The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^3. For how great things besides has His boundless Goodness and illimitable Greatness made, which we do not know! When we lift the gaze of our eyes even to the heaven, and then recall it from sun, moon, and stars to the earth, and there is all this space where our sight can wander; beyond the heavens who can extend the eyesight of his mind, not to say of his flesh? So far then as His works are known to us, let us praise Him through His works. “Generation and generation shall praise Your works”. Every generation shall praise Your works. For perhaps every generation is meant by “generation and generation.”...Did he perchance mean to imply two generations by that repetition? For we are in this generation sons of God, we shall be in another generation sons of the Resurrection. Scripture has called us “sons of the Resurrection;” the Resurrection itself it has called Regeneration. “In the regeneration,” it says, “when the Son of Man shall be seated in His Majesty.” So also in another place; “For they shall not marry, nor be given in marriage, for they are the sons of the Resurrection.” Therefore “generation and generation shall praise Your works....And they shall tell out Your excellence.” For neither shall they praise Your works, save in order to “tell out Your excellence.” Boys at school are set to praise, and all such things are set before them to be praised, as God has wrought: a mortal is set to praise the sun, the sky, the earth; to come to even lesser things, to praise a rose, or a laurel; all these are works of God: they are set, they are undertaken, they are praised: the works are lauded, of the Worker they are silent. I desire in the works to praise the Creator: I love not a thankless praiser. Do you praise what He has made, and art silent of Him who made? In that which you see, what is it that you praise? The form, the usefulness, some virtue, some power in the things. If beauty delight you, what is more beautiful than the Maker? If usefulness be praised, what more useful than He who made all things? If excellence be praised, what more excellent than He by whom all things were made?...

4. “They shall speak of the magnificence of the glory of Your Holiness, and shall record Your wondrous deeds”. “And the excellence of Your fearful works shall they speak of: and Your greatness, they shall relate it”. “The remembrance of the abundance of Your sweetness they shall pour forth”: none but Yours. See whether this man, meditating on Your works, has turned aside from the Worker to the work: see whether he has sunk from Him who made, to the things which He made. Of the things which He has made, he has made a step up to Him, not a descent from Him to them. For if you love these more than Him, you will not have Him. And what profit is it to you to overflow with the works, if the Worker leave you? Truly you should love them; but love Him more, and love them for His sake. For He does not hold out promises, without holding out threats also: if He held out no promises, there would be no encouragement; if He held out no threats, there would be no correction. They that praise You therefore shall “speak” also “of the excellence of Your terrible deeds;” the excellence of that work of Your hands which punishes and administers discipline, they shall speak of, they shall not be silent: for they shall not proclaim Your everlasting kingdom, and be silent about Your everlasting fire. For the praise of God, setting you in the way, ought to show you both what you should love, and what you should fear; what you should seek, and what you should shun; what you should choose, and what you should avoid. The time of choice is now, the time of receiving will be hereafter. Let then the excellence of Your terrible things be told. Unlimited as it is, though “of Your greatness there is no end,” they shall not be silent about it. How shall they recount it, if there is no end of it? They shall recount it when they praise it; and because there is no end of it, so of His praise also there shall be no end.

5. “The remembrance of the abundance of Your sweetness they shall pour forth.” O happy feasts! What shall they eat, who thus shall “pour forth”!...So eat, that you may pour forth again; so receive, that you may give. Thou eatest, when you learn, you pour forth again, when you teach, you eat, when you hear, you pour forth again, when you preach, but that you pour forth, which you have first eaten. Finally, that most eager feaster John, to whom the very table of the Lord sufficed not, unless he leaned on the Lord's breast, and of his inmost heart drank in divine secrets; what did he pour forth? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” How is it that it suffices not to say, “Your remembrance;” or, “the remembrance of Your abundance”? Because, what avails it if it be abundant, yet not sweet? So also it is annoying if it be sweet but too little.

6....By “pouring forth” this, His preachers “shall exult in His righteousness” not in their own. What then have You done unto us, O Lord, whom we praise, that we should be, that we should praise, that we should “exult in Your righteousness,” that we should “utter forth the remembrance of the abundance of Your sweetness”? Let us tell it, and, as we tell, let us praise.

7. “Merciful and pitiful is the Lord; long-suffering, and very merciful”. “Sweet is the Lord to all, and His compassions reach into all His works”. Were He not such as this, there would be no seeking to recover us. Consider yourself: what did you deserve, O sinner? Despiser of God, what did you deserve? See if anything occur to you but penalty, if anything occur to you but punishment. You see then what was due to you, and what He has given, who gave gratis. There was given pardon to the sinner; there was given the spirit of justification; there was given charity and love, wherein you may do all good works; and beyond this, He will give you also life everlasting, and fellowship with the angels: all of His mercy....Hear the Scripture: “I will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn, and live.” By these words of God, he is brought back to hope; but there is another snare to be feared, lest through this very hope he sin the more. What then did you also say, thou who through hope sinnest yet more? “Whenever I turn, God will forgive me all; I will do whatsoever I will.” Say not then, “Tomorrow I will turn, tomorrow I will please God; and all today's and yesterday's deeds shall be forgiven me.” You say true: God has promised pardon to your conversion; He has not promised a tomorrow to your delay.

8. “Sweet is the Lord to all, and His compassions are over all His works.” Why then does He condemn? Why does He scourge? Are not they whom He condemns, whom He scourges, His works? Plainly they are. And will you know how “His compassions are over all His works”? Thence is that long-suffering, whereby “He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” Are not “His compassions over all His works, who sends rain upon the just and upon the unjust”? In His long-suffering He waits for the sinner, saying, “Turn ye to Me, and I will turn to you.” Are not “His compassions over all His works”? And when He says, “Go ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” this is not His compassion, but His severity. His compassion is given to His works: His severity is not over His works, but over your works. Lastly, if you remove your own evil works, and there remain in you nought but His work, His compassion will not leave you: but if you leave not your works, there will be severity over your works, not over His works.