Chapter XIX.
How this faith concerning the grace of God was delivered
to us by the ancient Fathers.
This
then is that humility
towards God, this is that genuine faith of the ancient fathers which
still remains intact among their successors. And to this faith, the
apostolic virtues, which they so often showed, bear an undoubted
witness, not only among us but also among infidels and unbelievers: for
keeping in simplicity of heart the simple faith of the fishermen they
did not receive it in a worldly spirit through dialectical syllogisms
or the eloquence of a Cicero, but learnt by the experience of a pure
life, and stainless actions, and by correcting their faults, and (to
speak more truly) by visible proofs, that the character of perfection
is to be found in that faith without which neither piety towards God,
nor purification from sin, nor amendment of life, nor perfection of
virtue can be secured.