Chapter 73.—He Meets Pelagius with Another Passage from Hilary.

Now even Job himself is not silent respecting his own sins; and your friend,192    Pelagius, the friend of Timasius and Jacobus. of course, is justly of opinion that humility must not by any means “be put on the side of falsehood.” Whatever confession, therefore, Job makes, inasmuch as he is a true worshipper of God, he undoubtedly makes it in truth.193    Job xl. 4, and xlii. 6. Hilary, likewise, while expounding that passage of the psalm in which it is written, “Thou hast despised all those who turn aside from Thy commandments,”194    Ps. cxix. 21, or 118. says: “If 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.” 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,—who does not himself declare, “If we were to say we have had no sin,” but “If we say we have no sin,”195    1 John i. 8.—how 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,—just 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: “Without me ye can do nothing.”196    John xv. 5.

73. Nam et ipse Job de peccatis suis non tacet, et utique huic amico vestro merito placet, humilitatem nullo modo in falsitatis parte ponendam: unde id quod Job confitetur, quia verax Dei cultor est, procul dubio veraciter confitetur. Et ipse Hilarius cum locum Psalmi exponeret, ubi scriptum est, Sprevisti omnes discedentes a justificationibus tuis, ait: «Si enim Deus peccatores sperneret, omnes utique sperneret; quia sine peccato nemo est. Sed spernit discedentes a se, quos apostatas vocant» (Hilarius, in Psal. CXVIII, 118). Videtis quemadmodum non dixerit, quia sine peccato nemo fuerit, tanquam de praeteritis loquens, sed quod sine peccato nemo sit; unde quidem, ut dixi, non contendo. Quisquis enim non cedit Joanni apostolo, qui nec ipse ait, Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habuimus; sed non habemus 0284 (I Joan. I, 8): episcopo Hilario quomodo cessurus est? Pro gratia Christi clamo, sine qua nemo justificatur, tanquam sufficiente naturae libero arbitrio. Imo ipse pro ea clamat: ei cedatur dicenti, Sine me nihil potestis facere (Joan. XV, 5).