“Our fate,” says St. Chrysostom, “is uncertain for a number of reasons, one of which is that many of our own works are hidden from us.”(1162) St. Jerome, commenting on Eccles. IX, 1 sq.,(1163) observes: “In the future they will know all, and all things are manifest to them, that is to say, the knowledge of this matter will precede them when they depart this life, because _then_ the judgment will be pronounced, while _now_ we are still battling, and it is now uncertain whether those who bear adversities, bear them for the love of God, like Job, or because they hate Him, as do many sinners.”(1164) Pope St. Gregory the Great said to a noble matron who asked him whether she could be sure of her salvation: “You ask me something which is both useless and difficult [to answer]; difficult, because I am unworthy to receive a revelation; useless, because it is better that you be uncertain with regard to your sins, lest in your last hour you should be unable to repent.”(1165) c) We now proceed to the theological explanation of the dogma embodied in our thesis. α) The purpose of this dogma is not, as Harnack(1166) thinks, “partly to assuage and partly to excite the restlessness that still remains, by means of the sacraments, indulgences, liturgical worship and ecclesiastical encouragement of mystical and monkish practices,” but to prevent undue security and careless assurance. What the Church condemns, in accordance with Sacred Scripture and Tradition, is the _certitudo fidei_, that vain confidence which leads men to feel certain that they are in the state of grace (_inanis fiducia_), not the _certitudo spei_, _i.e._ humble trust in God’s abundant mercy. “As no pious person ought to doubt of the mercy of God, of the merit of Christ, and of the virtue and efficacy of the sacraments,” says the Tridentine Council, “even so each one, when he regards himself and his own weakness and indisposition, may have fear and apprehension touching his own grace; seeing that no one can know with a certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error, that he has obtained the grace of God.”(1167)