Ps. cxiii. 7, 8. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust.
Is. xl. 17. He deeth what He will in heaven and in earth.
The words of 2 Maccabees v. 17, which say that Antiochus Epiphanes had power to overthrow the Temple, "because of the multitude of sins," are quoted in connection with the confessions of Daniel.
Dan. ix. 5. "We have sinned and dealt perversely," which is shown by
20. "While I was yet praying," etc., to be a personal, not only a national confession.
24. The prophecy of the seventy weeks shows that the prophet looked to God alone for the establishment of righteousness.
So then, until that end shall come, and this corruptible and mortal shall put on incorruption and immortality, we must be liable to sin; not, as you falsely say, owing to the fault of our nature and creation, but through the frailty and fickleness of human will, which varies from moment to moment; because God alone changeth not. You ask in what respects Abel, Enoch, Joshua the son of Nun, or Elisha, and the rest of the saints have sinned. There is no need to look for a knot in a bulrush; I freely confess I do not know; and I only wish that, when sins are manifest, I might still be silent. "I know nothing against myself," says St. Paul, "yet am I not hereby justified." "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Before Him no man is justified. And so Paul says confidently, "All bare sinned, and come short of the glory of God"; and "God hath shut up all under sin that He may have mercy upon all"; and similarly in other passages which we have repeated again and again.