"being deified does not make anything depart from what it is by nature"

μηδαμῶς τῷ θεωθῆναι, τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν ἐκστᾷν.

     St. Maximus the Confessor, Opusculum 7, trans. DelCogliano in Christ:  Chalcedon and beyond, Cambridge edition of early Christian writings 4 (Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press, 2022), 513.  Greek:  PG 91, col. 81D (42).

Chrysostom on merit and the sola gratia

      "The Lord, however, does want them to contribute something, lest everything seem to be a work of grace, and they seem to win their reward without deserving it [(Εἶτα, ἵνα τι καὶ παρ' ἑαυτῶν εἰσφέρωσι, καὶ μὴ πάντα τῆς χάριτος εἶναι δοκῇ, μηδὲ εἰκῆ καὶ μάτην στεφανοῦσθαι νομίζωνται)].  Therefore he adds:  You must be clever as snakes and innocent as doves."

     St. John Chrysostom, Homily 33.1-2 on Matthew, as trans. Office of readings, Thursday, Thirty-fourth week in ordinary time, Liturgy of the hours.  Ed. F. Field (1839), 461; PG 57, col. 389-390 (in Field misprinted as 379 (379-380)).  NPNF 10, trans. Prevost as rev. Riddle:

'After this, that they may contribute something on their own part also, and that all might not seem to be of His grace, nor they supposed to be crowned at random, and vainly, He saith, 'Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.'

"rather to reform the faith in us Christians than to give it to the Indians"

"'Our people here are such that there is neither good man nor bad who hasn't two or three Indians to serve him and dogs to hunt for him and, though it perhaps were better not to mention it, women so pretty that one must wonder at it.  With the last of these practices I am extremely discontented, for it seems to me a disservice to God, but I can do nothing about it, nor the habit of eating meat on Saturday [sic, for Friday] and other wicked practices that are not for good Christians.  For these reasons it would be a great advantage to have some devout friars here, rather to reform the faith in us Christians than to give it to the Indians [(más para reformar la fe en los christianos que para darla a los indios)].  And I shall never be able to administer just punishments, unless fifty or sixty men are sent here from Castile with each fleet, and I send there the same number from among the lazy and the insubordinate, as I do with this present fleet—such would be the greatest and best punishment and least burdensome to the conscience that I can think of.'"

     Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella "Shortly after landing on Hispaniola in 1498," as trans. Felipe Fernández-Armesto on pp. 133-134 of his Columbus (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1991), and citing Crístobal Colón:  textos y documentos completos, ed. Varela (Madrid:  1984), 244.  Yet "Columbus's requests for friars to be sent to Hispaniola for the needs of the colonists rather than the natives were consciously ironic:  he was using the simple pagan in his traditional role as a commonplace of sententious literature, to point up the moral deficiencies of the Christians.  He was, beyond question, every bit as enthusiastic about converting the natives as his royal sponsors" (137).