For I forgot to eat my bread. At the sound of my groaning, my bones stuck to my flesh. I lost appetite for any food, and was completely bereft of my former good condition, my body being consumed by the wasting of discouragement; I am but skin and bones. The word of God, then, is our soul’s bread: just as ordinary bread nourishes the body, so the word from heaven [nourishes] the soul’s substance. In passing on the prayer,^[1] Christ said as much to the apostles, Give us this day our daily bread.^[2] So whoever forgets to eat it, that is, to be active (action, after all, constituting the eating of the spiritual bread, as is clear from the saying of the Lord to the apostles, Be active, not for the eating, which perishes, but for that which endures to life eternal),^[3] this one’s heart is stricken and dried up like hay. How does hay get stricken and dry up? When rain stops falling on it. As the heart, too, when suffering from a dearth of the word, is then stricken and dries up, the flower of virtue no longer has the strength to bloom.

So then the prophet comforted David as we have seen, but that blessed man, though he received most gladly the assurance, The Lord has put away your sin, did not, king as he was, draw back from penitence. Indeed he put on sackcloth in place of his purple robe, and the king sat in ashes on the bare earth instead of on his gilded throne. And in ashes he did not merely sit but took them for eating, as he himself says, I have eaten ashes as if bread and mingled my drink with weeping. His lustful eye he wasted away with tears; as he says, Every night I wash my bed and water my couch with my tears.^[1] And when his courtiers exhorted him to take bread, he would not, but he prolonged his fast for seven whole days. Now if a king was apt to make confession after this manner, should not you, as a private person, make your confession? Again, after Absalom’s rebellion, when David was in flight, with many roads to choose from before him, he chose to make his escape by the Mount of Olives, as good as invoking in his own mind the Deliverer who should from there ascend into the heavens. And when Shimei cursed him bitterly, he said, Let him be. For he knew that forgiveness is for those who forgive.^[2]

And after humility of mind, there is need of intense prayers, of many tears, tears by day and tears by night, for, he says, every night will I wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. I am weary with my groaning.^[1] And again, For I have eaten ashes as if bread and mingled my drink with weeping.

Indeed, to the penitent confession alone does not suffice, unless correction of the deed follows, with the result that the penitent does not continue to do deeds that demand repentance. He should even humble his soul just as holy David, who, when he heard from the prophet, Your sin is pardoned,^[1] became more humble in the correction of his sin, so that he did eat ashes like bread and mingled his drink with weeping.

But what have you heard about Jerusalem in the Psalms? For its stones are dear to your servants; its very dust moves them to pity, You, it says, will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to it. When the time came for God to show mercy, the Lamb came. What kind of Lamb is it whom the wolves fear? What kind of Lamb is it who, though killed, kills the lion? For the devil has been called a lion, going about and roaring, seeking someone to devour;^[1] by the Lamb’s blood the lion has been conquered. Behold the spectacles of Christians!

Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every person, but that no one knows the end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, Declare to me the shortness of my days. He desired information about that which he did not know. Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had still a long time to live, heard the words, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?^[1] And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit and says, A person also does not know his time.^[2] Wherefore the patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, Behold, I am old, and I know not the day of my death.^[3]

That which is said is also fulfilled in the saint: I will recall you from there in the end.^[1] For the end is considered to be the perfection of things and the consummation of virtues. Indeed for this reason also another saint said, Don’t recall me in the midst of my days. And again the Scripture bestows testimony on the great patriarch Abraham since Abraham died full of days.^[2] This statement, therefore, I will recall you from there in the end, is as if he had said, Since you have fought a good fight, you have kept the faith, you have finished the course,^[3] I will now recall you from this world to the future blessing, to the perfection of eternal life, to the crown of justice that the Lord will give in the end of the ages to all who love him.^[4]

For although it is hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each and how it is allotted, yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written, there is a time to die and a time to live. And so the time of the generation that lived in the days of Noah was cut short, and their years were contracted, because the time of all things was at hand. But to Hezekiah were added fifteen years. As God promises to them that serve him truly, I will fulfill the number of your days,^[1] Abraham dies full of days, and David urgently begged God, saying, Don’t take me away in the midst of my days. And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, You shall come to your grave like ripe corn, gathered in due time, and like as a shock of corn comes in its season.^[2] Solomon, confirming his words, says, The souls of the unrighteous are untimely taken away.^[3] And therefore he exhorts in the book of Ecclesiastes, saying, Don’t be too wicked, neither be hard: why should you die before your time?^[4]

And this^[1] is true. For no one is able to comprehend the works of God altogether. Moreover, the world is the work of God. No one, then, can find out as to this world what is its space from the beginning and to the end, that is to say, the period appointed for it and the limits before determined for it; in view of the fact that God has set the whole world as a realm of ignorance in our hearts. And thus one says, Declare to me the shortness of my days. In this manner, and for our profit, the end of this world [age]—that is to say, this present life—is a thing of which we are ignorant.

Heaven is of the world, humanity above the world; the one is part of the world, the other an inhabitant of paradise, Christ’s possession. Heaven is considered incorruptible, yet it passes away; humanity is regarded as corruptible and is clothed with incorruption; the figure of the one perishes, the other rises as being immortal. Yet, according to the authority of Scripture, the hands of the Lord fashioned both. We read of the heavens: The heavens are the works of your hands. Humankind, too, says, Your hands have made me and formed me,^[1] and The heavens declare the glory of God.^[2] As heaven is lighted with the splendor of the stars, so do humans shine with the light of their good works, and their deeds shine before their Father in heaven.^[3] The one is the firmament of heaven on high, the other is a similar firmament of which it is said, On this rock I will build my church;^[4] the one is a firmament of the elements, the other of virtues, and this last is more excellent. They sucked oil out of the hard stone,^[5] for the rock is Christ’s body that redeemed heaven and the entire world.^[6]

But it is not thus that the prophets and the apostles have told us that the world was made by God merely appearing and approaching matter. They did not even mention any matter but [said] that Wisdom was first set up, the beginning of his ways, for his works.^[1] Then that the Word was produced,^[2] through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.^[3] Indeed, by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their hosts by the breath of his mouth.^[4] He is the Lord’s right hand, indeed his two hands, by which he worked and constructed the universe. For, he says, the heavens are the works of your hands. Wherewith he has measured out the heaven, and the earth with a span.^[5] Do not be willing so to cover God with flattery, as to contend that he produced by his mere appearance and simple approach so many vast substances, instead of rather forming them by his own energies. For this is proved by Jeremiah when he says, God has made the earth by his power; he has established the world by his wisdom and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding.^[6] These are the energies by the stress of which he made this universe. His glory is greater if he labored.

In like manner David says, The heavens, the works of your hands, shall themselves perish. For even as a garment shall he change them, and they shall be changed. Now to be changed is to fall from that primitive state that they lose while undergoing the change. And the stars too shall fall from heaven, even as a fig tree casts its green figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.^[1] The mountains shall melt like wax at the presence of the Lord;^[2] that is, when he rises to shake terribly the earth.^[3] But I will dry up the pools;^[4] and they shall seek water, and they shall find none.^[5] Even the sea shall be no more.^[6] Now if any person should go so far as to suppose that all these passages ought to be spiritually interpreted, he will still be unable to deprive them of the true accomplishment of those issues that must come to pass just as they have been written. For all figures of speech necessarily arise out of real things, not out of chimerical ones; because nothing is capable of imparting anything of its own for a similitude, except it actually be that very thing that it imparts in the similitude. I return therefore to the principle that defines that all things that have come from nothing shall return at last to nothing.

But this opinion^[1] could not withstand the words of the prophet, which the divine majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, has confirmed in the Gospel. For David has said, In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain, and all of them shall grow old as a garment. And as a robe you shall change them, and they shall be changed. But you are always the same, and your years shall not fail. To such a degree did the Lord confirm this that he said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.^[2]

When he has gone to sleep, he will not rise again even until the heaven is unstitched.^[1] This appears to mean, until heaven is made new. For there will be a new heaven and a new earth,^[2] just as it is written. For what is stitched up is old, and what is old will be changed. Then listen as the psalmist says, In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain; and all of them shall grow old like a garment, and you shall change them like a garment, and they shall be changed. We are able also to weave on the garment, because what is old is stitched on, whereas what is new suffers violence. From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.^[3] The synagogue stitched on it in the case of a few; the church forces it in the case of thousands. Or else the meaning is that heaven now appears to be stitched on, being often interwoven with clouds and mist and the darkness of night and the golden redness of the rising day, a various and multicolored sight. Then night shall be no more, and they shall have no need of light of lamp and light of sun, because the Lord will shed light on them,^[4] even as John said. Or else, Woe to those who sew pillows to overthrow the souls of the people.^[5] The prophet was lamenting the wretched frailty of our condition, that has no rest in this life and loses everything by death’s sudden onset. For the Holy Spirit revealed to him that man would not arise for so long a time, until he should come who would not stitch the old to the new nor join new material to old material^[6] but would make all things new, even as he said, Behold, I make all things new!^[7] For he is the resurrection, the firstborn from the dead,^[8] in whom we have all indeed received the prerogative of a future resurrection; yet till now he alone has risen in a perpetual resurrection.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, is to come from heaven, and to come with glory at the end of this world, on the last day. For an end of this world there will be; this created world will be made new again. Corruption, theft, adultery and sins of every kind have flooded the earth, and bloodshed has been paid with blood; so to prevent this wondrous dwelling place from continuing forever filled with iniquity, this world is to pass away, to make room for a fairer world. You want proof of this from Scripture? Listen to Isaiah: The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their hosts shall wither away as the leaf on the vine or as the fig withers on the fig tree.^[1] And the Gospel says, The sun shall be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven.^[2] Let us not grieve as though we alone were to die, for the stars also will die; but perhaps they will rise again. The Lord shall fold up the heavens, not to destroy them but to raise them up more beautiful. Listen to David the prophet: Of old you established the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain. But someone will say, Behold, he says plainly that ‘they shall perish.’ Ah, but hear in what sense he says, ‘they shall perish’; it is clear from what follows: ‘though all of them grow old like a garment. Like clothing you change them, and they are changed.’ For just as humankind is said to perish, according to the text, The just perishes, and no one takes it to heart,^[3] and this is said, though the resurrection is expected, so we look for a resurrection of the heavens.

There are many allusions to the last judgment in the Psalms, but for the most part only casual and slight. I cannot, however, omit to mention what is said there in express terms of the end of this world: In the beginning hast Thou laid the foundations of the earth, O Lord; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shall endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; and as a vesture Thou shall change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.

Hold most firmly and never doubt that the holy Trinity, the only true God, just as it is eternal, is likewise the only one by nature unchangeable. God indicates this when he says to his servant Moses, I am which I am.^[1] Hence, it is said in the psalms, In the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure.

For this very reason, a certain one of the interpreters^[1] seems to me to have handed over beautifully and accurately the same thought^[2] through another title, saying, For the lilies, in place of, For them that shall be changed. He thought that it was appropriate to compare the transitoriness of human nature with the early death of flowers. But, since this word has been inflected in the future tense (it is said: For them that shall be changed, as if at some time later this change will be shown to us), let us consider whether there is suggested to us the doctrine of the resurrection, in which a change will be granted to us, but a change for something better and something spiritual. What is sown in corruption, he says, rises in incorruption. Do you see the change? What is sown in weakness rises in power; what is sown a natural body rises a spiritual body,^[3] when every corporeal creature will change together with us. Also, The heavens shall grow old like a garment, and as a robe God shall change them, and they shall be changed.^[4] Then, according to Isaiah, The sun will be sevenfold, and the moon like the present size of the sun.^[5]

But, if you think the word through implies inferiority, listen to [the prophet] saying, In the beginning you did establish the earth, and heaven is the work of your hands. What is said of the Father as Creator is meant also of the Son; he would not have said it if he had not the same opinion of him as Creator, and as not inferior to anyone. And if the words through him are used here, they are employed with no other view than that no one may subscribe to the idea that the Son is unbegotten.

Suppose they^[1] say, though, that the Lord’s own divine substance is not the same when he is with the Father as it was when he wished to show himself on earth without taking a body, then what else have the poor fools committed themselves to, but saying that the divine substance is subject to change in place and time? They do not want to read, or they find it difficult to understand, what is said by the prophet, They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them, and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end; and what is written in the book of divine Wisdom about Wisdom: While remaining in herself, she renews all things.^[2]

If, however, they^[1] do not say so impure but so weak, we agree entirely. And that is why Christ is our strength, because he was not changed by our weakness. Here I recognize the aptness of the prophet’s words, You will change them, and they shall be changed; but you yourself are the same, and your years shall not fail. Not only did the weakness of the flesh not change him for the worse, but by him it was changed for the better.

Therefore the Image of the unalterable God must be unchangeable; for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.^[1] And David in the psalm says of him, You, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain; and they all shall grow old as does a garment. And you shall fold them up as a piece of clothing, and they shall be changed, but you are the same, and your years shall not fail. And the Lord says of himself through the prophet, See now that I, even I am he, and I change not.^[2]

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^[1] 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.^[2] The apostle Paul says, To the invisible, incorruptible, only wise God.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

Even in the case of our own soul, when we say that it cannot die, we do not predicate weakness of it, but we proclaim its capacity of immortality. And similarly when we confess the immutability, impassibility and immortality of God, we cannot attribute to the divine nature change, passion or death. Suppose they insist that God can do whatever he will, you must reply to them that he wishes to do nothing that it is not his nature to do. He is good by nature; therefore he does not wish anything evil. He is just by nature; therefore he does not wish anything unjust. He is true by nature; therefore he considers falsehood abominable. He is by nature immutable; therefore he does not admit of change. If he does not admit of change, he is always in the same state and condition. This he himself asserts through the prophet: I am the Lord; I change not.^[1] And the blessed David says, You are the same, and your years shall have no end. If he is the same, he undergoes no change. If he is naturally superior to change and mutation, he has not become mortal from immortal or passible from impassible, for had this been possible he would not have taken on him our nature. But since he has an immortal nature, he took a body capable of suffering, and with the body a human soul. Both of these he kept unstained from the defilements of sin and gave his soul for the sake of the souls that had sinned and his body for the sake of the bodies that had died. And since the body that was assumed is described as the body of the very only-begotten Son of God, he refers the passion of the body to himself.