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166 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
in our power. St. Augustin (2) also answers this argument. It
is not the fact, he says, that prayer (such as it ought to be) is in
our own unaided power. The gift of prayer comes from Grace,
as the Apostle says :
"
Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our in
firmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit himself asketh for us" (Rom. viii, 26).
Hence, St. :
Augustin says (3)
"
lat, nisi interpellare facit ;" and
Quid est, ipse Spiritus interpel-
he adds :
"
Attendant quomodo
falluntur, qui putant esse a nobis, non dari nobis, ut petamus,
quaaramus, pulsemus, et hoc esse dicunt, quod gratia praeceditur
merito nostro Nee volunt intelligere, etiam hoc Divini muneris
esse, ut oremus, hoc est petamus, quaBramus, atque pulsemus ;
clamamus Abba Pater."
cepimus enim Spiritum adoptionis, in quo
The same Holy Doctor teaches us that God gives to all the Grace
to pray, and through prayer the means of obtaining Grace to
fulfil the Commandments ; for otherwise, if one had not the
efficacious Grace to fulfil the Commandments, and had not the
Grace to obtain this efficacious Grace, through means of prayer
either, he would be bound to observe a law which to him was
impossible. But such, St. Augustin says, is not the case. Our
Lord admonishes us to pray with the Grace of prayer, which he
gives to all, so that by praying we may obtain efficacious Grace
" to observe the Commandments. He : says Eo ipso quo firmis-
sime creditur, Deum impossibilia non praecipere, hinc admonemur
et in facilibus (that is in prayer) quid agamus, et in difficilibus
(that is observing the Commandments) quid petamus." This is
what the Council of Trent afterwards decreed on the same subject
(Sess. vi, c.
xi), following the remarkable expressions of the great
"
Doctor : Deus impossibilia non jubet, sed jubendo monet, et
facere quod possis, et petere quod non possis, et adjuvat ut
possis" (4), Thus by prayer we obtain strength to do what we
cannot do of ourselves ;
but we cannot even boast of praying, for
our very prayer is a gift from God.
9- That God gives generally to all the Grace of praying,
St. Augustin (independently of the passages already quoted)
teaches in almost every page of his works. In one place ho
(2) St. Aug. fle N:it. & Gratia. (3)
St. Aii". Ibid
(4) Ibid.
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