On Prayer 29.5

And those who do not understand exactly the intent of the Savior's command might reasonably suppose that the words in the twenty-fifth psalm, “Examine me, O Lord, and test me; try my kidneys and my heart,” are contrary to what our Lord taught about prayer. But when did anyone who knew that he had completed the full measure of his account think that men are outside temptations? And what time is there in which one may be careless, as though not contending against sin? Is someone poor? Let him beware lest he steal and swear by “the name of God.” Is he rich? Let him not be careless; for he can become “false” when “filled,” and say in his pride, “Who sees me?” Not even Paul, rich “in all speech and all knowledge,” was freed from the danger of sinning by being too much elated on account of these things, but he needed a thorn of Satan to buffet him, “so that” he might “not” be too elated. And if someone is conscious of better things in himself and has taken wing away from evils, let him read what is said in the Second Book of Chronicles about Hezekiah, who is said to have fallen “from the pride of his heart.”