Humbling oneself before God is not flattery
Then, not understanding the sense in which it is said, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled" (Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14), not having learned even from Plato that the noble and good man walks "humble and well ordered" (Plato, Laws 716a), and not knowing either that we say, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6), he says that "men who rightly preside over justice stop those who lament over their crimes from making piteous, wailing speeches, so that they may not be judged by pity rather than by truth; but God, it seems, judges not by truth but by flattery."
Yet what flattery, what piteous and wailing speech, takes place according to the divine Scriptures when the sinner says in his prayers to God: "I made my sin known, and I did not hide my lawlessness; I said, I will confess my lawlessness against myself to the Lord" (Psalm 32:5), and the words that follow? Or can he show that such conduct on the part of sinners, when they humble themselves under God in their prayers, does not help to convert them?
Confused by his eagerness to accuse, he contradicts himself. In one place he implies that he knows a man who is without sin and just, who looks up to God with virtue from the beginning; in another he accepts what we say: "What man is perfectly just, or who is without sin?" For he speaks as one who accepts it: "This is fairly true, that the human race is somehow by nature inclined to sin." Then, as though not everyone were called by the word, he says: "So one ought simply to have called everyone, if indeed all sin."
Yet we showed earlier that Jesus said: "Come, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). All human beings, then, "labouring and burdened" because of the nature of sin, are called to the rest that is found with the Word of God. For God sent forth "his Word, and healed them, and rescued them from their corruptions" (Psalm 107:20).
Greek
Εἶτα μὴ νοῶν, πῶς εἴρηται τὸ „πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται,“ μηδὲ κἂν ἀπὸ τοῦ Πλάτωνος διδαχθεὶς ὅτι ὁ καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθὸς πορεύεται „ταπεινὸς καὶ κεκοσμημένος,“ μὴ εἰδὼς δὲ καὶ, ὥς φαμεν· „ταπεινώθητε οὖν ὑπὸ τὴν κραταιὰν χεῖρα τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα ὑμᾶς ὑψώσῃ ἐν καιρῷ,“ φησὶν ὅτι ἄνθρωποι μὲν ὀρθῶς δίκης προϊστάμενοι τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀδικήμασιν ὀλοφυρομένους ἀποπαύουσι λόγων οἰκτρογόων, ἵνα μὴ πρὸς ἔλεον μᾶλλον ἢ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν δικασθῶσιν· ὁ θεὸς δ᾿ ἄρα οὐ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ἀλλὰ πρὸς κολακείαν δικάζει. ποία γὰρ κολακεία, καὶ ποῖος λόγος οἰκτρόγοος κατὰ τὰς θείας γινόμενος γραφὰς, ἐπὰν ὁ ἁμαρτάνων λέγῃ ἐν ταῖς πρὸς θεὸν εὐχαῖς· „τὴν ἁμαρτίαν μου ἐγνώρισα, καὶ τὴν ἀνομίαν μου οὐκ ἐκάλυψα, εἶπα· ἐξαγορεύσω κατ᾿ ἐμοῦ τὴν ἀνομίαν μου τῷ κυρίῳ“ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς; ἀλλὰ δύναται παραστῆσαι ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπιστρεπτικὸν τὸ τοιοῦτον τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων, ὑπὸ τὸν θεὸν ἑαυτοὺς ταπεινούντων ἐν ταῖς εὐχαῖς; καὶ συγκεχυμένος δ᾿ ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς τὸ κατηγορεῖν ὁρμῆς ἑαυτῷ ἐναντία λέγει, ὅπου μὲν ἐμφαίνων εἰδέναι ἀναμάρτητον ἄνθρωπον καὶ δίκαιον, μετ᾿ ἀρετῆς ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἄνω βλέποντα, ὅπου δ᾿ ἀποδεχόμενος τὸ λεγόμενον ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν, ὅτι „τίς ἄνθρωπος τελέως δίκαιος, ἢ τίς ἀναμάρτητος;“ ὡς ἀποδεχόμενος γὰρ αὐτό φησι· τοῦτο μὲν ἐπιεικῶς ἀληθὲς, ὅτι πέφυκέ πως τὸ ἀνθρώπινον φῦλον ἁμαρτάνειν· εἶτα ὡς μὴ πάντων καλουμένων ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου φησίν· ἐχρῆν οὖν ἁπλῶς πάντας καλεῖν. εἴ γε πάντες ἁμαρτάνουσι, καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω δὲ παρεδείκνυμεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν εἰρηκέναι· „δεῦτε πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς.“ πάντες οὖν ἄνθρωποι διὰ τὴν τῆς ἁμαρτίας φύσιν „κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι“ καλοῦνται ἐπὶ τὴν παρὰ τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνάπαυσιν· ἐξαπέστειλε γὰρ ὁ θεὸς „τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἰάσατο αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐῤῥύσατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῶν διαφθορῶν αὐτῶν.“