Augustine of Hippo

"Say ye to God, How to be feared are Your works!" [Psalm 66:3]. Wherefore to be feared and not to be loved? Hear another voice of a Psalm: "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him with trembling." What means this? Hear the voice of the Apostle: "With fear," he says, "and trembling, work out your own salvation." [Philippians 2:12] Wherefore with fear and trembling? He has subjoined the reason: "for God it is that works in you both to will and to work according to good will." [Philippians 2:13] If therefore God works in you, by the Grace of God you work well, not by your strength. Therefore if you rejoice, fear also: lest perchance that which was given to a humble man be taken away from a proud one....Brethren, if against the Jews of old, cut off from the root of the Patriarchs, we ought not to exalt ourselves, but rather to fear and say to God, "How to be feared are Your works:" how much less ought we not to exalt ourselves against the fresh wounds of the cutting off! Before there had been cut off Jews, graffed in Gentiles; from the very graft there have been cut off heretics; but neither against them ought we to exalt ourselves; lest perchance he deserve to be cut off, that delights to revile them that are cut off. My brethren, a bishop's voice, however unworthy, has sounded to you: we pray you to beware, whosoever you are in the Church, do not revile them that are not within; but pray ye rather, that they too may be within. For God is able again to graft them in. [Romans 11:23] Of the very Jews the Apostle said this, and it was done in their case. The Lord rose again, and many believed: they perceived not when they crucified, nevertheless afterwards they believed in Him, and there was forgiven them so great a transgression. The shedding of the Lord's blood was forgiven the manslayers, not to say, God-slayers: "for if they had known, the Lord of glory they never would have crucified." [1 Corinthians 2:8] Now to the manslayers has been forgiven the shedding of the blood of Him innocent: and that same blood which through madness they shed, through grace they have drunk....O fullness of Gentiles, say thou to God, "How to be feared are Your works!" and so rejoice thou as that you may fear, be not exalted above the branches cut off.

"Come ye, and see the works of the Lord: terrible in counsels above the sons of men" [Psalm 66:5]. Son of Man indeed He too has been called, and verily Son of Man He became: very Son of God in the form of God; [Philippians 2:6] very Son of Man in form of a servant: but do not judge of that form by the condition of others alike: "terrible" He is "in counsels above the sons of men." Sons of men took counsel to crucify Christ, being crucified He blinded the crucifiers. What then have ye done, sons of men, by taking keen counsels against your Lord, in whom was hidden Majesty, and to sight shown weakness? You were taking counsels to destroy, He to blind and save; to blind proud men, to save humble men: but to blind those same proud men, to the end that, being blinded they might be humbled, being humbled might confess, having confessed might be enlightened. "Terrible in counsels above the sons of men." Terrible indeed. Behold blindness in part to Israel has happened: [Romans 11:25] behold the Jews, out of whom was born Christ, are without: behold the Gentiles, that were against Judæa, in Christ are within. "Terrible in counsels above the sons of men."

Wherefore what has He done by the terror of His counsel? He has turned the sea into dry land. For this follows, "That has turned the sea into dry land" [Psalm 66:6]. A sea was the world, bitter with saltness, troubled with tempest, raging with waves of persecutions, sea it was: truly into dry land the sea has been turned, now there thirsts for sweet water the world that with salt water was filled. Who has done this? He "that has turned the sea into dry land." Now the soul of all the Gentiles says what? "My soul is as it were land without water to You." "That has turned the sea into dry land. In the river they shall pass over on foot." Those same persons that have been turned into dry land, though they were before sea, "in the river on foot shall pass over." What is the river? The river is all the mortality of the world. Observe a river: some things come and pass by, other things that are to pass by do succeed. Is it not thus with the water of a river, that from earth springs and flows? Every one that is born must needs give place to one going to be born: and all this order of things rolling along is a kind of river. Into this river let not the soul greedily throw herself, let her not throw herself, but let her stand still. And how shall she pass over the pleasures of things doomed to perish? Let her believe in Christ, and she will pass over on foot: she passes over with Him for Leader, on foot she passes over.

"You have laid tribulations on our back:" "You have set men over our heads" [Psalm 66:11]. All these things the Church has suffered in sundry and various persecutions: She has suffered this in Her individual members, even now does suffer it. For there is not one, that in this life could say that he was exempt from these trials. Therefore there are set even men over our heads: we endure those whom we would not, we suffer for our betters those whom we know to be worse. But if sins be wanting, a man is justly superior: but by how much there are more sins, by so much he is inferior. And it is a good thing to consider ourselves to be sinners, and thus endure men set over our heads: in order that we also to God may confess that deservedly we suffer. For why do you suffer with indignation that which He does who is just? "You have laid tribulations upon our back: You have set men over our heads." God seems to be angry, when He does these things: fear not, for a Father He is, He is never so angry as to destroy. When ill you live, if He spares, He is more angry. In a word, these tribulations are the rods of Him correcting, lest there be a sentence from Him punishing....

Observe how not only concerning a cool place, but neither of that very fire to be desired he has been silent: "I will enter into Your House in holocausts" [Psalm 66:13]. What is a holocaust? A whole sacrifice burned up, but with fire divine. For a sacrifice is called a holocaust, when the whole is burned. One thing are the parts of sacrifices, another thing a holocaust: when the whole is burned and the whole consumed by fire divine, it is called a holocaust: when a part, a sacrifice. Every holocaust indeed is a sacrifice: but not every sacrifice a holocaust. Holocausts therefore he is promising, the Body of Christ is speaking, the Unity of Christ is speaking, "I will enter into Your House in holocausts." All that is mine let Your fire consume, let nothing of mine remain to me, let all be Yours. But this shall be in the Resurrection of just men, "when both this corruptible shall be clad in incorruption, and this mortal shall be clad in immortality: then shall come to pass that which has been written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'" [1 Corinthians 15:54] Victory is, as it were, fire divine: when it swallows up our death also, it is a holocaust. There remains not anything mortal in the flesh, there remains not anything culpable in the spirit: the whole of mortal life shall be consumed, in order that in life everlasting it may be consummated, that from death we may be preserved in life. These therefore will be the holocausts. And what shall there be "in the holocausts"?

"I will render to You my vows, which my lips have distinguished" [Psalm 66:14]. What is the distinction in vows? This is the distinction, that yourself thou censure, Him thou praise: perceive yourself to be a creature, Him the Creator: yourself darkness, Him the Enlightener, to whom you should say, "You shall light my lamp, O Lord my God, You shall enlighten my darkness." For whenever you shall have said, O soul, that from yourself you have light, you will not distinguish. If you will not distinguish, you will not render distinct vows. Render distinct vows, confess yourself changeable, Him unchangeable: confess yourself without Him to be nothing, but Himself without you to be perfect; yourself to need Him, but Him not to need you. Cry to Him, "I have said to the Lord, My God are You, for my good things You need not." Now though God takes you to Him for a holocaust, He grows not, He is not increased, He is not richer, He becomes not better furnished: whatsoever He makes of you for your sake, is the better for you, not for Him that makes. If you distinguish these things, you render the vows to your God which your lips have distinguished.

"And my mouth has spoken in my tribulation." How sweet ofttimes is tribulation, how necessary! In that case what has the mouth of the same spoken in his tribulation? "Holocausts marrowed I will offer to You" [Psalm 66:15]. What is "marrowed"? Within may I keep Your love, it shall not be on the surface, in my marrow it shall be that I love You. For there is nothing more inward than our marrow: the bones are more inward than the flesh, the marrow is more inward than those same bones. Whosoever therefore on the surface loves God, desires rather to please men, but having some other affection within, he offers not holocausts of marrow: but into whosesoever marrow He looks, him He receives whole. "With incense and rams." The rams are the rulers of the Church: the whole Body of Christ is speaking: this is the thing which he offers to God. Incense is what? Prayer. "With incense and rams." For especially the rams do pray for the flocks. "I will offer to You oxen with he-goats." Oxen we find treading out grain, and the same are offered to God. The Apostle has said, that of the preachers of the Gospel must be understood that which has been written, "Of the ox treading out grain the mouth you shall not muzzle. Does God care for oxen?" Therefore great are those rams, great the oxen. What of the rest, that perchance are conscious of certain sins, that perchance in the very road have slipped, and, having been wounded, by penitence are being healed? Shall they too continue, and to the holocausts shall they not belong? Let them not fear, he has added he-goats also. "I will offer to You oxen with he-goats." By the very yoking are saved the he-goats; of themselves they have no strength, being yoked to bulls they are accepted. For they have made friends of the mammon of iniquity, that the same may receive them into everlasting tabernacles. [Luke 16:9] Therefore those he-goats shall not be on the left, because they have made to themselves friends of the mammon of iniquity. But what he-goats shall be on the left? They to whom shall be said, "I hungred, and you gave me not to eat:" [Matthew 25:42] not they that have redeemed their sins by almsdeeds.

"How great things He has done to my soul." "To Him with my mouth I have cried" [Psalm 66:17]. And this very thing, he says, has been done to his soul; that to Him with his mouth he should cry, has been done, he says, to his soul. Behold, brethren, Gentiles we were, even if not in ourselves, in our parents. And what says the Apostle? "You know, when Gentiles you were, to idols without speech how ye went up, being led." [1 Corinthians 12:2] Let the Church now say, "how great things He has done to my soul." "To Him with my mouth I have cried." I a man to a stone was crying, to a deaf stock I was crying, to idols deaf and dumb I was speaking: now the image of God has been turned to the Creator thereof. I that was "saying to a stock, My father you are; and to a stone, You have begotten me:" [Jeremiah 2:27] now say, "Our Father, which art in Heaven." [Matthew 6:9] ..."To Him with my mouth I have cried, and I have exalted Him under my tongue." See how in secret He would be uncorrupt that offers marrowed holocausts. This do ye, brethren, this imitate, so that you may say, "Come ye, see how great things He has done to my soul." For all those things of which he tells, by His Grace are done in our soul. See the other things of which he speaks.

"If I have beheld iniquity in my heart, may not the Lord hearken" [Psalm 66:18]. Consider now, brethren, how easily, how daily men blushing for fear of men do censure iniquities; He has done ill, He has done basely, a villain the fellow is: this perchance for man's sake he says. See whether you behold no iniquity in your heart, whether perchance that which you censure in another, you are meditating to do, and therefore against him dost exclaim, not because he has done it, but because he has been found out. Return to yourself, within be to yourself a judge. Behold in your hid chamber, in the very inmost recess of the heart, where thou and He that sees are alone, there let iniquity be displeasing to you, in order that you may be pleasing to God. Do not regard it, that is, do not love it, but rather despise it, that is, contemn it, and turn away from it. Whatever pleasing thing it has promised to allure you to sin; whatever grievous thing it has threatened, to drive you on to evil doing; all is nought, all passes away: it is worthy to be despised, in order that it may be trampled upon; not to be eyed lest it be accepted.. ..

"Blessed be my God, that has not thrust away my supplication and His mercy from me" [Psalm 66:20]. Gather the sense from that place, where he says, "Come ye, hear, and I will tell you, all you that fear God, how great things He has done to my soul:" he has both said the words which you have heard, and at the end thus he has concluded: "Blessed be my God, that has not thrust away my supplication and His mercy from me." For thus there arrives at the Resurrection he that speaks, where already we also are by hope: yea both it is we ourselves, and this voice is ours. So long therefore as here we are, this let us ask of God, that He thrust not from us our supplication, and His mercy, that is, that we pray continually, and He continually pity. For many become feeble in praying, and in the newness of their own conversion pray fervently, afterwards feebly, afterwards coldly, afterwards negligently: as if they have become secure. The foe watches: you sleep. The Lord Himself has given commandment in the Gospel, how "it behooves men always to pray and not to faint." And he gives a comparison from that unjust judge, who neither feared God, nor regarded man, whom that widow daily importuned to hear her; and he yielded for weariness, that was not influenced by pity: and the naughty judge says to himself, "Though neither God I fear, nor men I regard, even because of the weariness which this widow daily puts upon me, I will hear her cause, and will avenge her." And the Lord says, "If a naughty judge has done this, shall not your Father avenge His chosen, that to Him do cry day and night? Yea, I say unto you, He shall make judgment of them speedily." Therefore let us not faint in prayer. Though He puts off what He is going to grant, He puts it not away: being secure of His promise, let us not faint in praying, and this is by His goodness. Therefore he has said, "Blessed is my God, that has not thrust away my supplication and His mercy from me." When you have seen your supplication "not thrust away from you," be secure, that His mercy has not been thrust away from you.

Your Love remembers, that in two Psalms, which have been already treated of, we have stirred up our soul to bless the Lord, and with godly chant have said, "Bless thou, O my soul, the Lord." If therefore we have stirred up our soul in those Psalms to bless the Lord, in this Psalm is well said, "May God have pity on us, and bless us" [Psalm 67:1]. Let our soul bless the Lord, and let God bless us. When God blesses us, we grow, and when we bless the Lord, we grow, to us both are profitable. He is not increased by our blessing, nor is He lessened by our cursing. He that curses the Lord, is himself lessened: he that blesses the Lord, is himself increased. First, there is in us the blessing of the Lord, and the consequence is that we also bless the Lord. That is the rain, this the fruit. Therefore there is rendered as it were fruit to God the Husbandman, raining upon and tilling us. Let us chant these words with no barren devotion, with no empty voice, but with true heart. For most evidently God the Father has been called a Husbandman. [John 15:1] The Apostle says, "God's husbandry you are, God's building you are." [1 Corinthians 3:9] In things visible of this world, the vine is not a building, and a building is not a vineyard: but we are the vineyard of the Lord, because He tills us for fruit; the building of God we are, since He who tills us, dwells in us. And what says the same Apostle? "I have planted, Apollos has watered, but the increase God has given. Therefore neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but He that gives the increase, even God." [1 Corinthians 3:6-7] He it is therefore that gives the increase. Are those perchance the husbandmen? For a husbandman he is called that plants, that waters: but the Apostle has said, "I have planted, Apollos has watered." Do we enquire whence himself has done this? The Apostle makes answer, "Yet not I, but the Grace of God with me." [1 Corinthians 15:10] Therefore wherever thou turn you, whether through Angels, you will find God your Husbandman; whether through Prophets, the Same is your Husbandman; whether through Apostles, the very Same acknowledge to be your Husbandman. What then of us? Perchance we are the labourers of that Husbandman, and this too with powers imparted by Himself, and by Grace granted by Himself....

"That we may know on earth Your way" [Psalm 67:2]. "On earth," here, in this life, "we may know Your way." What is, "Your way"? That which leads to You. May we acknowledge whither we are going, acknowledge where we are as we go; neither in darkness we can do. Afar You are from men sojourning, a way to us You have presented, through which we must return to You. "Let us acknowledge on earth Your way." What is His way wherein we have desired, "That we may know on earth Your way"? We are going to enquire this ourselves, not of ourselves to learn it. We can learn of it from the Gospel: "I am the Way," [John 14:6] the Lord says: Christ has said, "I am the Way." But do you fear lest you stray? He has added, "And the Truth." Who strays in the Truth? He strays that has departed from the Truth. The Truth is Christ, the Way is Christ: walk therein. Do you fear lest you die before thou attain unto Him? "I am the Life: I am," He says, "the Way and the Truth and the Life." As if He were saying, "What do you fear? Through Me you walk, to Me you walk, in Me you rest." What therefore means, "We may know on earth Your Way," but "we may know on earth Your Christ"? But let the Psalm itself reply: lest ye think that out of other Scriptures there must be adduced testimony, which perchance is here wanting: by repetition he has shown what signified, "That we may know on earth Your Way:" and as if you were inquiring, "In what earth, what way?" "In all nations Your Salvation." In what earth, you are inquiring? Hear: "In all nations." What way are you seeking? Hear: "Your Salvation." Is not perchance Christ his Salvation? And what is that which the old Symeon has said, that old man, I say, in the Gospel, preserved full of years even unto the infancy of the Word? [Luke 2:30] For that old man took in his hands the Infant Word of God. Would He that in the womb deigned to be, disdain to be in the hands of an old man? The Same was in the womb of the virgin, as was in the hands of the old man, a weak infant both within the bowels, and in the old man's hand, to give us strength, by whom were made all things; and if all things, even His very mother. He came humble, He came weak, but clothed with a weakness to be changed into strength, because "though He was crucified of weakness, yet He lives of the virtue of God," [2 Corinthians 13:4] the Apostle says. He was then in the hands of an old man. And what says that old man? Rejoicing that now he must be loosed from this world, seeing how in his own hand was held He by whom and in whom his Salvation was upheld; he says what? "Now You let go," he says, "O Lord, Your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen Your Salvation." [Luke 2:29-30] Therefore, "May God bless us, and have pity on us; may He lighten His countenance upon us, that we may know on earth Your Way!" In what earth? "In all nations." What Way? "Your Salvation."