{"id":1729,"date":"2017-08-28T16:22:55","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T21:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2017-09-02T15:42:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T20:42:00","slug":"the-interrogation-of-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2017\/08\/28\/the-interrogation-of-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Interrogation of Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\">Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) teaches on John 1:16<sup class=\"versenum\">\u00a0 &#8220;<\/sup>And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u201cWhat grace did we, in the first instance, receive<strong><em>?\u00a0 Faith: walking in faith, we walk in grace<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 How have we merited this? by what previous merits of ours?\u00a0 Let not each one flatter himself, but let him return into his conscience, seek out the secret places of his own thoughts, recall the series of his deeds; let him not consider what he is if now he is something, but what he was that he might be something: he will find that he was not worthy of anything save punishment.\u00a0 If, then, thou wast worthy of punishment, and He came not to punish sins, but to forgive sins, grace was given to thee, and not reward rendered.\u00a0 Wherefore is it called grace? Because it is bestowed gratuitously.\u00a0 For thou didst not, by previous merits, purchase that which thou didst receive.\u00a0 This first grace, then, the sinner received, that his sins were forgiven.\u00a0 What did he deserve? Let him interrogate justice, he finds punishment; <strong>let him interrogate mercy, he finds grace<\/strong>.\u00a0 But God promised this also through the prophets; therefore, when He came to give what He had promised, He not only gave grace, but also truth.\u00a0 How was truth exhibited? Because that was done which had been promised.\u201d Augustine of Hippo,\u00a0<em>Tractates on John<\/em>. III. 8. \u00a0<em>Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers<\/em>, volume 7, p. 21. [Emphasis added]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) teaches on John 1:16\u00a0 &#8220;And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.&#8221; \u201cWhat grace did we, in the first instance, receive?\u00a0 Faith: walking in faith, we walk in grace.\u00a0 How have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2017\/08\/28\/the-interrogation-of-mercy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-augustine-of-hippo","category-grace","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}