And if we must make a statement regarding Judas that may overwhelm our opponents with shame, we would say that, in the book of Psalms, the whole of Psalm 108 [LXX] contains a prophecy about Judas, the beginning of which is this: O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent; for the mouths of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful man are opened against me. And it is predicted in this psalm both that Judas separated himself from the number of the apostles on account of his sins and that another was selected in his place; and this is shown by the words and let another man take his position. But now suppose that he had been betrayed by one of his disciples, who was possessed by a worse spirit than Judas and who had completely poured out, as it were, all the words that he had heard from Jesus, what would this contribute to an accusation against Jesus or the Christian religion? And how will this demonstrate its doctrine to be false? We have replied in the preceding chapter to the statements that follow this, showing that Jesus was not taken prisoner when attempting to flee but that he gave himself up voluntarily for the sake of us all. Therefore it follows, that even if he were bound, he was bound agreeably to his own will, thus teaching us the lesson that we should undertake similar things for the sake of religion in a spirit of willingness.

This^[1] is certainly what David also says in the Psalms. Let his prayer become sin, when not only is there nothing of worth sought in his sacrifices but even much of blame. For you hear the Lawgiver decree that if anyone eats from that which was left over to the third day, he will incur the sin. From this we must understand how great a destruction of sins is imminent for the human condition when sin arises even in that place where the offering of the atonement is sought.

Petilianus^[1] said, We must consider, I say, and declare how far the treacherous traditor^[2] is to be considered dead while he was still living. Judas was an apostle when he betrayed Christ; and the same man was already dead, having spiritually lost the office of an apostle, being destined afterwards to die by hanging himself, as it is written: I have sinned, he says, ‘ in that I have betrayed innocent blood’; and he departed, went out, and hanged himself.^[3] The traitor perished by the rope: he left the rope for others like himself, of whom the Lord Christ cried aloud to the Father, Father, those that you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.^[4] For David of old had passed this sentence on him who was to betray Christ to the unbelievers: Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. See how mighty is the spirit of the prophets, that it was able to see all future things as though they were present, so that a traitor who was to be born hereafter should be condemned many centuries before. Finally, that the said sentence should be completed, the holy Matthias received the bishopric of that lost apostle. Let no one be so dull, no one so faithless, as to dispute this: Matthias won for himself a victory, not a wrong, in that he carried off the spoils of the traitor from the victory of the Lord Christ.

For in that same Book of Testimonies,^[1] in order to justify somehow his assertion that all are ruled by their own will, Pelagius^[2] has cited this passage from the psalm, And he loved cursing, and it will come to him, and [he] would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. But who does not know that this is a fault, not of nature, as God created it, but of the human will, which turned away from God? Even if he^[3] had not loved cursing, had desired blessing, and, in this instance, denied that his will was helped by divine grace, the fact is that, in his ingratitude and impiety, he would be abandoned to be ruled by himself. The result of being deprived of divine guidance and brought to ruin is that he would discover through punishment that he was incapable of being ruled by himself.

I am poor and needy, and I am better only when in sorrow of heart I detest myself and seek your mercy, until what is faulty in me is repaired and made whole and finally I come to that state of peace that the eye of the proud cannot see. Yet in what others say about us and in what they know of our deeds there is grave danger of temptation. For our love of praise leads us to court the good opinion of others and hoard it for our personal glorification. And even when I reproach myself for it, the love of praise tempts me. There is temptation in the very process of self-reproach, for often, by priding himself in his contempt for vainglory, a person is guilty of even emptier pride; and for this reason his contempt of vainglory is an empty boast, because he cannot really hold it in contempt as long as he prides himself on doing so.