Letter 232: Prayer does not always obtain what it seeks — and this is itself a mercy.

On Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord, provoking to jealousy the ungrateful people of the Jews, who contradict the proclamation of the gospel, says that many will come from the east and the west [Matthew 8:11], and will be called to recline at table, together with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob their forefathers, in the kingdom of the heavens. Upon the foundation of the law he builds the stones of grace, ranking the divine people together with the patriarchs, and showing the joining of the law to the Gospel, and that those who have won approval in both will attain to the public proclamation of honor; but that those who plume themselves on the distinction of their race, who are bereft of virtue yet boast that they are sons of the kingdom, will slip away into unending punishment.

Περὶ Ἀβραὰμ, καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακώβ. Παραζηλῶν ὁ Κύριος τὸν, ἀχάριστον δῆμον τῶν Ἰουδαίων τῷ εὐαγγελικῷ κηρύγματι ἀντιλέγοντα, πολλοὺς ἐλεύσεσθαι φησιν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν καὶ δυσμῶν, καὶ μετὰ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ τῶν προ- πατόρων αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείᾳ ἀνα- κληθήσεσθαι, ἐπὶ τῷ θεμελίῳ τοῦ νόμου τοὺς τῆς χάριτος λίθους οἰκοδομῶν, καὶ τοῖς πατριάρχαις συν- τάσσων τὸν, θεῖον λαόν, καὶ, δείκνυς τὴν τοῦ νόμου πρὸς τὸ, Εὐαγγέλιον συνάφειαν, καὶ τοὺς ἐν ἀμφοτέραις εὐδοκιμήσαντας τευζομένους · ἀναρρή- σεως, τοὺς δὲ αἰήσει γένους ἐναβρυνομένους, καὶ ἀρετῆς μὲν χρηρεύοντας, υἱοὺς δὲ ὑπάρχειν τῆς βα- σιλείας κομπάζοντας· εἰς ἀτελεύτητον τιμωρίαν ὀλι- σθησομένους.