{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050422.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050422.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050422.htm","text":"Chapter 37\u2014The Same Continued. John, Bishop of Jerusalem, and His Examination.\nWith great propriety, as the proceedings show, did John, the holy overseer of the Church of Jerusalem, employ the authority of this same passage of the apostle, as he himself told our brethren the bishops who were his assessors at that trial, on their asking him what proceedings had taken place before him previous to the trial. 1728 He told them that \u201con the occasion in question, whilst some were whispering, and remarking on Pelagius\u2019 statement, that \u2018without God\u2019s grace man was able to attain perfection\u2019 (that is, as he had previously expressed it, \u2018man was able to be without sin\u2019), he censured the statement, and reminded them besides, that even the Apostle Paul, after so many labours\u2014not indeed in his own strength, but by the grace of God\u2014said: \u2018I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me;\u2019 1729 and again: \u2018It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy;\u2019 1730 and again: \u2018Except the Lord build the house, they labour but in vain who build it.\u2019 1731 And,\u201d he added, \u201cwe quoted several other like passages out of the Holy Scriptures. When, however, they did not receive the quotations which we made out of the Holy Scriptures, but continued their murmuring noise, Pelagius said: \u2018This is what I also believe; let him be anathema, who declares that a man is able, without God\u2019s help, to arrive at the perfection of all virtues.\u2019\u201d\nIn a conference held at Jerusalem at the end of July in the year 415, as described by Orosius in his Apology.\n200:1729 200:1730 200:1731","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Work on the Pro...","type":"page"}