COROLLARY XXVI.
A no less weighty argument for this active restoration is gathered from that which the Fathers confirm in frequent and repeated statements1: that the order in which men live is such as affords hope of salvation and permits no place for despair or excuse. For if they are asked whence they know that hope of salvation pertains to the present order, and that despair and excuses cannot be composed with it, this is the one response of all: that they know it because they learned from the Scriptures and received from the Apostles that no native powers indeed inhere in lost and ruined men in which they may confide, and no strength by which they may sustain hope; nevertheless, there is reason for them to hope, not to cast down their spirits, and not to reckon themselves safe and secure under the excuse of weakness. For God is at hand to bring aid, to drive away the darkness and supply strength to the languishing, to lead back the wayward and wandering, and to invite—
—and draw all toward that which is good and holy. There are innumerable arts2 by which God applies medicine to all, and with paternal zeal he himself strives that an opportunity may be available to each by which they may obtain the most blessed adoption of sons.