XXXVII. The solution is easy, if we say, that grace reconciles and softens, that which is hard and difficult to nature; and the same yoke, which is heavy to be borne by mere natural powers, is made light, when the divine aid concurs and lends its assistance. And this is the manner, in which the fathers commonly reconcile those texts. XXXVIII. It may also be said, by way of answer, that the Redeemer speaks only of the first passages or entrance into the one and the other path, so that the path of virtue, at its entrance, is toilsome and laborious, but afterwards becomes easy; on the contrary, the path of vice is easy at the beginning, and toilsome at the end. The context gives reason for this construction, for Christ, when he is exciting men to pursue the paths of virtue, describes all the difficulty as placed at the first passages: _Intrare per angustam portam_, says St. Matthew, which according to St. Luke, is, _Contendite intrare per angustam portam_; which amounts to the same thing, as if he had said, in the entrance lies all the difficulty; therefore take courage, press forward, fight, _contendite_: to conquer the obstruction, which you find in the narrowness of the door. XXXIX. So it is, that this door is exceeding strait, and the newly converted is pressed by the power of its hinges, that the ill habits he has imbibed may be squeezed out, and not only the skin is grazed by the pressure, but sometimes pieces of flesh also are torn off, and left in the entrance. But the difficulty of this transit once conquered, the way by little and little grows wider, till at last, it is extended to a delightsome and a spacious valley; _Largior hic campos æther, & lumine vestit,_ _Purpure, solemque suum sua sidera morunt._