Chapter 13.—A Subterfuge of the Pelagians.

Daniel, indeed, after the prayer which he poured out before God, actually says respecting himself, “Whilst I was praying and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people, before the Lord my God.”301    Dan. ix. 20. This is the reason, if I am not mistaken, why in the above-mentioned Prophet Ezekiel a certain most haughty person is asked, “Art thou then wiser than Daniel?”302    Ezek. xxviii. 3. Nor on this point can that be possibly said which some contend for in opposition to the Lord’s Prayer: “For although,” they say, “that prayer was offered by the apostles, after they became holy and perfect, and had no sin whatever, yet it was not in behalf of their own selves, but of imperfect and still sinful men that they said, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.’ They used the word our,” they say, “in order to show that in one body are contained both those who still have sins, and themselves, who were already altogether free from sin.” Now this certainly cannot be said in the case of Daniel, who (as I suppose) foresaw as a prophet this presumptuous opinion, when he said so often in his prayer, “We have sinned;” and explained to us why he said this, not so as that we should hear from him, Whilst I was praying and confessing the sins of my people to the Lord, my God; nor yet confounding distinction, so as that it would be uncertain whether he had said, on account of the fellowship of one body, While I was confessing our sins to the Lord my God; but he expresses himself in language so distinct and precise, as if he were full of the distinction himself, and wanted above all things to commend it to our notice: “My sins,” says he, “and the sins of my people.” Who can gainsay such evidence as this, but he who is more pleased to defend what he thinks than to find out what he ought to think?

13. Daniel vero post orationem quam fudit Deo, de se ipse dicit: Cum orarem, et confiterer peccata mea, et peccata populi mei Domino Deo meo (Dan. IX, 20). Propterea, nisi fallor, per supra memoratum Ezechielem cuidam superbissimo dicitur, Numquid tu sapientior quam Daniel (Ezech. XXVIII, 3)? Neque hic dici potest, quod quidam contra orationem dominicam argumentantur: Quia etsi orabant eam, inquiunt, sancti et perfecti jam Apostoli, nullum omnino habentes peccatum; non tamen pro se ipsis, sed pro imperfectis et adhuc peccatoribus dicebant, «Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris» (Matth. VI, 12). Ut per hoc, inquiunt, quod dicerent «nostra,» in uno esse corpore demonstrarent, et illos adhuc habentes peccata, et se ipsos qui jam carebant omni ex parte peccato. In Daniele certe hoc non potest dici, qui, ut credo, tanquam propheta praevidens hanc aliquando praesumptionem futuram, cum in oratione saepe dixisset, peccavimus; non ita nobis exposuit, cur hoc dixerit, ut ab illo audiremus, Cum orarem, et confiterer peccata populi mei Domino Deo meo; nec adhuc distinctione confusa, ut esset incertum, propter unius corporis societatem si diceret, Cum peccata nostra confiterer Domino Deo meo: sed omnino tam distincte, tanquam de ipsa distinctione satagens, eamque maxime vehementerque commendans, peccata, inquit, mea et peccata populi. Quis huic evidentiae contradicit, nisi quem plus delectat defensare quod sentit, quam quid sentiendum sit invenire?