Verse 15. Who, even if I have anything just, will not answer, but will beseech my judge. 28. Our righteousness needs the entreaty of pardon. For as we have often said, all human righteousness is convicted of being unrighteousness, if it be strictly judged. It needs prayer, therefore, after righteousness, so that what could have fallen when sifted may prevail from the sole mercy of the judge. And when this is fully possessed by the more perfect, it is said that something of it is possessed, because the human mind both barely accomplishes even what it has comprehended, and the things which it comprehends are very slight extremes. Let him say therefore: Who, even if I have anything just, will not answer, but will beseech my judge. As if he more openly confessed, saying:
Even if I have grown up to the work of virtue, I prevail unto life not by merits, but from pardon. Recourse must therefore be had to prayer when we act rightly, so that all that we live justly we may season with humility. But very often this our very entreaty is shaken by so many temptations that it seems almost repulsed in the sight of the judge. And often the merciful Creator receives it; but because it is not able to put itself forth unimpaired as it wills, it dreads over itself the judgment of reprobation. Whence also it is subjoined: