Same place. — To the work of your hands you will stretch out your right hand. 19. That which man cannot attain from himself. — As if he plainly said: For this reason your corruptible creature is able to persist unto incorruption, because it is raised up by the hand of your power, and by the grace of your regard it is held fast so that it may persist. For the human creature, by the very fact that it is a creature, has within itself a tendency to slip away beneath itself; but from its Creator man has received that he may both be caught up above himself in contemplation, and be held fast within himself in incorruption. Therefore, that the creature may not slip away beneath itself, but persist in incorruption, it is lifted to the state of unchangeableness by the right hand of its Author. By the name of 'right hand' the Son also can be signified: For all things were made through him (John
i, 3). To the work of his hands, therefore, Almighty God stretched out his right hand, because, in order to raise up to the heights the human race that was cast down and lying in the lowest depths, he sent his only-begotten, made flesh, for this purpose. From whose Incarnation it is given to us that we, who by our own will fell into corruption, may at some time be able to answer God who calls us unto the glory of incorruption. In which matter, who can weigh the bountifulness of the divine mercy, that it leads man to so great a glory after his fault? God weighs the evils we do, and yet through the grace of his kindness mercifully remits them. Hence too it is added: