{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/106/1060284.htm","path":"chr/ecf/106/1060284.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/106/1060284.htm","text":"On the words of the Gospel, Luke xviii. 1,\u201cThey ought always to pray, and not to faint,\u201d etc. And on the two who went up into the temple to pray: and of the little children who were presented unto Christ.\n1. The lesson of the Holy Gospel builds us up unto the duty of praying and believing, and of not putting our trust in ourselves, but in the Lord. What greater encouragement to prayer than the parable which is proposed to us of the unjust judge? For an unjust judge, who feared not God, nor regarded man, yet gave ear to a widow who besought him, overcome by her importunity, not inclined thereto by kindness. 3531 If he then heard her prayer, who hated to be asked, how must He hear who exhorts us to ask? When therefore by this comparison from a contrary case the Lord had taught that \u201cmen ought always to pray and not to faint,\u201d 3532 He added and said, \u201cNevertheless, when the Son of Man shall come, thinkest thou that He shall find faith on the earth?\u201d 3533 If faith fail, prayer perishes. For who prays for that which he does not believe? Whence also the blessed Apostle, when he exhorted to prayer, said, \u201cWhosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved.\u201d 3534 And in order to show that faith is the fountain of prayer, he went on and said, \u201cHow then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?\u201d 3535 So then that we may pray, let us believe; and that this same faith whereby we pray fail not, let us pray. Faith pours out prayer, and the pouring out of prayer obtains the strengthening of faith. Faith, I say, pours out prayer, the pouring out of prayer obtains strengthening even for faith itself. For that faith might not fail in temptations, therefore did the Lord say,\u201d Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.\u201d 3536 \u201cWatch,\u201d He saith, \u201cand pray, lest ye enter into temptation.\u201d What is to \u201center into temptation,\u201d but to depart from faith? For so far temptation advances as faith gives way: and so far temptation gives way, as faith advances. For that you may know, Beloved, more plainly, that the Lord said, \u201cWatch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation,\u201d as touching faith lest it should fail and perish; He said in the same place of the Gospel, \u201cThis night hath Satan desired to sift 3537 you as wheat, and I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not.\u201d 3538 He that defendeth prayeth, and shall not he pray who is in peril? For in the words of the Lord, \u201cwhen the Son of Man shall come, thinkest thou that He shall find faith on the earth?\u201d He spoke of that faith, which is perfect. For it is scarce found on the earth. Lo! this Church of God is full: and who would come hither, if there were no faith? But who would not remove mountains, if there were full faith? Look at the very Apostles: they would not have left all they had, have trodden under foot this world\u2019s hope, and followed the Lord, if they had not had great faith; and yet if they had full faith, they would not have said to the Lord, \u201cIncrease our faith.\u201d 3539 See again, that man confessing both of himself (behold faith, yet not full faith), who when he had presented to the Lord his son to be cured of an evil spirit, and was asked whether he believed, answered and said, \u201cLord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief.\u201d 3540 \u201cLord,\u201d says he, \u201cI believe,\u201d I believe; therefore there was faith. But \u201chelp Thou mine unbelief,\u201d therefore there was not full faith.\n2. But inasmuch as faith belongs not to the proud, but to the humble, \u201cHe spake this parable unto certain who seemed to themselves to be righteous, and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a p. 455 Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee said, God, I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of men.\u201d 3541 He might at least have said, \u201cas many men.\u201d What does, \u201cas the rest of men,\u201d mean, but all except himself? \u201cI,\u201d he says, \u201cam just, the rest are sinners.\u201d \u201cI am not as the rest of men, unjust, extortioners, adulterers.\u201d And, lo, from thy neighbour, the publican, thou takest occasion of greater pride. \u201cAs,\u201d he says, \u201cthis publican.\u201d \u201cI,\u201d he says, \u201cam alone, he is of the rest.\u201d \u201cI am not,\u201d says he, \u201csuch as he is, through my righteous deeds, whereby I have no unrighteousness.\u201d \u201cI fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.\u201d 3542 In all his words seek out for any one thing that he asked of God, and thou wilt find nothing. He went up to pray: he had no mind to pray to God, but to laud himself. Nay, it is but a small part of it, that he prayed not to God, but lauded himself. More than this he even mocked him that did pray. \u201cBut the Publican stood afar off;\u201d 3543 and yet he was in deed near to God. The consciousness of his heart kept him off, piety brought him close. \u201cBut the Publican stood afar off:\u201d yet the Lord regarded him near. \u201cFor the Lord is high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly.\u201d 3544 But \u201cthose that are high\u201d as was this Pharisee, \u201cHe knoweth afar off.\u201d \u201cThe high\u201d indeed \u201cGod knoweth afar off,\u201d but He doth not pardon them. Hear still more the humility of the Publican. It is but a small matter that he stood afar off; \u201che did not even lift up his eyes unto heaven.\u201d He looked not, that he might be looked upon. He did not dare to look upwards, his conscience pressed him down: but hope lifted him up. Hear again, \u201che smote his breast.\u201d He punished himself: wherefore the Lord spared him for his confession. \u201cHe smote his breast, saying, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.\u201d See who he is that prays. Why dost thou marvel that God should pardon, when he acknowledges his own sin? Thus thou hast heard the case 3545 of the Pharisee and Publican; now hear the sentence; thou hast heard the proud accuser, thou hast heard the humble criminal; hear now the Judge. \u201cVerily I say unto you.\u201d The Truth saith, God saith, the Judge saith it. \u201cVerily I say unto you, That Publican went down from the temple justified rather than that Pharisee.\u201d 3546 Tell us, Lord, the cause. Lo! I see that the publican goes down from the temple justified rather than the Pharisee. I ask why? Dost thou ask why? Hear why. \u201cBecause every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.\u201d 3547 Thou hast heard the sentence, beware of its evil cause. In other words, thou hast heard the sentence, beware of pride.\n3. Let now those ungodly babblers, whosoever they be, who presume on their own strength, let them hear and see these things: let them hear who say, God made me a man, I make myself just. O thou who art worse and more detestable than the Pharisee! The Pharisee in the Gospel did indeed call himself just, but yet he gave thanks to God for it. He called himself just, but yet he gave God thanks. \u201cI thank Thee, O God, that I am not as the rest of men.\u201d \u201cI thank Thee, O God.\u201d He gives God thanks, that he is not as the rest of men: and yet he is blamed as being proud and puffed up; not in that he gave God thanks, but in that he desired as it were no more to be added unto him. \u201cI thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, unjust.\u201d So then thou art just; so then thou askest for nothing; so then thou art full already; so then the life of man is not a trial upon earth; 3548 so then thou art full already; so then thou aboundest already, so then thou hast no ground for saying, \u201cForgive us our debts!\u201d What must his case be then who impiously impugns grace, if he is blamed who give thanks proudly?\n4. And, lo, after the case had been stated, and the sentence pronounced, little children also came forth, yea, rather, are carried and presented to be touched. To be touched by whom, but the Physician? Surely, it will be said, they must be whole. To whom are the infants presented to be touched? To whom? To the Saviour. If to the Saviour, they are brought to be saved. To whom, but to Him \u201cwho came to seek and to save what was lost.\u201d 3549 How were they lost? As far as concerns them personally, I see that they are without fault, I am seeking for their guiltiness. Whence is it? I listen to the Apostle, \u201cBy one man sin entered into the world. By one man,\u201d he says, \u201csin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men by him in whom all sinned.\u201d 3550 Let then the little children come, let them come: let the Lord be heard. \u201cSuffer little children to come unto Me.\u201d 3551 Let the little ones come, let the sick come to the Physician, the lost to their Redeemer: let them come, let no man hinder them. In the branch they have not yet committed any evil, but they are ruined in their root. \u201cLet the Lord bless the small with the great.\u201d 3552 Let the Physician touch both small and great. The cause of the little ones we commend to their elders. Speak ye for them who are mute, pray for them who weep. If ye are not their elders to no purpose, be ye their guardians: defend them who are not able yet to manage their own cause. Common is the loss, let the finding be common: p. 456 we were lost all together, together be we found in Christ. Uneven is the desert, but common is the grace. They have no evil but what they have drawn from the source: they have no evil but what they have derived from the first original. Let not them keep them off from salvation, who to what they have so derived have added much more evil. The elder in age is the elder in iniquity too. But the grace of God effaces what thou hast derived, effaces too what thou hast added. For, \u201cwhere sin abounded, grace hath superabounded.\u201d 3553\nLuke xviii. 8, Vulgate.\n454:3534 454:3535 454:3536 454:3537 454:3538\nLuke 22:31, 32.\n454:3539 454:3540 455:3541 455:3542 455:3543 455:3544 455:3545 455:3546 455:3547 455:3548\nJob vii. 1, Sept.\n455:3549 455:3550 455:3551 455:3552 456:3553","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI: Sermons on Selec...","type":"page"}