Against the Pelagians

²³ The prophets also are weak and sinful.

Lam. iv. 20. Jeremiah lamented his fall.

<!--<span class="stiki"></span>-->Numbers 20:10, 12. Moses is punished for his sin at Meribah. This is the meaning of Ps. cxli. 6. Vulgate. Their judges were swallowed up, joined to the Rock, etc.

Hosea ii. 19. God in mercy forgives Israel's unfaithfulness.

xi. 9. “I will not enter into the city.” Only the Holy One is not joined to the mass of ungodliness.

Amos vi. 13. We turn righteousness into wormwood.

Jonah i. 14. The sailors confess that God is just in raising the storm.

Micah vii. 2. The godly man is perished from the earth, etc.

vi. 8. The command of justice, mercy, and a humble walk with God is only possible to humble faith, for

Ps. cxl. 6. “The wicked walk on every side,” and

James iv. 6. God gives grace to the humble.

24.

Habakkuk iii. 16. Let rottenness enter into my bones, if only I may rest, etc.

Zech. iii. 1. Joshua is represented as clothed in filthy garments, and is freed through God's mercy.

But Jovinian's heir says “I am quite free from sin, I have no filthy garments, I am governed by my own will, I am greater than an Apostle. The Apostle does what he would not, and what he would he does not; but I do what I will, and what I would not I do not: the kingdom of heaven has been prepared for me, or rather I have by my virtuous life prepared it for myself. Adam was subject to punishment, and so are others who think themselves guilty after the similitude of Adam's transgressions; I and my crew alone have nothing to fear. Other men shut up in their cells and who never see women, because, poor creatures! They do not listen to my words, are tormented with desire: crowds of women may surround me, I feel no stirring of concupiscence. For to me may be applied the words, 'Holy stones are rolled upon the ground,' and the reason why I am insensible to the attraction of sin is that in the power of free will I carry Christ's trophy about with me.” But let us listen to God proclaiming by the mouth of Isaiah: “O my people, they which call you happy cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.” Who is the greatest subverter of the people of God— he who, relying on the power of free choice, despises the help of the Creator, and is satisfied with following his own will, or he who dreads to be judged by the details of the Lord's commandments? To men of this sort, God says, “Woe unto you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight.” Isaiah, if we follow the Hebrew, laments and says, “Woe is me because I have been silent, because I am a man of unclean lips: and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts.” He for his meritorious and virtuous life enjoyed the sight of God, and conscious of his sins confessed that he had unclean lips. Not that he had said anything repugnant to the will of God, but because, either from fear, or from a deep sense of shame, he had been silent, and had not reproved the errors of the people so freely as a prophet should. When do we sinners rebuke offenders, we who flatter wealth and accept the persons of sinners for the sake of filthy lucre? For we shall hardly say that we speak with perfect frankness to men of whose assistance we stand in need. Suppose that we do not such things as they, suppose we keep ourselves from every form of sin; to refrain from speaking the truth is certainly sin. In the Septuagint, however, we do not find the words “because I have been silent,” but “because I was pricked,” that is with the consciousness of sin; and thus the words of the prophet are fulfilled. “My life was turned into misery while I was pierced by the thorn.” He was pricked by the thorn of sin: you are decked with the flowers of virtue. “The moon shall be ashamed, and the sun confounded, when the Lord shall punish the host of heaven on high.” This is explained by another passage. “Even the stars are unclean in His sight,” and again, “He charges His angels with folly.” The moon is ashamed, the sun is confounded, and the sky covered with sackcloth, and shall we fearlessly and joyously, as though we were free from all sin, face the majesty of the Judge, when the mountains shall melt away, that is, all who are lifted up by pride, and all the host of the heavens, whether they be stars, or angelic powers, when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fade away like leaves?

The argument is now carried on mostly by the quotation of passages from the prophets:

25.

Is. xxxiv. 5. “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens. It will come down in Edom.” How much more is there wrath against sin on earth! Edom means blood, which cannot inherit the kingdom.

xlv. 9. Woe unto him who strives with his Maker.

liii. 6. We have all gone astray like sheep.

Ezek. xvi. 14. Jerusalem is perfect in beauty; yet

<!--<span class="stiki"></span>-->Ezekiel 16:60, 61. Her salvation is not of merit but of mercy.

Nahum i. 3. Though he cleanse, yet will he not make you innocent.

1 Cor. xv. 9. I am not worthy— because I persecuted.

<!--<span class="stiki"></span>-->Ezekiel 20:43, 44. When pardoned, Jerusalem will still remember her sin.

Let us confess with shame that these are the utterances of men who have already won their reward; sinners upon earth, and still in our frail and mortal bodies let us adopt the language of the saints in heaven who have even been endowed with incorruption and immortality. “And ye say the way of the Lord is not equal, when your ways are not equal.” It is Pharisaic pride to attribute to the injustice of the Creator sins which are due to our own will, and to slander His righteousness. The sons of Zadok, the priests of the spiritual temple, that is the Church, go not out to the people in their ministerial robes, lest by human intercourse they may lose their holiness and be defiled. And do you suppose that you, in the thick of the throng, and an ordinary individual, are pure?