Surely you are saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not by works, lest any man might boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ to good works which God has prepared for us to walk in. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Saint Paul has shown earlier that our salvation is the true looking glass in which we behold the infinite glory of God, for it is his will to be known by his goodness above all things. For that reason, he has shown that God chose us before the creation of the world, not in respect of anything that could be found in us, but to satisfy his own mercy alone.

Here, therefore, he concludes that matter and explains what he meant when he told us that our adoption depends on and proceeds from God's choosing us in his own everlasting purpose. That is to say, to the intent that we should be, as it were, completely humbled and confess that whatever we are and whatever goodness we have, we owe it wholly to God and his only free goodness. That is why he says that we are saved by grace, not of ourselves, but by God's gift, and not by works.

It would have been enough to have excluded all the goodness and virtue that man could imagine. But since it is hard to beat down the pride to which we are so much given, St. Paul repeats this matter again, in order that it might be better understood and confirmed at greater length. And at the same time, we have to note how he links faith over against it, both to show the means by which men come to salvation and also to emphasize further that men do not bring anything of their own, but that whatever they have need of, they must beg it at God's hand. For faith beats down and abolishes all men's presumption about their own deserts, as we have seen at greater length in the Epistle to the Galatians (Galatians 3:10-11). For there St. Paul shows that faith supplies the place of works, because we are all condemned. And indeed, there is no other righteousness than to obey God's commandments in all perfection. But no man acquits himself thus, and therefore we are all cursed before God, and so God must relieve us by his goodness. And when we receive by faith the grace offered us in the gospel, we confess thereby that we have need of Jesus Christ, because there is nothing but perdition in ourselves. Also, when he says in this text that it is by faith, he shows that if comparison is made between God and man, we must come, as it were, stark naked, and there must be nothing in us but shame and abashment until God has received us to mercy.

Now to confirm this, the apostle adds that we are God's workmanship, and that he has fashioned us in Jesus Christ in order that we should walk in the good works which he has prepared. It is as if he said, God must go before us with his own free grace. For what can we do, seeing we are as rotten carcasses until God has renewed us again by the power of the Holy Spirit? So then, if a man intends to find any good in himself, he must not seek it in his own nature, nor in his former birth, for there is nothing but corruption, but God must reform us before we can have a single drop of goodness in us. Since this is so, we have to conclude that our salvation has no other spring, and no other foundation, than God's mercy alone, seeing we cannot by any means help ourselves. Thus you see in effect what St. Paul meant.

Nevertheless, let us note that here he not only intends to show that we have need of God's grace in part and are succored by it because there is some infirmity and lack in ourselves, but he also erases all that men can ever imagine in themselves concerning their own merit, worthiness, and good works. He shows that we are utterly unprofitable, and that our salvation is not only helped forward by God, but also that it is begun, continued, and perfected by him, without any contribution of our own. And that is the very thing that is expressed by these words, "You are saved by grace, and not of yourselves." It is certain that here St. Paul opposes God to men. And to maintain the right that belongs to God, he shows that when we have brought forward all that we can, even the things that seem to be most ours, all of it goes up in smoke. For St. Paul does not speak here of some piece of merit or worthiness, but says flatly, "not of yourselves." As if he would say, when men set up their horns so high, and imagine they can bring something or other with which to make God a debtor to them, it will be found that there is nothing but confusion in them from the crown of their head to the soles of their feet.

Therefore, let us note well in the first place that St. Paul meant here to put away completely all the glory and loftiness of man, that God alone might be exalted. And he does not think it enough to say that God is our Savior, for that saying would have been somewhat obscure, but when he says that it is of grace (that is to say, of God's free gift) he shows that he does not seek the cause anywhere else but in him. And that is the reason why in the second part of the sentence, he sets down "gift," and on the contrary says we can do nothing of ourselves. God exercises his pure free goodness in saving us, and if we think ourselves to be any help or furtherance to it, it is cheating God of his right, which is an intolerable sacrilege for which we deserve to be deprived of what we have received. For since we can by no means make God any recompense, we ought at least to yield him homage for the things that we hold through his goodness alone, and when he sees us so humbled, he is contented with that pure and simple confession of ours. But if we are so ungrateful as to take upon ourselves what belongs specially to him, surely it is a just punishment if he utterly shakes us off, as the man who scorns to do fealty and homage for his land is rightly dispossessed of it.

Now if in these corruptible things of the world, and in things of little value, the party is punished who withholds the doing of his duty to him to whom he is bound, what shall become of us when we fall to stepping into God's place by attributing to ourselves the praise of our salvation, and dispossessing him of his right? Is it not a devilish outrage, which makes us worthy to be utterly ruined? So much the more, therefore, is it necessary for us to note well what is said in this passage, which is, that we are saved by grace and that we contribute nothing at all to it, but that God gives us all that can ever belong to our salvation. And why? Because we can do nothing at all: we have neither good works nor deserts to plead for ourselves.

Furthermore, this message is well worth considering when he says, "lest any man might boast." From this, we must gather that it is not enough for us to attribute some part of our salvation to God; we must reach the point of yielding completely, without making any claim to it at all. We must allow all our own glory to be abased, so that only God may have preeminence. As we have seen in other texts, especially in the place of Jeremiah, it is stated that God is not glorified as he ought to be, nor is it possible for us to glory in him, until all that we think we have of our own is cast down and done away with. Neither the virtue, nor the wisdom, nor the ability, nor the righteousness of man must be put forth if we intend for God to retain what is his own and which he reserves for himself.

Therefore, we see that all the partnerships the world would make with God are but foolish fancies and illusions of Satan, who labors to make us believe that we are able to do something of ourselves, to the intent of plucking us completely away from our God. For as long as a man imagines himself to have any drop of goodness of his own, he will never give himself over to God, but will be puffed up with vain presumption and rest upon himself. Satan has won much at our hands when he has persuaded us that we can do anything of ourselves, or that we can make any means to attain salvation. His aim is to make us stop seeking the things in God that God offers us. By that means, we remain empty, according to the Virgin Mary's song, where it is said that those who are filled with selfconceit shall remain hungry, and God will laugh their vain presumption to scorn. We cannot be fed with God's grace unless we long for it and feel our own lack, according to the saying of the Psalm, "Open your mouth, and I will fill it." So let us note well that men will be disposed to receive from God's hand all that is required for their salvation when they reserve nothing for themselves but acknowledge that all selfboasting must be put away.

And (as I said before) by that means, the partnerships that the world pretends to make with God fall to the ground. For the papists are driven to confess that without God's help they can do nothing, and that they are too weak to withstand Satan if they are not strengthened by the Holy Spirit. They can find it in their hearts to grant that they cannot deserve anything at all except God supply their wants, and also that they need the forgiveness of their sins. But yet, for all that, they cannot abide to give over their free will, but imagine that they can partly further themselves. Thereupon they are always building some desert, and although they grant that God's grace goes before them at first, they always mingle it with some endeavor and goodwill of their own. When they flee to God for the release of their sins, they bring him their own satisfactions for the same. So you see that the papists will not freely and wholly yield and give over to God the praise of their salvation, but keep back some part of it, commonly the greater half, to themselves.

But Saint Paul goes further here and shows that we wrongfully defraud and bereave God of his glory until we have forgotten all the false opinions with which the world deceives itself. Therefore, the only way for us to glorify God is to acknowledge that we are nothing of ourselves. Humility or lowliness is not a feigning or false pretense, as many suppose, who think they have contented God by saying in one word that they are wretched sinners and as weak as possible. Instead, we must be fully resolved that all that men imagine in their own brains concerning deserts, free will, preparation, help, or satisfaction is nothing but lies and trumpery of Satan. When we once know this, we will submit ourselves as we ought to do, and then God will keep his estate as he deserves, and we also shall yield him the honor that is due to him. But this cannot be done unless all that men conceive and imagine concerning good works, with which to deserve well at God's hand, is utterly erased.

Moreover, let us note that if we wish to be partakers of the salvation that God offers us, we must bring nothing with us but only faith. For (as is said in another place) faith takes no help from good works. Although it has a record of the Law, it does not bring anything to God by which to bind him to us, but rather witnesses that we are utterly empty and have no other hope than only in his free goodness. Just as a man who is pinched with great distress, so that he can scarcely stir a finger and has nothing but his tongue to cry out, "Alas, that somebody would help me and pity me," even so must faith rid away all the overweening we have in ourselves, so that we may receive whatever God offers us, and all the praise thereof may be reserved to him. That, therefore, is the lesson we must take away.

And hereby we are warned not to be unthankful when God calls and allures us so gently, but to run to him as poor hungry souls, and to have an earnest mind to be succored by his hand, because it pleases him. For what is the cause that our Lord Jesus Christ does not profit a great number, but that they have deaf ears when God encourages them to come to him? And truly, some of them are so beastly that they care not for the heavenly life, as long as they have here what to feed and to drink like swine, or what to wallow in their own delights and pleasures. As for the spiritual goods, which we ought to labor for, they mean nothing to them. You see then that one sort shuts God out of doors because they are dulled with the allurements of Satan, and drunken, or rather utterly bewitched, with the delights of this world, either in pomp and honor, or in riches, or else in whoredom and other looseness. And the other sort think they have what to make God beholden to them, as we see many hypocrites do, who cannot give over the vain self trust with which they are swollen like toads.

Therefore, to be short, let us mark well this word "faith," so that the pleasures and ease of this world do not hold us back from lifting up our hearts to God. And that is the very way to fasten our anchor in heaven. For we can never have the said substantialness of faith, which Saint Paul speaks of, except we pass swiftly through the world, and know that our heritage and resting place is elsewhere than here. Moreover, let us shake off all vain imaginations that may come into our heads, for they serve but to turn us away from Jesus Christ, so that we may not come to him, nor he have any entrance at all to us. That is the lesson we must gather from this text.

Now for further confirmation, Saint Paul adds that we are God's workmanship. He does not mean this of God's creating of us, and of his setting of us in this world, but his meaning is that men, as they are born in Adam, are unfit for the heavenly life, and that if they think to get anything by that, they deceive themselves too much, because they are but as dead creatures, and as carrion in which is nothing but rotten filthiness. For proof of this, we need to seek no further matter than this present text, where he says that we are created in Jesus Christ. Here, therefore, Saint Paul makes a comparison of the double birth that is in all the faithful. For we all of us have one general creation, by which we live in this world, and God creates us anew again when he vouchsafes to give us newness of life by his gospel. I mean when he prints it in our hearts and minds by his own secret working, for the word alone is not enough to do it.

So then, in respect of our first creation, there is no difference between the Jews, the Turks, the heathen, and us. We are all of us taken out of one lump, we are all the children of Adam, and we are all heirs of God's wrath and cursed by nature, as we have seen already before now. Then if men examine themselves and search what they are by their first birth, they shall find that there is nothing in them but sin and wickedness, and that the wisdom which we think we have is but beastliness. And the light which we think we have to discern between good and bad is but stubbornness and stark spitefulness against God. And so you see we are corrupted in all parts of our soul. Now then, what can we do to find favor at God's hand, and to make him beholden to us? For if we can do nothing but evil, it is but a kindling of his wrath more and more against us. We are worthy of endless death already before we come out of our mothers' wombs. Although we do not perceive the sin that is in a young babe, yet he has the seed of it within him, and God avows that all of us deserve to be drowned in the bottom of hell. Then if the little babe is so rightfully condemned beforehand, even before he has seen the light of the world, what is to be said of us when we are born and show that we are sinful indeed, and that our nature is altogether sinful? And when we come of age, what can we do to fall into composition with God, so that we might help forward his grace, and that our doing so might be a means to further our salvation? Look at what Saint Paul means by this text, where he says that we are God's workmanship.

As if he should say, "Poor creature, you think to play the partner in this matter, by putting yourself forward to allege some deserving, and that you are able to begin and to approach to God, so that he on his side must be beholden to you. When did you begin that? If you say you began it before you were born, you deserve that men should spit in your face. If you say it was afterward, between the age of seven years and the age of twenty or thirty years, at what time you were enlightened with the gospel, you are on the contrary part sufficiently disproved, that you could not have one drop of willingness to do good, but that all your thoughts and desires were utterly rebellious against God, and as men of war fighting against his righteousness. Therefore you have done nothing else but fight against God ever since you were born. Again, if you take it to be from the time that you were a little babe, unable to discern between white and black, yet you were of the cursed race of Adam. And so turn yourself whichever way you will, and reason must needs drive you to perceive that you were unable to do anything toward God, and consequently that all that he has wrought for your welfare ought to be attributed to him alone, without claiming any drop of it to yourself."

Thus we see now why Saint Paul, in this text, calls us the work or workmanship of God, according also as it is said in the Psalms, that those who were the household folk of his Church were also his flock. For there the Prophet singles out the children of Israel, whom God had gathered together by his own mere goodness, to set them apart from other heathen nations. It is certain that God found no other cause to keep that lineage to himself or to prefer them before others, except only that he, of his own mere mercy, had chosen them. As much is to be said of us today.

And that which he adds, namely that we were created in Jesus Christ, ought to touch us yet more deeply. For there he shows that our creation in Adam brings us only to destruction, and therefore it is necessary for us to be fashioned and created anew, namely in Jesus Christ, who is the second Adam, as he himself terms him in the letter to the Romans and in the fifteenth chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians. You see then that this word "create" is enough to stop the mouths and put away the boasting of those who brag about their worthiness. For when they say so, it presupposes that they were the makers of themselves. He who claims for himself any freedom of will and takes upon himself to have any means or ability to do good (of himself) is essentially saying that he is a creator. But there is no man who does not abhor such blasphemy. The blindest and maddest individuals in the world regard the word "creation" as a holy and sacred thing, and will say that God is the very Creator or maker of all things.

Yet you hypocrite, you confess the same with your mouth, and yet you lie, since you think that you have some free will to further your own welfare and salvation. And so you deny the first article of our faith, for you make God but half a creator. They will readily confess with their mouth that God is the Creator, yes, and as far as this earthly life is concerned, they will say they hold it from him. But now there is a much more excellent life, namely the one we hope for and possess already by faith, even if we do not yet fully enjoy it. And how much more precious and worthy is that life, in which we shall be partakers of God's glory, than this wayfaring life we lead in this world, which is but a shadow that vanishes away?

Now if you ask the papists from whom they have the heavenly life, they will say, "We have it partly of God's grace and partly of our own free will." Since they attribute some part of it to themselves, and think to share the credit with God in such a manner, we must conclude that they consider themselves their own creators. But hereupon they will reply and protest that they never meant any such thing, and that they would rather die than utter any such blasphemy. Yes, but in the meantime, which is the thing of greater value? To create oneself as a mortal man in this world, or to purchase everlasting life? Saint Paul tells us that if we can do anything by our own free will and power, God is not fully our Creator.

But he says, we are his workmanship and of his making, even in respect of the heavenly life. We ought to bear that always in mind, for Saint Paul speaks not of this transitory life, but of inheriting the kingdom of heaven. We see then that the papists defy God in their pride, like villainous blasphemers as they are. And therefore, for our part, if we intend to be partakers of the grace which is purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, we must be rid of all self importance and acknowledge that our beginning to do well springs from God's vouchsafing to call us to him, and from his prevenient grace.

To be short, Saint Paul's meaning is that all those who think themselves to have deserved anything from God assume that they are people of great ability, whereas in truth they are already dead and are nothing at all. What can a dead man do? And surely we are dead (as I have declared before now) until God quickens us again by the means of faith and by the working of his Holy Spirit. Now if we are dead, what good can we do, or how can we dispose ourselves to do anything? Again, we are nothing at all, for the word "create" implies that all that is in us is of God's doing. Just as when it is said that he created the world out of nothing, it means that where there was nothing at all before, he gave being to that which was not.

Even so, with respect to the spiritual life, to be created means that we were nothing at all before. Now, if we are nothing, shall we be able to bind God to give us this or that? Are these not things utterly against nature? Then let us mark well that to know how we are saved by mere grace, and that we have all things from God's gift and his free goodness, we must come to this point, namely that God gave us our being. This is attested to by the example of Abraham in the fourth chapter of Romans. In Abraham's body, we see what is in our souls. When Jesus Christ was promised to Abraham in his son Isaac, you know he was a man altogether drooping and barren, and his wife also was far advanced in age. Therefore, that either he on his side should beget, or his wife on her side should conceive a child, are things impossible. But he believed God, who calls forth the things that are not, and gives them being. Seeing then that Abraham was as a withered block, and had no strength nor vitality in him, and yet received the promise that was made to him, therein it behooves us to see that we cannot be partakers of God's grace, except we acknowledge our own inability, and are first of all utterly abased in ourselves, that our Lord may begin our life and continue the same until he has brought it to full perfection.

Furthermore, let us mark well that his saying "in Jesus Christ" is to send us back to the corruption which we have by inheritance in Adam. For we can never find it in our hearts to yield ourselves guilty until we feel it proceed in ourselves. Moreover, it serves to show that this benefit is not common to all men, but only to those whom God has chosen, accordingly as we have seen already, that we were chosen before the making of the world. Now then, this does not extend generally to all Adam's offspring, but only to as many as are renewed in Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is all one as if St. Paul should show that we need a remedy because we are already forlorn and damned, when God, by means of Jesus Christ, plucks us out of the dungeon in which we were.

This serves to confirm even better what we have seen before, which is that we cannot be faithful except God makes us new again, so that we hold from him all things that belong to the heavenly life and all the spiritual goods which we have. Now, seeing we are created in Jesus Christ, it is all one as if it were said that all the righteousness, all the wisdom, all the virtue, and all the goodness that is in us, we draw from that fountain, and that God does not scatter them abroad at random, but has put the fullness of all things belonging to our salvation into Jesus Christ. Thus, when we are once made members of his body, we are also made partakers of all his benefits. Without him, we are cut off from all parts of our salvation, as though we were rotten and stinking wretched carcasses, and there was nothing in us but filth, as I have declared before. Thus you see what we have to mark further when St. Paul says that we are not only God's workmanship, but also created in Jesus Christ.

Now he adds, "to good works which he has prepared for us to walk in." His setting down of good works in this place is to show what folly, or rather what madness and frenzy, it is in men to think they can bring good works on their behalf, as if they had them in their sleeves, or as if they were of their own growing. For God must needs have prepared them (says he), and we should have them at his hand. It is all one as if he should say, go to, show here your prowess and virtues: enter a little into account with God: seeing your pride will not be daunted, but you have always some bristles set up still, bring forth all that you think may make for you.

Well, you say, and we will bring our good works, as the papists are accustomed to do, who allege in this way: what? how now? shall we not be saved by our own merits and by our good works? And from where do you draw them, says St. Paul? Have you coined them in your own shop? Or have you some garden of your own planting, from which to gather them? Or do they spring, I know not how, of your own travail and policy, so that you may further yourselves by them? No, but on the contrary, know that God has prepared them. And is it fitting that you should reply against him, when he has pitied you and shown himself bountiful toward you? Is it fitting that you should presume to step forth to pay him, as though you had what to pay with of your own? When a man has been well kept and tended, and his host has lent him money at his need, and he has received it at his hand (to pay him with), shall he afterward boast that he has paid his host? There is a host who not only is contented to do his charity upon a man, but also, after he has found him both at bed and at board, will say to him, "Here, hold what to pay with: to the intent it may not seem to you that my charitable dealing has been to make an underling of you, I will receive payment for it at your hand, yes, but yet the same shall come out of my own purse." Now, shall he to whom such frankness has been used go and say he has well paid his host? Yes, and with what money? Even with the same money that was put into his hand.

So stands the case with those who put forth their good works, to say that God has not saved them freely, but that they themselves were a help to it. Yes, but where do they get those good works? That was the thing that St. Paul aimed at when he said that God prepared the good works. True it is that God prepares men's conversations by the Law, in which he gives us a certain rule how to walk according to his will, and it is all one as if he prepared the way for us to go in as we ought to do. But that would be of no use to us, except we received the good works themselves at God's hand. When God commands us anything, we may well have our ears beaten with the sound of it, but it will never enter into our hearts, for we are full of pride and naughtiness, and, to be short, it is impossible for us to obey God until he has softened our hearts and utterly changed them.

And that is the thing which is declared to us by the Prophets, and in all the holy Scripture. God, therefore, must be fain to make another preparation: that is to say, when he has taught us and told us what is good and what he likes, afterward he must reform us, and so guide and govern us by his Holy Spirit, that there may be one accord between our life and his Law. Then, until such time as God prepares good works after that fashion, that is to say, until he gives them to us by showing us his will, and also makes us do them by his power, we must needs be utterly unprofitable.

Now, since it is so, let us learn to humble ourselves before God, both for what is past and also for what is to come. For what is past, let us acknowledge that God has plucked us out of the gulf of hell, and that whereas we were by nature damned, he has vouchsafed to have us be his children. Therefore, let us not be so overweening as to think that we have this or that, but let him be glorified as he deserves. Let us assure ourselves that he has pulled us back from death, with the intent that the beginning, wellspring, root, and only cause of our salvation should proceed from his only freely bestowed goodness.

Thus you see, in effect, that it is a point of true humility to give all the glory of our salvation to God. And for what is to come, it behooves us to know that we could not stir one of our little fingers to do any good, except we were governed by God, and received the good works themselves at the hand of him and of his Holy Spirit. So then, as often as we feel our own weakness, let us flee to him for refuge. When we have done any good, let it not puff us up with any pride, but let us always think ourselves so much the more strictly bound to God, even doubly. He who is yet very weak must confess himself exceedingly bound to God's mercy for bearing with him, but he who goes before others, and is as a mirror of all holiness, must confess himself much more bound to him.

For why? He has nothing of his own; he holds all things of God and of his only free goodness. Therefore, let us all our lives long walk in such a way that we may still, from year to year, from month to month, from day to day, from hour to hour, and from minute to minute, continually acknowledge ourselves bound to God for the goodness which he has given us of his own mere mercy, and let us think ourselves beholden to him for all things.

Let us mark along the way, for a conclusion, that St. Paul's intent here is not to decipher all the causes of our salvation one by one, but to abate men's lustiness, that they might not make any brags, or any countenance as if God were in their debt. Therefore, it is enough for St. Paul to have stopped all men's mouths in such a way that they may not take upon themselves to have anything of their own. For on the contrary, whenever God gives us good works, although they are the fruits of his mere goodness, yet they cannot purchase us anything at his hand. We must always ground and settle ourselves upon the forgiveness of our sins. There lies all our righteousness.

To be short, there are two things requisite in yielding God the praise that is due for our salvation: first, that we acknowledge ourselves to have all things from him; and secondly, that we acknowledge that all the good works, and all the good will which he has given us already, serve not to purchase us favor at his hand, nor for us to trust upon, but to show us that he needs to uphold us and to bury and forget all our sins, and that by that means we are justified before him, because he acquits us, notwithstanding that we deserve to be condemned a hundred times.

So then, to be short, when it is told us that there is neither free will nor anything else in man, it is to the end that we should learn to give all glory to God and not have any cause to vaunt ourselves anymore. Afterward, upon knowing this, we should understand that we would be in continual trouble and perplexity were it not that we are sure that we shall always obtain grace and mercy by coming to God with tears and lamenting. And how so? Because he vouchsafes to acquit us, and although he could thunder down upon us and drown us, yet he buries our sins by means of our Lord Jesus Christ and receives us always with mercy.

Thus, then, you see how men ought in all points, and in all cases, to be confounded in themselves and to be ashamed of their own lewdness, that they may glorify God; and with that, acknowledge that they should always be in doubt and anguish, except that God evermore pities them, and that the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is the sacrifice by which we are reconciled to him. That, therefore, is the true way to uphold and avow God to be the Savior of the world; and that also is the way for us to attribute all things to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, as he deserves: namely by erasing and putting away all the glorying which we pretend to have in ourselves, and thereupon to confess, not only that all the goodness which is in us is of God's putting into us, but also that he must be fain to bear with our infirmities, because we do not cease to provoke his wrath until he makes that satisfaction available, which was made by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But now let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our sins, praying him to make us feel them more and more, until we are so pulled down that there may be no more show of sin in us; and that in the meantime, we may nevertheless seek the aid and help of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that, since he has partly enlightened us already by his Holy Spirit, it may please him to increase his grace in us more and more, until he has communicated it wholly to us; and in the meantime, so uphold us and govern us by his Holy Spirit, as our whole endeavor may be nothing else but to frame our life after his holy law; and that he may not consider the great number of our sins which we commit, never ceasing to stray away to our own undoing, but hold us back by his secret power, until he takes us away out of this world, and joins us with our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of all perfection, that we also may be perfect in him. And so let us say, Almighty God, heavenly Father, etc.