Against the Pelagians

^14. From this swelling pride springs the audacity in prayer which marks the directions in your letter to a certain widow as to how the saints ought to pray. “He,” you say, “rightly lifts up his hands to God; he pours out supplications with a good conscience who can say, 'You know, Lord, how holy, how innocent, how pure from all deceit, wrong, and robbery are the hands which I spread out unto You; how righteous, how spotless, and free from all falsehood are the lips with which I pour forth my prayers unto You, that You may pity me.'” Is this the prayer of a Christian, or of a proud Pharisee like him who says in the Gospel, “God, I thank You that I am not as other men are, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” Yet he merely thanks God because, by His mercy, he is not as other men: he execrates sin, and does not claim his righteousness as his own. But you say, “Now You know how holy, how innocent, how pure from all deceit, wrong, and robbery are the hands which I spread out before You.” He says that he fasts twice in the week, that he may afflict his vicious and wanton flesh, and he gives tithes of all his substance. For “the ransom of a man's life is his riches.” You join the devil in boasting, “I will ascend above the stars, I will place my throne in heaven, and I will be like the Most High.” David says, “My loins are filled with illusions”; and “My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness”; and “Enter not into judgment with Your servant”; and “In Your sight no man living shall be justified.” You boast that you are holy, innocent, and pure, and spread out clean hands unto God. And you are not satisfied with glorying in all your works, unless you say that you are pure from all sins of speech; and you tell us how righteous, how spotless, how free from all falsehood your lips are. The Psalmist sings, “Every man is a liar”; and this is supported by authority: “That God may be”true, says St. Paul, “and every man a liar”; and yet you have lips righteous, spotless, and free from all falsehood. Isaiah laments, saying, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”; and afterwards one of the seraphim brings a hot coal, taken with the tongs, to purify the prophet's lips, for he was not, according to the tenor of your words, arrogant, but he confessed his own faults. Just as we read in the Psalms, “What shall be due unto you, and what shall be done more unto you in respect of a deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that make desolate.” And after all this swelling with pride, and boastfulness in prayer, and confidence in your holiness, like one fool trying to persuade another, you finish with the words “These lips with which I pour out my supplication that You may have pity on me.” If you are holy, if you are innocent, if you are cleansed from all defilement, if you have sinned neither in word nor deed— although James says, “He who offends not in word is a perfect man,” and “No one can curb his tongue”— how is it that you sue for mercy? So that, forsooth, you bewail yourself, and pour out prayers because you are holy, pure, and innocent, a man of stainless lips, free from all falsehood, and endowed with a power like that of God. Christ prayed thus on the cross: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me?” And, again, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit,” and “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And this is He, who, returning thanks for us, had said, “I confess to You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.”