Augustine of Hippo

"Let these things be written for those that come after" [Psalm 102:18]. When these words were written, they profited not so much those among whom they were written for they were written to prophesy the New Testament, among men who lived according to the Old Testament. But God had both given that Old Testament, and had settled in that land of promise His own people. But since "Your remembrance is from generation to generation," belongs not to the ungodly, but to the righteous; "in our generation" belongs to the Old Testament; while "in the other generation" belongs to the New Testament; and since the New Testament announces this that was prophesied, "Let these things be written for those that come after: and the people which shall be created, shall praise the Lord." Not the people which is created, but "the people which shall be created." What is clearer, my brethren? Here is prophesied that creation of which the Apostle says: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new." [2 Corinthians 5:17] "For he has looked down from His lofty sanctuary." He has looked down from on high, that He might come unto the humble: from on high He has become humble, that He might exalt the humble....

"Out of the heaven did the Lord look down upon the earth" [Psalm 102:19]: "that He might hear the mournings of such as are in fetters, and deliver the children of such as are put to death" [Psalm 102:20]. We have found it said in another Psalm, "O let the sorrowful sighs of the fettered come before You;" and in a passage where the voice of the martyrs was meant. Whence are the martyrs in fetters?...But God had bound them with these fetters, hard indeed and painful for a season, but endurable on account of His promises, unto whom it is said, "On account of the words of Your lips, I have kept hard ways." We must indeed groan in these fetters in order to gain the mercy of God. These fetters must not be shunned, in order to gain a destructive freedom and the temporal and brief pleasure of this life, to be followed by perpetual bitterness. Accordingly Scripture, [Ecclesiastes 6:24-32] that we may not refuse the fetters of wisdom, thus addresses us: "...Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for you, and her chains a robe of glory." Let the fettered therefore cry out, as long as they are in the chains of the discipline of God, in which the martyrs have been tried: the fetters shall be loosed, and they shall fly away, and these very fetters shall afterwards be turned into an ornament. This has happened with the martyrs. For what have the persecutors effected by killing them, except that their fetters were thereby loosed, and turned into crowns?...The remission of sins, is the loosing. For what would it have profited Lazarus, that he came forth from the tomb, unless it were said to him, "loose him, and let him go"? [John 11:44] Himself indeed with His voice aroused him from the tomb, Himself restored his life by crying unto him, Himself overcame the mass of earth that was heaped upon the tomb, and he came forth bound hand and foot: not therefore with his own feet, but by the power of Him who drew him forth. This takes place in the heart of the penitent: when you hear a man is sorry for his sins, he has already come again to life; when you hear him by confessing lay bare his conscience, he is already drawn forth from the tomb, but he is not as yet loosed. When is he loosed, and by whom is he loosed? "Whatsoever you shall loose on earth," He says, "shall be loosed in Heaven." [Matthew 15:19] Forgiveness of sins may justly be granted by the Church: but the dead man himself cannot be aroused except by the Lord crying within him; for God does this within him. We speak to your ears: how do we know what may be going on in your hearts? But what is going on within, is not our doing, but His.

"She answered Him in the way of His strength" [Psalm 102:23]....The preceding words show, that either "His praise," or "Jerusalem," answered: for it was said, "And His praise in Jerusalem; in the nations gathering together in one, and the kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. Respondit ei." We cannot say, "the kingdoms answered," for he would have said responderunt. Respondit ei. We cannot say, "the nations answered," for he would have said, responderunt (in the plural). Since then it is Respondit ei, in the singular, we look for the singular number above, and find that the words, "His praise," and "Jerusalem," are the only words in which we find it. But since it is doubtful, whether it be "His praise," or "Jerusalem," let us expound it each way. How did "His praise" answer Him? When they who are called by Him thank Him. For He calls, we answer; not by our voice, but by our faith; not by our tongue, but by our life....From His elect and holy men, Jerusalem also answers Him. For Jerusalem also was called: and the first Jerusalem refused to hear, and it was said unto her, "Behold, your house shall be left unto the desolate." [Matthew 23:38] ...But that Jerusalem, of whom it was written, "Sing, O barren, you that did not bear," "She has answered Him." What means, "She has answered Him"? She despises Him not when He called. He sent rain, She gave fruit.

Let not therefore heretics flatter themselves against me, because I said, "the shortness of my days," as if they would not last down to the end of the world. For what has he added? "O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days" [Psalm 102:24]. Deal Thou not with me according as heretics speak. Lead me on unto the end of the world, not only to the middle of my days; and finish my short days, that You may afterwards grant unto me eternal days. Wherefore then have you asked concerning the shortness of your days? Wherefore? Do you wish to hear? "Your years are in the generation of generations." This is why I asked concerning those short days, because although my days should endure unto the end of the world, yet they are short in comparison of Your days. For "Your years are in the generation of generations." Wherefore does he not say, Your years are unto worlds of worlds; for thus rather is eternity usually signified in the holy Scriptures; but he says, "Your years are in the generation of generations"? But what are your years? What, but those which do not come, and then pass away? What, but they which come not, so as to cease again? For every day in this season so comes as to cease again; every hour, every month, every year; nothing of these is stationary; before it has come, it is to be; after it has come, it will not be. Those everlasting years of yours, therefore, those years that are not changed, "are in the generation of generations." There is a "generation of generations;" in that shall your years be. There is one such, and if we acknowledge it aright, we shall be in it, and the years of God shall be in us. How shall they be in us? Just as God Himself shall be in us: whence it is said, "That God may be all in all." [1 Corinthians 15:28] For the years of God, and God Himself, are not different: but the years of God are the eternity of God: eternity is the very substance of God, which has nothing changeable; there nothing is past, as if it were no longer: nothing is future, as if it existed not as yet. There is nothing there but, Is: there is not there, Was, and Will be; because what was, is now no longer: and what will be, is not as yet: but whatever is there, simply Is....Behold this great I Am! What is man's being to this? To this great I Am, what is man, whatever he be? Who can understand that To Be? Who can share it? Who can pant, aspire, presume that he may be there? Despair not, human frailty! "I am," He says, "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." You have heard what I am in Myself: now hear what I am on your account. This eternity then has called us, and the Word burst forth from eternity. It is now eternity, it is now the Word, and no longer time.

These things that we hold according to our faith, and which reason also demonstrates, can be supported by testimonies from the divine Scriptures, so that the less intelligent who cannot follow the argument may believe on divine authority and so may deserve to reach understanding. Those who understand, and are less instructed in ecclesiastical sacred books, are not to think that we have produced them out of our heads and that they are not in the Scriptures. That God is immutable is written thus in the Psalms: “You shall change them, and they shall be changed; but you are the same.” And in the book of Wisdom it is written of Wisdom: “Abiding in herself she renews all things.” The apostle Paul says, “To the invisible, incorruptible, only wise God.” The apostle James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Because the Son was not made, but all things were made through him, it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.”

"You, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth: and the Heavens are the work of Your hands" [Psalm 102:25]....God laid the foundation of the earth, we know: the heavens are the works of His hands. For do not imagine that God does one thing with His hand, another by His word. What He does by His word, He does by His hand: for He has not distinct bodily members, who said, "I Am That I Am." And perhaps His Word is His hand, assuredly His hand is His power. For inasmuch as it is said, "Let there be a firmament," [Genesis 1:6] and there was a firmament; He is understood to have created it by His Word; but when He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness;" [Genesis 1:26] He seems to have created him by His hand. Hear therefore: "The heavens are the work of Your hands." Lo, what He created by His word, He created also by His hands; because He created them through His excellence, through His power. Observe rather what He created, and seek not to know in what manner He created them. It is much to you to understand how He created them, since He created yourself so, that you may first be a servant obeying, and afterwards perhaps a friend understanding. [John 15:15]

Perhaps by the heavens we here may understand, without being far-fetched, the righteous themselves, the saints of God, abiding in whom God has thundered in His commandments, lightened in His miracles, watered the earth with the wisdom of truth, for "The heavens have declared the glory of God." But shall they perish? Shall they in any sense perish? In what sense? As a garment. What is, as a garment? As to the body. For the body is the garment of the soul; since our Lord called it a garment, when He said, "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" [Matthew 6:25] How then does the garment perish? "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." [2 Corinthians 4:16] They then shall perish: but as to the body: "But You shall endure."...Such heavens therefore shall perish; not, however, for ever; they shall perish, that they may be changed. Does not the Psalm say this? Read the following: "They shall all wax old as does a garment; and as a vesture shall Thou change them, and they shall be changed." You hear of the garment, of the vesture, and do you understand anything but the body? We may therefore hope for the change of our bodies also, but from Him who was before us, and abides after us...."But You are the same, and Your years shall not fail" [Psalm 102:27]. But what are we to those years with these beggarly years? And what are they? Yet we ought not to despair. He had already said in His great and exceeding Wisdom, "I Am That I Am;" and yet He says to console us, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob:" [Exodus 3:6] and we are Abraham's seed: [Galatians 3:29] even we, although abject, although dust and ashes, trust in Him. We are servants: but for our sakes our Lord took the garb of a servant: [Philippians 2:7] for us who are mortal the Immortal One deigned to die, for our sakes He showed His example of resurrection. Let us therefore hope that we may reach these lasting years, in which days are not spent in a revolution of the Sun, but what is abides even as it is, because it alone truly Is.

"The children of Your servants shall dwell there: and their seed shall stand fast for ages" [Psalm 102:28]: for the age of ages, the age of eternity, the age that abides. But, "the children," he says, "of Your servants:" is it to be feared lest we be the servants of God, and our children, and not ourselves, dwell there? Or if we are the children of the servants, inasmuch as we are the Apostles' children, what are we to say? Can those children rising after have so unhappy a presumption, as to boast in their late succession, and so to venture to say, We shall be there; the Apostles will not be there? May this be far from their piety as children, from their faith as little ones, from their understanding when of age! The Apostles also will be there: rams go before, lambs follow. Wherefore then, "the children of Your servants;" and not in brief, "Your servants"? Both they are Your servants, and their children are Your servants; and the children of these, their grandsons, what are they but Your servants? You would include them all briefly, if You should say, Your servants shall dwell therein...."The children of Your servants," are the works of Your servants; no one shall dwell there, but through his own works. What therefore means, Their children shall dwell? Let no man boast that he shall dwell there, if he calls himself God's servant, and has not works; for none but children shall dwell there. What means therefore, "The children of Your servants shall dwell there"? Your servants shall dwell there by their own works, Your servants shall dwell there through their own children. Be not therefore barren, if you dost wish to dwell there; send before the children whom you may follow, by sending them before you, not by burying them. Let your children lead you to the land of promise, the land of the living, not of the dying: while you are living here in this pilgrimage, let them go before you, let them receive you....

..."Bless the Lord, O my soul! And all that is within me, His holy Name" [Psalm 103:1]. I suppose that he speaks not of what is within the body; I do not suppose him to mean this, that our lungs and liver, and so forth, are to burst forth into the voice of blessing of the Lord. There are lungs in our breast indeed, like a kind of bellows, which send forth successive breathings, which breathing forth of the air inhaled is pressed out into voice and sound, when the words are articulated; nor can any utterance sound forth from our mouth, but what the pressed lungs have given vent to; but this is not the meaning here; all this relates to the ears of men. God has ears: the heart also has a voice. A man speaks to the things within him, that they may bless God, and says unto them, "all that is within me bless His holy Name!" Do you ask the meaning of what is within you? Your soul itself. In saying then, "all that is within me, bless His holy Name," it only repeats the above, "Bless the Lord, O my soul:" for the word "Bless," is understood. Cry out with your voice, if there be a man to hear; hush your voice, when there is no man to hear you; there is never wanting one to hear all that is within you. Blessing therefore has already been uttered from our mouth, when we were chanting these very words. We sung as much as sufficed for the time, and were then silent: ought our hearts within us to be silent to the blessing of the Lord? Let the sound of our voices bless Him at intervals, alternately, let the voice of our hearts be perpetual. When you come to church to recite a hymn, your voice sounds forth the praises of God: you have sung as far as you could; you have left the church; let your soul sound the praises of God. You are engaged in your daily work: let your soul praise God. You are taking food; see what the Apostle says: "Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God." [1 Corinthians 10:31] I venture to say; when you sleep, let your soul praise the Lord. Let not thoughts of crime arouse you, let not the contrivances of thieving arouse you, let not arranged plans of corrupt dealing arouse you. Your innocence even when you are sleeping is the voice of your soul.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His rewards" [Psalm 103:2]. But the rewards of the Lord cannot be before your eyes unless your sins are before your eyes. Let not delight in past sin be before your eyes, but let the condemnation of sin be before your eyes: condemnation from you, forgiveness from God. For thus God rewards you, so that you may say, "How shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?" This it was that the martyrs considering (whose memory we are this day celebrating), and all the saints who have despised this life, and as you have heard in the Epistle of St. John, laid down their lives for the brethren, which is the perfection of love, [1 John 3:16] even as our Lord says: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends:" [John 15:13] this the holy martyrs, then, considering, despised their lives here, that they might find them there, following our Lord's words when He said, "He that loves his life, shall lose it; and he that loses his life for My sake, shall keep it unto life eternal.". .."Forget not," he says, "all His rewards:" not awards, but "rewards." For something else was due, and what was not due has been paid. Whence also these words: "What," he asks, "shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?" You have rewarded good with evil; He rewards evil with good. How have you, O man, rewarded your God with evil for good? You who has once been a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, [1 Timothy 1:13] hast rewarded blasphemies. For what good things? First, because you are: but a stone also is. Next, because you live, but a brute also lives. What reward will you give the Lord, for His having created you above all the cattle; and above all the fowls of the air, in His image and likeness? [Genesis 1:26-27] Seek not how to reward Him: give back unto Him His own image: He requires no more; He demands His own coin. [Matthew 22:21] ...

He is the Beginning, O God, in which you made heaven and earth. In this wonderful way you spoke and created them in your Word, in your Son, who is your strength, your wisdom and your truth.Who can understand this mystery or explain it to others? What is that light whose gentle beams now and again strike through to my heart, causing me to shudder in awe yet firing me with their warmth? I shudder to feel how different I am for it: yet in so far as I am like it, I am aglow with its fire. It is the light of Wisdom, Wisdom itself, which at times shines on me, parting my clouds. But when I weakly fall away from its light, those clouds envelop me again in the dense mantle of darkness that I bear for my punishment. For "my strength ebbs away for very misery," so that I cannot sustain my blessings. And so I shall remain until you, O Lord, who "have pardoned all my sins," also "heal all my mortal ills." For you will "rescue my life from deadly peril, crown me with the blessings of your mercy, content all my desire for good, restore my youth as the eagle's plumage is restored." "Our salvation is founded on the hope of something," and in endurance we await the fulfillment of your promises. Let those who are able listen to your fulfillment of your promises. Let those who are able listen to your voice speaking to their hearts. Trusting in your inspired words, I shall cry out, "What diversity, Lord, in your creatures! What wisdom has designed them all!" The Beginning is Wisdom, and Wisdom is the Beginning in which you made heaven and earth.

Hear ye all His rewards. "Who forgives all your sin: who heals all your infirmities" [Psalm 103:3]. Behold His rewards. What, save punishment, was due unto the sinner? What was due to the blasphemer, but the hell of burning fire? He gave not these rewards: that you may not shudder with dread: and without love fear Him....But you are a sinner. Turn again, and receive these His rewards: He "forgives all your sin."...Yet even after remission of sins the soul herself is shaken by certain passions; still is she amid the dangers of temptation, still is she pleased with certain suggestions; with some she is not pleased, and sometimes she consents unto some of those with which she is pleased: she is taken. This is infirmity: but He "heals all your infirmities." All your infirmities shall be healed: fear not. They are great, you will say: but the Physician is greater. No infirmity comes before the Almighty Physician as incurable: only suffer you yourself to be healed: repel not His hands; He knows how to deal with you. Be not only pleased when He cherishes you, but also bear with Him when He uses the knife: bear the pain of the remedy, reflecting on your future health.... You do not endure in uncertainty: He who promised you health, cannot be deceived. The physician is often deceived: and promises health in the human body. Why is he deceived? Because he is not healing his own creature. God made your body, God made your soul. He knows how to restore what He has made, He knows how to fashion again what He has already fashioned: do thou only be patient beneath the Physician's hands: for He hates one who rejects His hands. This does not happen with the hands of a human physician....

If you did not wish to be contentious, I think you would now see how correctly we understand what you are trying to explain differently. When the prophet said, "who forgives all your faults"—something that is done by the remission of all sins—he immediately added "who heals all your diseases." He wants us to understand the evils with which the saints will never finish their internal warfare until those evils are healed or, as far as possible in this life, progressively diminished. Not even when the virtue of chastity stands unshaken is there no sickness by which the flesh lusts against the spirit. When there is no sickness, the spirit does not lust against it, because it lusts in order at least by not consenting to obtain health, since it is unable to do so by not fighting. We are speaking of that whose resistance to us we perceive within us; if an alien nature, we must get rid of it; if our own, it must be healed. If we say it is an alien nature and must be gotten rid of, we agree with the Manichaeans. Let us, then, confess it is our own nature that must be healed, and thus we shall at the same time be clear of Manichaeans and Pelagians.