will keep it with my whole heart. . . . Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies,' etc. (Ps. cxviii. 34, 36).
5. How far is the assistance of grace necessary to us?
It is so necessary to us that, without the grace of God, we can neither begin, continue, nor accomplish the least thing towards our salvation.
'For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish' (Philip, ii. 13).
6. Why is grace so indispensable to everything that relates to salvation?
1. Because eternal salvation is a good of a supernatural order, and, consequently, can be obtained only by a supernatural power and help — that is, by grace; 2. Because by grace alone we enter into connection with Christ, and partake of His infinite merits, which are the source of everything that leads to salvation.
1. 'Not that we are sufficient to think anything [conducive to salvation] of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God' (2 Cor. iii. 5). 2, 'I cast not away the grace of God; for if justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain' (Gal. ii. 21); i.e., if the observance of the law alone, without being united by grace with Christ, did justify us, or lead us to eternal salvation, it would not have been necessary for Christ to die in order to merit salvation for us.
By this, however, it is not meant that man is naturally quite incapable of performing any action that is morally good, but only that by such morally good actions as proceed from his naturally good will he can neither merit, nor in any way obtain, grace or salvation; by them he can only prepare himself for grace, in so far as he does not, by bad actions, still increase the obstacles of it. ' No man can come to me, ' says Christ, 'unless it be given him by my Father' (John vi. 66).
7. Does God give His grace to all men?
Yes; God gives to all men sufficient grace to enable them to keep, as they are in duty bound, the Commandments, and to work out their salvation.
'The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost' (Matt, xviii. 11). 'God will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth' (1 Tim. ii. 4). 'God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be
