{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050320.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050320.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050320.htm","text":"Chapter 73.\u2014He Meets Pelagius with Another Passage from Hilary.\nNow even Job himself is not silent respecting his own sins; and your friend, 1315 of course, is justly of opinion that humility must not by any means \u201cbe put on the side of falsehood.\u201d Whatever confession, therefore, Job makes, inasmuch as he is a true worshipper of God, he undoubtedly makes it in truth. 1316 Hilary, likewise, while expounding that passage of the psalm in which it is written, \u201cThou hast despised all those who turn aside from Thy commandments,\u201d 1317 says: \u201cIf God were to despise sinners, He would despise indeed all men, because no man is without sin; but it is those who turn away from Him, whom they call apostates, that He despises.\u201d You observe his statement: it is not to the effect that no man was without sin, as if he spoke of the past; but no man is without sin; and on this point, as I have already remarked, I have no contention with him. But if one refuses to submit to the Apostle John,\u2014who does not himself declare, \u201cIf we were to say we have had no sin,\u201d but \u201cIf we say we have no sin,\u201d 1318 \u2014how is he likely to show deference to Bishop Hilary? It is in defence of the grace of Christ that I lift up my voice, without which grace no man is justified,\u2014just as if natural free will were sufficient. Nay, He Himself lifts up His own voice in defence of the same. Let us submit to Him when He says: \u201cWithout me ye can do nothing.\u201d 1319\nPelagius, the friend of Timasius and Jacobus.\n147:1316 147:1317 147:1318 147:1319","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Nat...","type":"page"}