Augustine of Hippo

Further, Jeremiah says of Christ, “Behold the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch. A king shall reign and shall be wise. He shall execute justice and judgment in the earth. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently. This is the name that they shall call him: The Lord our just one.” On the calling of the Gentiles that he foresaw and we today see as realized, the prophet had this to say: “O Lord, my might and my strength, and my refuge in the day of tribulation; to you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say, ‘Surely our ancestors have possessed lies, a vanity that has not profited them.’ ”

Hermes Trismegistus lamented these vain, deceptive, pernicious, sacrilegious things because he foresaw that the time was coming when they would be abolished. He was as impudent in his grief as imprudent in his prophecy, since the Holy Spirit had made no revelation to him as to the holy prophets who exultantly proclaimed their inspired visions: “Shall a person make gods to himself, and they are not gods?” And again: “And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will destroy the names of idols out of the earth, and they shall be remembered no more.” It is relevant to recall that holy Isaiah uttered a particular prophecy concerning Egypt: “And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof” and the rest.

Although Hermes calls these idols gods, he nevertheless admits that they were made by people whose example we should not follow, and thus, willy-nilly, he proves that these idols should not be worshiped by people who are unlike the people who made them, that is, by wise, believing and religious people. Moreover, he implies that the fabricators brought on themselves the guilt of reckoning as gods things that are not gods. Very true is that prophecy: “Shall a person make gods to himself, and they are not gods?” This, then, is what Hermes means by fabricated gods. Such gods, made and adored by such people, are but evil spirits imprisoned by magic in idols and bound there by the chains of their own passions.

Out of that confession of faith that is briefly contained in the creed and that, pondered according to the flesh, is the milk of babes but spiritually considered and studied is the food of the strong, arises the good hope of believers, which holy charity accompanies. But of all those things that are to be believed by faith, only those pertain to hope that are contained in the Lord’s Prayer. For “cursed is everyone who puts hope in humankind,” as the divine Scriptures testify; and, consequently, one who puts hope in himself is also ensnared in the chain of this curse. Therefore, we ought to make petition only of the Lord God, whatever it is that we hope to do well or to obtain as a reward for good works.

This is the combat we are challenged to, this the struggle with the flesh, this the struggle with the devil, this the struggle with the world. But let us be wary of confidence, because the one who instituted this contest does not watch his own champions, nor does he encourage us to rely on our own strength. Anyone relying on his own strength, you see, is relying, being clearly human, on the strength of a person; and accursed is everyone who rests his hope in humankind.

Take care not to let trust in your own strength steal on you, for you are human, and “cursed is everyone who puts his hope in humankind.” But put your trust fully and with your whole heart in God, and he will be your strength. Trust him lovingly and gratefully and say to him humbly and faithfully, “Trust in the Lord with your whole heart; he will be your strength.”

Blessed are all who trust in God. If the blessed are those who trust in him, then the wretched are those who trust in themselves. Cursed, you see, is everyone who puts his hopes in humankind, so do not put them even in yourself, because you too are human. If you put your hopes in another person, that is the wrong kind of humility. But if you put your hopes in yourself, that is dangerous pride. What is the difference, anyway? Each is pernicious, neither is to be chosen. Humble in the wrong way, you cannot lift yourself up; dangerously proud, you are heading for a fall.

We have recognized ourselves, seen ourselves and taken a thorough look at ourselves. Let us groan and sigh in ourselves, pour out prayers, that we enter not into temptations. We must not rely on our own powers to overcome all these things. Blessed, after all, is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob, his hope in the Lord his God, not in himself, because he is a mere mortal. But cursed is everyone who places his hope in humankind.

“What is your own opinion? What people do you call happy?” He [the psalmist] would not say, “Happy is the people whose strength is in their own mind.” If he had said this, he would, it is true, distinguish that people from the former that made happiness consist in that visible and bodily good fortune, but he would not yet have passed beyond all the vanities and lying follies, for the same Scriptures teach elsewhere: “Cursed be everyone that places his hope in humankind.” Therefore, he ought not to place it in himself, because he himself is human. Thus, in order to pass beyond the boundaries of all vanities and lying follies and to place happiness where it truly exists, he says, “Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.”

The Stoics, when questioned about where they place the efficient cause of the happy life that is the thing in people that makes life happy, answer that it is not bodily pleasure but a virtuous mind. What says the apostle? Does he agree? If he agrees, let us agree, too. But he does not agree, because Scripture reproves those who trust in their own virtue. And so the Epicurean who places a person’s supreme good in the body is placing his hopes in himself. But after all, the Stoic who places a person’s supreme good in the mind has indeed placed it in a person’s better part. But even he has placed it in himself. Now the Stoic is a human just as much as the Epicurean. Cursed therefore is everyone who places his hope in humankind. So what now? Here we have three people set before our eyes: an Epicurean, a Stoic, a Christian. Let us question them one by one. “Tell us, Epicurean, what thing makes one blessed?” “Bodily pleasure,” he replies. “Tell us, Stoic.” “A virtuous mind.” “Tell us, Christian.” “The gift of God.”

But of these matters, all of which are true objects of faith, those only pertain to hope that are embraced in the Lord’s Prayer. For “cursed is the one that trusts in humankind” is the testimony of Holy Scripture. Consequently, this curse attaches also to the person who trusts in himself. Therefore, we ought to ask for nothing that we either hope to do well or hope to obtain as a reward for our good works except from God the Lord.

It is said, "It is by his own fault that anyone deserts the faith, when he yields and consents to the temptation that is the cause of his desertion of the faith." Who denies it? Because of this, perseverance in the faith is to be said to be a gift of God. For a person daily asks for this when he says, "Lead us not into temptation." If he is heard, it is this that he receives. Thus, as he daily asks for perseverance, he assuredly places the hope of his perseverance not in himself but in God. I, however, am loath to exaggerate the case with my words, but I rather leave it to them to consider and see what it is of which they have persuaded themselves—"that by the preaching of predestination, more despair than exhortation is impressed on the hearers." For this is to say that a person then despairs of his salvation when he has learned to place his hope not in himself but in God, although the prophet cries, "Cursed is one who has his hope in humankind."

People who despise being in need before God, lest they receive true perseverance from him, glory in their own false endurance and seek to “confound the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope.” Nor do they regard, seeing they are human and attribute so much to their own, that is, to the human will, that they run into that which is written, “Cursed is everyone who puts his hope in humankind.”

In order that we fall not away from the virtue of the soul, we ought to watch especially against those snares of the suggestions of the devil that we presume not of our own strength. For "cursed is everyone who places his hope in humankind." And who is he, but mortal? We cannot therefore truly say that the person who places his hope in humankind places it in himself. For this also is to "live after humankind," what is it but to "live after the flesh"? Whoever therefore is tempted by such a suggestion, let him hear, and if he has any Christian feeling, let him tremble. Let him hear, I say, "If you live after the flesh, you shall die."

We must find out from what source true perseverance, worthy of the name, is to be had. There are those who attribute it to the powers of human will, not those that people have from divine assistance, but from their own free will. But that is an arrogant error. It is the error of the rich about whom the psalm speaks: "a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud." Glorying in their own false endurance, they wish "to confound the counsel of the poor person, but the Lord is his hope." Since they are people and attribute so much to themselves, that is, to their human will, they do not tend to apply to themselves the words of Scripture: "Cursed is everyone who trusts in humankind."

No, I say that either before the law, or in the time of the Old Testament, they were freed from sins, not by their own power, because "cursed is everyone who has put his hope in humankind," and without any doubt those are under this curse whom also the sacred psalm notifies, "who trust in their own strength," nor by the old covenant that gives birth to bondage … but I say that they were freed by the blood of the Redeemer, who is the one Mediator of God and people, the Christ Jesus.

"They shall not be ashamed in the evil time." In the day of trouble, in the day of distress, they shall not be "ashamed," as one is ashamed whose hope deceives him. Who is the person who is "ashamed"? The one who says, "I have not found that which I was in hope of." Nor undeservedly either. You hoped for it from yourself or from a person, your friend. But "cursed is one who puts his trust in humankind." You are ashamed because your hope has deceived you; your hope that was based on a lie. - "Expositions of the Psalms 37.8"

The inquirer, then, might say that the prophet says only that Christ is God, without any reference to his human nature. Yet, in our apostolic doctrine, Christ is not only God in whom we may safely trust but also the mediator between God and humankind—the man Jesus. The prophet explains this in the words in which he seems to check himself, and to supply the omission: “The heart,” he says “is inscrutable above all things, and he is man, and who shall know him?” He is man in order that, in the form of a servant, he might heal the hard in heart and that they might acknowledge as God him who became man for their sakes, that their trust might be not in humankind, but in God—man.

His manhood was much more plainly and readily recognized by strangers, who, indeed, were not wrong in believing him to be man, but they did not understand his being God as well as man. Hence Jeremiah says, “He is man, and who shall know him?” He is a man, for it is made manifest that he is a brother. And who shall know him? For it is concealed that he is a husband [to the church]. This must suffice as a defense of our father Abraham against Faustus’s imprudence and ignorance and malice.

God searches our heart and perceives that it is there where our treasure is, that is, in heaven.… He alone perceives what in our inward conscience each of us thinks and delights in. Delight is the end of care because our whole goal in life is to reach what we think and care about most and attain it. God, who searches the heart, therefore sees our cares.… And when he finds that our cares incline neither to the lust of the flesh, nor to the lust of the eyes, nor to the pride of life … but to the joys of things eternal, which are spoiled by no change, he provides direction for the righteous. - "Expositions of the Psalms 7.9"