Miscellanies 4.23.149

The apostle, teaching us most mystically and most holily the truly thankful choice, has shown that it is made not by rejecting the others as bad, but as the better among good things, saying: “So both the one who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and the one who does not give her in marriage does better,” for what is seemly and devoted to the Lord without distraction. We know that what is hard to obtain is not necessary, and that what is necessary has been made easy to obtain by God in his love of good. That is why Democritus says well that nature and teaching are similar, and briefly gives the reason: “For teaching reshapes the man, and in reshaping it makes nature”; and it makes no difference whether one was formed such by nature or refashioned by time and learning. The Lord has provided both, the one by creation, the other by the re-creation and renewal from the covenant. What benefits the more sovereign part is more choiceworthy, and the mind is the most sovereign of all. To whom, then, truly good things appear most pleasant, he obtains from himself the fruit he longs for, the stability of the soul. “But the one who listens to me,” it says, “will rest in peace, confident, and will be quiet without fear of any evil.” “Be confident with all your heart and your mind in God.” In this way it is possible for the one who knows already to become a god: “I said, you are gods, and sons of the Most High.”