No One Reaches Perfection by His Own Strength

For no one’s will and running, however eager and anxious he may be, is ready enough, while he is still shut up in the flesh that wars against the spirit, to reach so great a prize as perfection and the palm of uprightness and purity, unless he is protected by the compassion of God, so that it is granted him to reach what he greatly desires and runs toward. For “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.” “For what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” [a]