Grace And Understanding

Arduum enim et difficullimum homini est, per se ipsum vel per saeculi doctores rationem praeceptorum coelestium consequi: nec naturae nostrae recipit infirmitas, divinis institutis, nisi per ejus gratiam qui haec ipsa dederit, erudiri. Namque qui simpliciter ea quae inter manus sibi inciderint legunt, existimant nihil differentiae in verbis, nihil in nominibus, nihil in rebus existere. Sed si istud communis colloquii sermon non patitur, ut sub diversis rerum nuncupationibus non diversa significata esse intelligantur; numquid Dei eloquia tam impertia, tam confusa esse credimus, ut aut inopia verborum quibus uterentur laboraverint? aut distinctionionum genera nescierint? Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis,Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXVIII Source: Migne PL 9.501 b-c

Arduous and most difficult it is for a man to grasp the sense of the heavenly commandments by himself, or by worldly teachers, for the weakness of our nature does not receive the Divine teachings, unless by the grace of Him who gave them. Those who read the things which happen to fall into their hands in a simple way do not discern the difference in words, nor in names, nor in things. But if this speech is not suffered to be but as common conversation, there is no understanding that under different ways of expressing things there are diverse meanings. Is it that we should think the words of God are so simple, so disordered, that they have toiled amid the poverty of words used? Or that they did not know the ways of discrimination? Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 118