On the Decree of Eternity and the Grace to Do Good

First He placed devotion inside my heart, and only then did this servant bow his head at His threshold. If no grace toward good comes from God, how can anything good pass from a servant to another? Do not just marvel that the tongue confesses; look to see who gave the tongue its speech. It is in true knowledge that the human eye lies open, an eye opened wide upon the heavens and the earth. How would you grasp the low places and the high if He had not opened this door before your face? He brought your head and hand out of nothing into being; He set generosity in this hand, and worship in that head. Otherwise, how could the hand have learned to give? It is impossible that the head bowed of its own accord. In His wisdom He gave the tongue and shaped the ear, to be the two keys to the locked chest of the heart. If the tongue did not carry the story out, how would anyone know the secrets of the heart? And if the ear did not work as a spy, how would any news reach the king that is the mind? He gave me sweet words to be a reader; He gave you hearing and understanding to be one who knows. These two forever stand at the door like chamberlains, carrying word from king to king. Why think to yourself that your deeds are fine? Look instead: it is His grace at work. The gardener carried to the king's hall a fresh new flower, plucked from the king's own garden.