Augustine of Hippo

"I will pour out before Him my prayer" [Psalm 142:2]. What is, "before Him"? In His sight. What is, in His sight? Where He sees. But where does He not see? For so do we say, 'where He sees,' as though somewhere He sees not. But in this assemblage of bodily substances men too see, animals too see: He sees where man sees not. For your thoughts no man sees, but God sees. There then pour out your prayer, where He alone sees, who rewards. For the Lord Jesus Christ bade you pray in secret: but if you know what "your closet" is, and cleansest it, there you pray to God. "But you," says He, "when you pray, enter into your closet, and shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret, and He who sees in secret shall reward you." [Matthew 6:6] If men are to reward you, pour out your prayer before men: if God is to reward you, pour out your prayer before Him; and close the door, lest the tempter enter. Therefore the Apostle, because it is in our power to shut the door, the door of our hearts, not of our walls, for in it is our "closet,"— because it is in our power to shut this door, says, "neither give place to the devil." [Ephesians 4:27] But what is to "shut the door"? This door has as it were two leaves, desire and fear. Either thou desires something earthly, and he enters by this; or you fear something earthly, and he enters by that. Close then the door of fear and desire against the devil, open it to Christ. How do you open these folding doors to Christ? By desiring the kingdom of heaven, by fearing the fire of hell. By desire of this world the devil enters, by desire of eternal life Christ enters; by fear of temporal punishment the devil enters, by fear of everlasting fire Christ enters....

"My tribulation I will proclaim in His sight." There is a repetition, both in the two preceding sentences, and in these which follow: the sentiments are two, but both twice expressed....For, "in His sight," is the same as "before Him;" "I will proclaim my tribulation," is the same as, "I will pour out my prayer." When doest thou this? Being set in the midst of persecution, he says, "while my spirit failed from me" [Psalm 142:3]. Wherefore has your spirit failed, O martyr, set in tribulation? That I may not claim my strength as my own, that I may know that Another works in me the goodness I have. And men perhaps have heard that my spirit has failed within me, and have despaired of me, and have said, "we have taken him captive, we have overpowered him;" "and You have known my paths." They thought me cast down, You saw me standing upright. They who persecuted me and had seized me, thought my feet entangled, "but their feet were entangled, and they fell, but we are risen, and stand upright." For my eyes are ever unto the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. I have persevered in walking, for "he that shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved." [Matthew 10:22] They thought me overpowered, but I continued walking. Where did I walk? In paths which they saw not, who thought me prisoner, in the paths of Your righteousness, in the paths of Your commandments....For every path is a way, but not every way is a path. Why then are those ways called paths, save because they are narrow? Broad is the way of the wicked, narrow the way of the righteous. That which is "the way" is also "the ways," just as "the Church" is also "the Churches," the "heaven" also the "heavens:" they are spoken of in the plural, they are spoken of also in the singular. On account of the unity of the Church it is one Church; "My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother." [Song of Songs 6:8] On account of the congregation of brethren in various places there are many Churches. "The Churches of Judæa which are in Christ rejoiced," says Paul, [Galatians 1:22-23] "and they glorified God in me." Thus he spoke of Churches; and of one Church he thus speaks, "Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God."...

"I considered upon the right hand, and saw" [Psalm 142:4]. He considered upon the right hand, and saw: whoso considers upon the left hand, is blinded. What is to consider on the right hand? Where they will be to whom shall be said, "Come, you blessed of My Father," etc., [Matthew 25:34, 41] ...He goes on to say, "and there was none that knew me." For when you fear all things, who knows what you regard, whether you direct your eyes to the right hand or to the left? If, in bearing, you seek the praise of men, you have regarded the left: if, in bearing, you seek the promises of God, you have regarded the right hand. Have you regarded the right hand, you shall see: have you regarded the left hand, you shall be blinded. But even when you see on the right hand, there will be none to know you. For who comforts you save the Lord? "Flight has perished from me." He speaks as though he were hemmed in. Let the persecutors rejoice over him; he is overpowered, he is taken, he is hemmed in, he is conquered. "Flight has perished" from him who flees not. But he who flees not, suffers whatever he can for Christ: that is, he flees not in soul. For in body it is lawful to flee; it is allowed, it is permitted; for the Lord says, "When they persecute you in one city, flee to another." [Matthew 10:23] He then who flees not in soul, from him "flight has perished." But it makes a difference why he flees not; whether because he is hemmed in, because he is caught, or because he is brave. For both from him that is caught flight has perished, and from him that is brave flight has perished. What flight then is to be avoided? What flight shall we allow to perish from us? That whereof the Lord speaks in the Gospel, "The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, when he sees the wolf coming, flees." When he sees the ravager, why flees he? "Because he cares not for the sheep.". ..In two ways a man's life is sought, either by his persecutors or by his lovers. So then "there is none to seek my life," he said of them; verily they persecute my life, and they seek not my life. But if they seek my life, they will find it clinging to You: and if they know to seek it, they know also to imitate it.

"Give heed unto my prayer, for much have I been humbled" [Psalm 142:6]. Humbled by persecutors, humbled in confession. He humbles himself out of the sight of man: he is humbled by enemies in their sight. Therefore is he lifted up by Him both visibly and invisibly. Invisibly are the martyrs already lifted up; visibly shall they be lifted up, "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption" in the resurrection of the dead; when this very part of him, against which alone her persecutors could rage, shall be renewed. "Fear not them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." [Matthew 10:28] And what perishes? What kill they?...Why then are you anxious about the rest of your members, when you shall not lose even a hair? "Deliver me from them that persecute me." From whom do you think that he prays to be delivered? From men who persecuted him? Is it so? Are merely men our enemies? We have other enemies, invisible, who persecute us in another way. Man persecutes, that he may slay the body; another persecutes, that he ensnare the soul. [Ephesians 2:2] ...There are then other enemies of ours too, from whom we ought to pray God to deliver us, lest they lead us astray, either by crushing us with troubles of this world, or alluring us by its enticements. Who are these enemies? Let us see whether they are plainly described by any servant of the Lord, by any soldier, now perfected, who has engaged with them. Hear the Apostle saying, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood:" [Ephesians 6:12] as though he would say, Turn not your hatred against men; think not them your enemies; think not that it is by their hostility you are being bruised; these men whom you fear are flesh and blood...."For they are strengthened over me." Who said, "they are strengthened over me"? The Body of Christ cries out; it is the voice of the Church; the members of Christ cry out, "Much has the number of sinners increased." "Because iniquity has abounded, the love of many waxes cold." [Matthew 24:12]

"Bring forth my soul out of prison, that it may confess to Your Name" [Psalm 142:7]. This "prison" has been variously understood by former writers. And perhaps it is the prison which is called in the title, "the cave." For the title of this Psalm runs thus: "Of understanding to David himself, a prayer when he was in the cave." That which is the cave, the same is also the prison. Two things have we set before us to understand, but when we have understood one, both will be understood. A man's deserts make a prison. For in one dwelling place one man finds a house, another a prison....To some then it has seemed that the "cave" and "prison" are this world; and this the Church prays, that it may be brought out of prison, that is, from this world, from under the sun, where all is vanity. Beyond this world then God promises that we shall be in some sort of rest; therefore perhaps do we cry concerning this place, "Bring my soul out of prison." Our soul by faith and hope is in Christ; "Your life is hid with Christ in God." But our body is in this prison, in this world....But some have said, that this prison and cave is this body, so that this is the meaning of, "Bring my soul out of prison." But this interpretation too is somewhat at fault. For what great thing is it to say, "Bring my soul out of prison," bring my soul out of the body? Do not the souls of robbers and wicked men go forth from the body, and go into worse punishment than here they have endured? What great request then is this, "Bring my soul out of prison," when, sooner or later, it must needs come forth? Perhaps the righteous says, "Let me die now; bring forth my soul from this prison of the body." If he be too hasty, he has not love. He ought indeed to long for and desire, as the Apostle says, "having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is far better." But where is love? Therefore it follows, "but to abide in the flesh is needful for you." Let God then lead us forth from the body, when He will. Our body too might be said to be a prison, not because that is a prison which God has made, but because it is under punishment and liable to death. For there are two things to be considered in our body, God's workmanship, and the punishment it has deserved....Perhaps then he meant by, "Bring my soul out of prison," bring my soul out of corruption. If thus we understand it, it is no blasphemy, the meaning is consistent. Lastly, brethren, as I think, he meant this; "Bring my soul out of prison," bring it out of straitness. For to one who rejoices, even a prison is wide; to one in sorrow, a field is strait. Therefore prays he to be brought out of straitness. For though in hope he have enlargement, yet in reality at present he is straitened....It is not the body that weighs down the soul, but the corruptible body. It is not the body then that makes the prison, but the corruption. "Bring my soul out of prison, that it may give thanks to Your Name." Now the words which follow seem to come from the Head, our Lord Jesus Christ. And they are the same as yesterday's last words. Yesterday's last words, if you remember, were, "I am alone, until I pass over." And here what are the last words? "The righteous shall sustain me, until thou recompense me."

"And enter not into judgment with Your servant" [Psalm 143:2]. Who are willing to enter into judgment with Him, save they who, "being ignorant of the righteousness of God, go about to establish their own?" "Wherefore have we fasted, and You have not seen; wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and You take no knowledge?" [Isaiah 58:3] As though they would say, "We have done what You have commanded, why do You not render to us what You have promised?" God answers you: I will give to you to receive what I have promised: I have given you that you should do that whereby you may receive. Finally, to such proud ones the Prophet speaks; "Wherefore will you plead with Me? You have all transgressed against Me, says the Lord." [Jeremiah 2:29] Why will you enter into judgment with Me, and recount your own righteousnesses?..."For before You every one living shall not be justified." "Every one living;" living, that is, here, living in the flesh, living in expectation of death; born a man; deriving his life of man; sprung from Adam, a living Adam; every one thus living may perhaps be justified before himself, but not before You. How before himself? By pleasing himself, displeasing You. Enter not then into judgment with me, O Lord my God. How straight soever I seem to myself, You bring forth a standard from Your store-house, Thou fittest me to it, and I am found crooked. Well is it said, "with Your servant." It is unworthy of You to enter into judgment with Your servant, or even with Your friend. [Matthew 5:40] ...What of the Apostles themselves?...That ye may perceive it at once, they learned to pray what we pray: to them was given the pattern of prayer by the heavenly Counsellor. "After this manner," says He, "pray ye." [Matthew 6:9] And having set down certain things first, He laid down this too to be said by the leaders of the sheep, the chief members of the Shepherd and Gatherer of the one flock; even they learned to say, "Forgive us our debts." [Matthew 6:12] They said not, "Thanks be to You, who hast forgiven us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors," but, "Forgive, as we forgive." But surely the faithful prayed then, surely the Apostles prayed then, for this Lord's Prayer was given rather to the faithful. If those debts only were meant which are forgiven by Baptism, it would befit catechumens rather to say, "Forgive us our debts." Let the Apostles then say, yea let them say, "Forgive us our debts." And when it is said to them, "Wherefore say ye this? What are your debts?" let them answer, "for in Your sight every one living shall not be justified."

Whether in this world there has ever been or could be anyone living so just a life as to be entirely without sin can be a subject of some discussion among true and pious Christians. Nevertheless, if anyone doubts that such a person surely can exist after this life, he lacks good sense. But, for my part, I do not wish to argue the point even as it concerns this life. For although it appears to me that one cannot understand otherwise the passage of Scripture that reads, “In your sight no one living shall be justified,” and other similar passages, still I would that it were possible to show either that such testimonies could be understood more favorably or that a complete and perfect justice, to which it would be impossible to add anything, had in the past been realized in someone while he lived in this body, is presently being realized and will be realized in the future. But even so, there are far more who, while not doubting it is necessary for them up to the last day of their life to say, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,” still confess that in Christ and his promises they have a true, certain and firm hope. At all events, there is no other way than the helping grace of the Savior, Christ crucified, and the gift of his Spirit, by which any persons, whoever they be, can arrive at absolute perfection or by which anyone can attain the slightest progress to true and holy justice—whoever denies this, I question whether he can be counted in the number of true Christians of any sort.

And now, to summarize briefly and comprehensively the idea I have of the virtue that belongs to right living: that virtue is charity by means of which we love what we should love. This is greater in some, less in others, lacking in still others; its fullest measure, beyond which there is no increase, is found in no one as long as he lives the life of a human being. As long as it is subject to increase, the defect by which it is less than it ought to be is accounted as vice; by reason of this vice “there is no just person on earth who will do good and sin not”; because of this vice, “no one living shall be justified in the sight of God”; because of this vice, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us"; because of it, also, however much progress we have made, we still have to say, “Forgive us our debts,” even though in baptism all our words, deeds, thoughts have been forgiven. Therefore, he who sees rightly sees where and when and whence that perfection is to be hoped for, to which no addition is possible. But, if there were no commandments, there would certainly be no norm by which a person might look into himself and see what he should avoid, what he should strive after, what he should rejoice in, what he should pray for. Commandments, then, are highly useful, if only because free will is thereby given the opportunity of doing greater honor to the grace of God.

"For the enemy has persecuted my soul: he has humbled my life on the earth" [Psalm 143:3]. Here we speak, here our Head speaks for us. Manifestly both the devil persecuted the Soul of Christ and Judas the Soul of his Master: and now too the same devil remains to persecute the Body of Christ, and one Judas succeeds another. There lacks not then of whom the Body too may say, "For the enemy has persecuted my soul." For what does each one who persecutes us endeavour save to make us abandon our heavenly hope, and savour of the earth, yield to our persecutor, and love earthly things? "They have laid me in dark places, as the dead of the world." This ye hear more readily from the Head; this ye perceive more readily in the Head. For He died indeed for us, yet was He not one of the "dead of the world." For who are the "dead of the world"? And how was not He one of the "dead of the world"? "The dead of the world" are those who have died of their own desert, receiving the reward of iniquity, deriving death from the sin transmissed to them; according as it is said, "For I was conceived in iniquity.". ..In dying, says He, I do the will of My Father, but I am not deserving of death. Nought have I done wherefore I should die, yet is it My own doing that I die, that by the death of an innocent One, they may be freed who had wherefore they should die. "They set me in places," as though in Hades, as though in the tomb, as though in His very Passion, "as the dead of the world."

But we too were there. He goes to the members. "I have called to mind the days of old" [Psalm 143:5]. Did He "call to mind the days of old," by whom every day was made? No, but the body speaks, each one who has been justified by His grace, who dwells in Him in love and devout humility, speaks and says, "I have meditated upon all Your works:" plainly because You have made all things good, and nothing would have stood fast, which was not established by You. Your creation is made a spectacle unto me: I have sought in the work the Artificer, in all that is made the Maker. Wherefore this, to what purpose this, save that he might understand, that whatever there was of good in himself was made by Him....Look back then upon the Framer of your life, the Author of your substance, of your righteousness, and of your salvation: "meditate upon the works of His hands," for the righteousness too which is in you, you will find to pertain to His hand. Hear the Apostle teaching you this, "not of works," he says, "lest any should boast." Have we no good works? Plainly we have: but see what follows; "for we are His workmanship," [Ephesians 2:9-10] says he. "We are His workmanship:" perhaps in thus speaking of workmanship, he meant to mention the nature whereby we are men? Evidently not: he was speaking of works. But let us not make conjectures; let the text go on, "for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Think not then that you yourself doest anything, save in so far as you are evil...."Work out your own salvation," says the Apostle, "with fear and trembling." [Philippians 2:12-13] If we do work out our own salvation, wherefore with fear, wherefore with trembling, when what we work is in our own power? Hear wherefore with fear and trembling: "for it is God that works in you both to will and to do, of His good pleasure." Therefore "with fear and trembling," that it may delight our Maker to work in the lowly valley....

"Make me to hear in the morning Your mercy, for in You have I hoped" [Psalm 143:8]. Behold, I am in the night, yet "in You have I hoped," until the iniquity of the night pass away. "For we have," as Peter says, "a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts." "Morning" then he calls the time after the end of the world, when we shall see what in this world we believe. But what here, until the morning come? For it is not enough to hope for the morning; we must do somewhat. Why do somewhat? God is to be sought with the hands in the night. What is, "with the hands"? By good works. Since then we must thus hope for the morning, and bear this night, and persevere in this patience until the day dawn, what meanwhile must we do here? Lest perchance thou think that you will do anything of yourself, whereby you may earn to be brought to the morning. "Make known to me, O Lord, the way wherein I must walk." Therefore did He kindle the lamp of prophecy, therefore did He send the Lord in the vessel, as it were, of the flesh, who should even say, "My strength is dried up like a potsherd." Walk by prophecy, walk by the lamp of future things predicted, walk by the word of God....