And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
All Commentaries on Isaiah 11:3 Go To Isaiah 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
If we say that faith goes before and that the merit of grace is in it, what merit does a man have before faith so as to receive faith? For, what has he that he has not received? And if he has received it, why does he glory as if he had not received it? Just as a man would not have wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of God unless, according to the prophet’s words, he had received “the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, of counsel and of power, of knowledge and of godliness, and of fear of God.” In the same way, he would not have power and love and sobriety, except by receiving the Spirit of whom the apostle speaks: “We have not received the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sobriety.” So also he would not have faith unless he received the spirit of faith of which the same apostle says, “But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written: ‘I believed for which cause I have spoken,’ we also believe for which cause we also speak.” Thus he shows very plainly that faith is not received because of merit but by the mercy of him who has mercy on whom he will, when he says of himself: “I have obtained mercy to be faithful.”
