1023:1
21. Deum negat qui de viribus suis præsumit. — Liquet etenim quia illum negat, cujus despecta gratia, sibi vires boni operis arrogat. Quod recte quoque et iniquitas maxima vocatur, quoniam omne peccatum quod ex infirmitate est spem nequaquam perdit, quia a superno judice veniam requirit. Præsumptio autem virtutis propriae tanto gravius in desperatione est, quanto longius ab humilitate. Cumque vires sibi tribuit operis, ad adjutorium non recurrit auctoris; fitque ut eo gravius peccator pereat, quo et ipsum hoc, quia est peccatur, ignorat. Sequitur:
21. He denies God who presumes upon his own strength. For it is clear that he denies Him, whose grace being despised, he arrogates to himself the powers of good work. Which is rightly also called the greatest iniquity, since every sin that is from weakness by no means loses hope, because it seeks pardon from the supernal Judge. But presumption of one's own virtue is by so much the more grievously in despair, by how much it is farther from humility. And when he attributes to himself the powers of the work, he does not recur to the help of the Author; and it comes to pass that the sinner perishes the more grievously, in that he is ignorant of this very thing, that he is a sinner. There follows:
二十一、凡自恃己力的，就是否認神。因為顯然可見：凡藐視那位的恩典、把行善之能歸給自己的，就是否認祂。這也正被稱為最大的罪孽，因為凡出於軟弱的罪絕不失去盼望，因它向那上界的審判者尋求赦免。但自恃己德，卻越遠離謙卑，就越沉重地陷於絕望。當他把工作的能力歸給自己時，就不投奔那創始者的幫助；於是便有這樣的事：罪人越發沉重地滅亡，因為他連自己是罪人這件事本身也不知道。接著說：