Luke xviii. 42.
26. No graces are given except by faith. Luke viii. 48.
27. Faith is the first grace, and the fountain of all others. 2
Pet. i. 3.
28. The first grace which God grants to the sinner, is the remission
of his sins. Mark xi. 25.
29. No grace is granted out of the church. Luke x. 35, .36.
30. All those whom God willeth to save through Jesus Christ
are infallibly saved. John vi. 40.
3L The desires of Christ have always their effect : he
conveys
peace into the bottom of hearts, when he wishes it to them.
John XX. 19.
.32. Jesus Christ gave himself up to death, that he might by
his blood for ever deliver the first begotten, or the elect, out of
the hand of the destroying angel. Gal. iv. 4— 7.
33. O how much must a man have renounced earthly things
and himself, in order to have a well-grounded confidence to appropriate
to himself as one may say, Jesus Christ, his love, death,
and mysteries, as St. Paul does, when he says, " Who loved me,
and gave himself for me !" Gal. ii. 19, 20.
34. The grace of Adam produced nothing but human merits.
John i. 16.
35. The grace of Adam is a consequence of the creation, and
was due to nature when sound and entire. 2 Cor. v. 21.
36. The essential difference betwixt the grace of Adam and of
the state of innocency, and the Christian grace, consists in this
that every one would have received the former in his own person
; whereas the latter is received only in the person of Jesus
Christ risen again, to whom we are united. Rom. vii. 4.
37. The grace of Adam, by sanctifying him in himself, was
proportioned to •. him the Christian grace, by sanctifying us in
Jesus Christ, is all-powerful, and worthy of the Son of God.
Ephes. i. 6.
38. The siimer is free only as to evil, without the grace of the
deliverer. Luke viii. 29.
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