From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk
To: An unnamed person
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore argues that only the person who is already doing everything in their own power to live rightly may justly invoke divine help — and illustrates the principle with a pointed example.
The one who practices virtue may justly call upon the divine inclination for help. But the one who cares not at all for virtue — even if he calls, he will not find God responsive. For to the one who fulfills everything that lies within his own power, God graciously gives his assent.
To make this clearer through an example: if a woman living as a prostitute wants to be saved but does not want to live chastely, how will she be saved? Or consider a man who wants to learn to read but refuses to attend a teacher — who then meets a teacher in the market and says to him, 'Make me learn letters.' Will not that teacher give him the obvious answer? God is not indifferent to human effort; he is the partner of human effort. He will not do for us what we refuse to do for ourselves.
Context:Isidore argues that only the person who is already doing everything in their own power to live rightly may justly invoke divine help — and illustrates the principle with a pointed example.
The one who practices virtue may justly call upon the divine inclination for help. But the one who cares not at all for virtue — even if he calls, he will not find God responsive. For to the one who fulfills everything that lies within his own power, God graciously gives his assent.
To make this clearer through an example: if a woman living as a prostitute wants to be saved but does not want to live chastely, how will she be saved? Or consider a man who wants to learn to read but refuses to attend a teacher — who then meets a teacher in the market and says to him, 'Make me learn letters.' Will not that teacher give him the obvious answer? God is not indifferent to human effort; he is the partner of human effort. He will not do for us what we refuse to do for ourselves.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.