and this hope was very manifest; but yet it was a human hope, often failing. And we see many such things happening in life, and that desires which were very much expected remained unfulfilled, while things that had not even come into our minds have often come to pass, and this we see happening always, in magistracies, in royal governments, in inheritances, and in marriages. So that even if the time was very near, yet many things, according to the proverb, “are between the cup and the lip.” And Scripture also says, “From morning until evening the time changes.” Thus also the king who is today, tomorrow dies. And again, this same wise man, showing us things contrary to hope, says: “Many tyrants have sat upon the ground, and one who was never suspected has worn the crown.” And it was not at all certain that, having lived, he would reach that position of authority; for the future is uncertain and provided us with reasons to suspect other outcomes. For whence was it clear that he would live to reach that authority? Because things contrary did not also happen, and he fall from the honor he had, being given over to disease, or being struck down by the envy and jealousy of those who wished to outdo him, or having suffered some other grievous thing? But let us assume, if you wish, and that it is clearly manifest that he was bound to survive and was going to attain that summit; for the greater the dignity, the greater the necessity of having dangers and anxieties and plots. But let not even these things be, but rather let him cross that sea without danger and with much peace; and what is the end, tell me? Is it not what is present now, or rather, not this, but something else perhaps unpleasant and undesirable? First, that it is slower to see heaven and things in the A heavens, which is no small loss for those who have believed in things to come; then, even if he had lived very purely, yet the length of life and the necessity of that authority would not B have let him depart as pure as he is now. But it is uncertain whether, even if he had received many changes and inclined toward negligence, he would have breathed his last in the end. For now we have confidence that by the grace of God he has flown to the place of rest, because nothing had dared to approach him of those things which bar one from the kingdom of heaven; but then, having spent a long time in public C affairs, perhaps he would have contracted much filth. For it is among the very rare things for one moving in the midst of so many evils to succeed, while to sin, both involuntarily and voluntarily, is one of the things that are probable and always happening. But now we are relieved of this fear, and we are very convinced that on that day he will arrive with much brightness, shining near the King, and marching before Christ with angels, and clothed in the ineffable glory, and standing by the King as He judges, and ministering the first services to Him. Wherefore, leaving behind D lamentations and wailings, hold to the same manner of life, or rather, even a more exact one, that you may reach a virtue equal to his, and may inhabit the same tabernacle with him, and be able to be joined to him again for those immortal ages, not this union of marriage, but another much better. For this is only a connection of bodies; but then there will be a union of soul with soul that is more exact, and much sweeter and better.
BY THE SAME, TO THE SAME, ON MONOGAMY.
1. That men should seek out such infinite, troublesome associations, and pains, and all other things which marriage drags in as it enters into the homes of men—there is nothing wonderful in this; for the proverb says that even war, a matter so painful to the inexperienced, is sweet. But that those who have endured ten thousand evils, and often having been persuaded by the necessity of circumstances, have blessed those who were freed from the things of the world, and have cursed themselves, and their matchmakers, and the day on which their wedding chambers were woven—that these, after so much bitterness, should again desire the same things, this is what most of all strikes me and makes me at a loss, and to seek the cause for which the things which they previously thought were to be avoided, when they were in them, these now, when they have been freed from them, they seek again as desirable. And turning ten thousand reasonings in my mind up and down, I could hardly at any time persuade myself and find the cause of the matter; or rather, there is not one cause, nor two only, but more than these. For some, having surrendered the previous things to oblivion through the length of time, and remembering only the things at hand, come indeed to marriage as to a release from the evils of widowhood, but they find in it other things much more grievous, so as again to utter the same cries as before. But others again, gaping at the things of the world, and hanging on the glory of the present life, and thinking widowhood to be a disgraceful thing, choose the miseries that are in marriage, for the sake of vain glory and superfluous pride. And there are those who are overcome neither by these, but by incontinence alone, and return again to the former things, and try to conceal the true cause with the aforementioned pretexts. And so, to censure and condemn them for this marriage, I neither dare myself, nor do I advise another to do so; since this does not seem right even to the blessed Paul, or rather, to the Holy Spirit. For having said, “A woman is bound by the law for as long a time as her husband lives; but if her husband should fall asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord,” and having granted to the widow, if she should wish to be married again,
and saying: "But she is happier if she so remain," A in order that no one might think the command was merely human, he added: "I think that I also have the Spirit of God," declaring that he wrote these things by the Spirit.
Let no one, therefore, think that in what I shall now say I am accusing or blaming those who marry. For it would be the height of folly and madness for one whom that blessed man did not punish, but spared, for me to condemn—and that, too, when we are ourselves filled with ten thousand evils. For if we are commanded not to judge, that we may not be judged by the same measure, nor to be harsh judges of the sins of others, but rather sympathetic and gentle; when you condemn others for a matter that is not even a sin, you deprive yourself of all sympathy, making the Judge harsher toward yourself by your own harshness toward your neighbor. I have not, therefore, come to this task now to accuse or attack them; for that which can exist "in the Lord" is free from all accusation. For he says only: "in the Lord." As then, when we speak in favor of virginity, we do not dishonor marriage by exalting the former; so when we discuss widowhood, we do not, by placing second marriage among things forbidden, exhort [them] to be content with the former, but we acknowledge it indeed to be a marriage according to the law, yet we say the one is much better than the second. Let no one, therefore, think that the superiority by comparison is a proof of the wickedness of the thing that has been lessened by it. For we do not make this comparison by thrusting the matter into the rank of evil things; but letting it be among those that are permitted and within one’s power, we thus prefer and admire that which is by far superior. Why so? Because it is not the same thing for a woman to be the wife of one husband as it is to be the wife of a second. For she who has been satisfied with the first has shown that she would not have chosen even this one, had she known the experience of the thing well; but she who introduces a second bridegroom into the bed of the former has provided no small evidence of her great love for the world and her sympathy for earthly things. And the former was not even, while her husband was living, excited toward any other; but the latter, even if she did not sin against others while he was living, yet she admired many others more than him.
B But that we may not guess about a life that has passed, let us compare the very matter itself. For as virginity is better than marriage, so this marriage is better than that one. For the widow, having been lessened only from virginity from the start, at the end is equalized and united with it again; but this marriage stands apart from both of her states. And besides these things, she who easily bears her widowhood often practices self-restraint even while her husband is alive; but she who finds the state burdensome is prepared to consort not only with two or three, but with many more husbands, and only with difficulty does she desist when old age has come upon her. As, therefore, that marriage is a sign of much dignity and temperance, so this one—I would not say it is a matter of licentiousness, far be it!—is [a sign] of a weak soul, and one that is very carnal, and bound to the earth, and unable ever to imagine anything great or elevated.
If anyone should say that the good is the same, whether it happens once, or twice, or many times (for it will be equally good, and he who uses it often would more justly be praised; so if marriage is a good thing, he who has used it continuously is more worthy of admiration and more acceptable than he who has used it rarely), we will say that while this might deceive the simpler ones, to those who are willing to pay attention, the sophism will be easily detected. For marriage is not called marriage because of the intercourse—for in that case, prostitution would also be marriage—but because of the woman’s being satisfied with one husband; and in this, the free and temperate wife is distinguished from the harlot. For if she were satisfied with one husband throughout, the matter would reasonably be called marriage; but if, instead of one, she brings many bridegrooms into the house, I do not dare to call the matter prostitution, but I would say that it falls by a wide margin short of being the woman who knows no other husband but one. For that woman heard the Lord saying: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh"; and she truly held fast to her own flesh, and did not forget the head once given to her; but this one held neither the first nor the second in the status of her own flesh. For the first has been cast out by the second, and the second by the former; and she could not well remember the previous one while attending to the other after him, nor will she look upon the latter with the proper affection, as her mind is divided toward the one who has departed. So that both consequences follow: that this one and that one have been cast out of the honor and love becoming a husband from a wife. And what kind of soul does she think the second bridegroom has, when he is led into the chamber of the former, and ascends into his bed, and sees the former’s wife laughing and joking over these things? Very much so! For she will not approach him with great affection; for even if he were the most callous of all men, he would not be so savage as not to be affected by something human, even if she adorns herself and the house with ten thousand embellishments. For the grief that has already taken hold of the house does not permit the joy to be pure; but just as on walls, when a part happens to be thoroughly scorched, and then is quietly whitewashed, the depth and intensity of the blackness keeps damaging the whiteness of the surface, and it is an unpleasant sight; so here too, even if she thinks up many brilliant things, in the midst of them the gloominess shines through, and there is a certain unpleasant mixture in them. For even the servants, and the handmaids, and the laborers, and the neighbors, and the relations of the one who has departed…
and relatives of the departed look dejected at what has happened and groan. And if orphan children happen to be left behind, being very young, they kindle in the mother a fierce hatred on the part of those who are able to understand what is happening; but if they happen to be grown, they cause those (mothers) more annoyance than all else. Since the lawgivers have perceived all these things, and are comforting those who suffer because of them, and apologizing for themselves—in that they did not ordain this marriage with intent or primarily, but fearing lest some worse evil happen—they have renounced all the festive elements of a second marriage. And neither flute, nor cheers, nor nuptial hymn, nor dances, nor bridal wreaths, nor anything else of that sort adorns that evening; but, having stripped it of all these things, they thus lead the husband to the widow woman without wreaths, almost crying out through these acts that they perform all these things for the sake of indulgence, and not for the sake of praise, cheers, and wreaths. C
γ'. How then did Paul forbid widowhood, he says, even to those young ones who wish for it, by writing thus: "But the younger widows refuse"? It is not that Paul forbade those who wish to live in widowhood, but they themselves compelled Paul—even against his will—to ordain this law for them. For if you wish to learn Paul’s will, hear what he says: "I wish that all men might be as I myself am," in continence. So that blessed man would not have fought against himself, nor would he have fallen into such contradiction, nor would he who wishes all men [353] to be in continence have forbidden those who wish to live in widowhood. How then does he say, "But the younger widows refuse"? But tell me, for what reason and why? For he did not speak thus simply, but he also appended the cause, saying: "For when they have waxed wanton against Christ, they wish to marry." See that it is not those who wish to live in widowhood, but those who prefer to marry after having lived in widowhood, that he forbids to remain in widowhood and to be enrolled in that holy choir. And he moves very wisely. For if you are about, he says, to engage in second marriages, do not even promise widowhood; for to act thoughtlessly after the promise is much worse than not promising at all. Just as, then, he allowed frequent intercourse, not legislating, but sympathizing with them: "For this I say," he says, "by way of concession, not by way of command, because of your lack of self-control"—so also here, he ordained the second marriage because of another, greater evil, showing that this too is a matter of concession, to the weakness of the many yielding. By weakness, I do not mean of power, but of choice. For just as a virgin, having been corrupted after the profession of virginity, has dared something worse than adultery, so also a widow, once having made a profession, then trampling upon the covenants with God, will fall under the same sin and will be liable to the same punishment; and if one must say something even more wonderful, perhaps even to much greater. For it is not the same thing, as I said at the beginning, for the inexperienced and for one who has tasted to fall back into the same temptations. D
And not here only, but also having said beforehand, and again saying, "I wish for younger widows to marry, to bear children, to rule the household," he adds the cause for which he wishes these things. And what is this? "So as," he says, "to give no occasion to the adversary for the sake of reproach." Since it was likely that many of the widows at that time made use of their life afterwards too recklessly and too audaciously, as if released from some necessity and dominion of the union with a husband, even drawing upon themselves an evil reputation through this forwardness, he, leading them away from this destructive liberty, leads them back to the former yoke. For if one, he says, being a widow, is likely to commit fornication in secret and to shame herself, it is much better to marry, and to give no occasion to the adversary for the sake of reproach. So for the sake of not providing occasions for reproach, and of living a life of insult and fornication, he ordained marriage. Hear then how many things he accuses them of. For whereas they ought to have turned to prayers and supplications for the entire time: "But they," he says, "also learn to be idle, wandering about the houses; and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not." But he himself does not wish this, but for her to be nailed fast at all times to spiritual things. "For she that liveth in pleasure," he says, "is dead while she liveth." Since he wishes to define this good [354] not by the purity of the body, but that the entire leisure be spent on the worship of God. "For this," he says, "I say for your profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for the becoming and attentive toward the Lord without distraction." For he does not wish her to be divided, but to be wholly of the spiritual things and of those in the heavens, and to be anxious for the things of the Lord. So he also exhorts the widow to live, saying: "And she that is truly a widow and desolate, hath hoped in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day." When, therefore, they spend the leisure, which ought to be spent on evangelical matters, not only on useless and unprofitable things, but even on things most harmful, squandering their entire life, he naturally leads them to marriage henceforth. As, therefore, God gave the Sabbath to the Jews, not that they should be idle simply, but that they should abstain from evil deeds; so also the widow and the virgin, not that they may simply not have intercourse with a man do they choose this life, but that they may be anxious for the things of the Lord, that they may wait upon the service of God fully.
δ'. Yes, he says; but it will be an unbearable evil for a woman, being inexperienced in affairs, to be forced to endure the men’s burdens. For she will neither be able to manage them as he did, and she will gain nothing but sorrows from these things and the loss of everything. Are all, then, who have not engaged in second marriages, lost all their own things, and failed in everything, and is it not possible to see a widow woman presiding over affairs? These are pretexts and excuses and veils of one's own weakness. For many of the women have presided over households and reared children even more bravely than men.
(this is the first page of the chain)
orphans, and have increased the substance in hand, and some have not diminished it. For God, from the beginning, did not entrust everything to men, nor did He leave the things in life to depend solely upon them; for otherwise the woman would have been contemptible, contributing nothing to our life. Knowing this, God assigned to her a portion no less; and, making this manifest from above, He said, "Let us make a helper for him." For so that the man might not, because he was born first, or because the woman was made for his sake, become haughty against her, He restrained his arrogance by this word, showing that the things of the world are not in less need of the woman than of the man. A What, then, are these things, and in what does she cooperate with us for the subsistence of life? Since private matters uphold the present state of affairs no less than public ones, He divided them, and committed all things in the marketplace to the men, and those in the house to the women; and if they should exchange their roles, everything would be corrupted and lost; thus each is in his own domain far more useful than the other. If, therefore, the things of the house depend upon feminine science, and the woman is so much better than the man in this, as craftsmen are compared to unskilled workers in those things where they are craftsmen, why do we fear this fear to no purpose? B For to acquire and gather from without is peculiar to men alone, and it is not right for women; but to keep and guard what has been gathered is hers alone. So that, even if it seems that to acquire is more than to keep, yet without the latter, the former also becomes useless and redundant; and often, even when the latter is present, the former not only has been of no benefit, but has even ruined everything. For since it is a difficult matter for a man earning from without to acquire just gains (for as a rule such men traffic in the misfortunes of others), they often have damaged, by the wife’s skill and domestic management, what was brought into their hands, even if unjustly and by force. C So, if acquiring is greater than keeping, it is shown in another way to be less, when it not only contributes nothing to the increase of one’s goods, but even destroys what is laid up. Why, then, does the widow fear that in the absence of her husband she might manage the affairs of the house worse than she did when he was alive? "But," she says, "it is handled more easily, because on account of his fear there is no one opposing or causing difficulty." For servants and stewards and overseers and all are cowed, and obey with much persuasion, and there is no one who speaks against her; but when he who causes fear is gone, all trample upon the widow, commit wrong, act insolently, and confuse and plunder everything; and if she seeks to prosecute and defend herself, by twisting, whipping, or casting into prison, there come condemnations, insults, and accusations from the many. D If, however, she should trample upon the covenants with the one who has departed, and forget his affection, and the evening on which he was first joined to her, and the noise, and the wedding song, and the nuptial torches, and the first embraces, and the meals, and the salt 616 which she shared with him for all time, and the words which it is fitting for a wife to enjoy from a husband; if she suddenly throws all these away as if they had never happened, and, having flung open the doors of the house to another, draws into the marriage bed him who is privy to all that was before—if she does these things, is there no one to blame her, or to accuse her? Is there no one who will hate her, and proclaim her heartless, and faithless, and covenant-breaking, and all such things?
5. For do not imagine that, because the blessed Paul permitted the matter, it is already worthy of praise, and that she has been delivered from the condemnation of the many. For it is indeed devoid of punishment and vengeance, but it could not participate in praises and encomiums. For even to be somewhat wanton and lascivious, and not to abstain from the wife either in the time of fasting or at any other time, is indeed far and removed from punishment, but not at all near to praise; for the very act of consenting so much is nothing other than a sign of weakness and great inattention. So if you fear that you might receive a reputation for boldness on account of the censure of your servants, you ought to fear before this that you might smear upon yourself a reputation for such lasciviousness and dissipation. Besides these things, it will be better for the widow to undertake the matter, so that her many affairs may be in security, and she may not only not be blamed, but even be praised by all, and before this, attain the good things from God. For if you wish to entrust your money to heaven, and bury it in that inviolable place, it will not only not be diminished, but will even become much greater. For such is this seed. But if she is less able to reach that point of legislation, and does not wish to transfer everything all at once, let her consider again that even if she takes a husband, she will not necessarily take one such as to add to what she has; but if indeed he should be such a one, let her not think only of this, the addition of money, but that she will be led to offend God and men in many things. For if he be of those who are powerful and have great strength, there are times when he will compel her to do and suffer many things against her will, and what she feared in widowhood, this she will undergo now with greater necessity; and not only this, but also that it is likely she will receive the change most quickly. For being a widow, even if she should diminish some of these things, yet she will hold what remains with much security; but joined to a powerful man, and one who manages the affairs of the city, or who pursues some other concern, she will often suddenly lose everything; for it is necessary that those who dwell with men share in their misfortunes. If nothing of the sort happens, what is the gain, tell me, to choose servitude instead of freedom? And what is the benefit of much money, when she is not able to use it as she wishes? Is it not much better to have a few things with freedom, than to have the things of the world while also being subject to another with them? For the cares, and the insults, and the reproaches, and the jealousies, and the suspicions to no purpose...
and toils, and all other things, I omit for now. For he who is conversing with a virgin will naturally discourse also about these things, since she is inexperienced and ignorant of those matters; but one would harass a widow by saying these things. For it is superfluous for the discourse to try to teach her what she has already learned more accurately through experience. And it is well to add this, that the virgin who marries will converse with greater boldness and freedom than one who marries after widowhood. For while one may cherish the latter as a wife, he does not take her as a virgin; and that those loves are far more intense and maddened than these is surely evident to everyone; but he will not embrace and kiss the former with every passion, as one who is not inexperienced with any man. For we are all, so to speak, 357 naturally inclined, whether by jealousy, or vanity, or I know not what other source, to love most those things of which we have the power and enjoyment not with others, but rather ourselves have been established as the first and sole masters. One might see this happening to us even with garments; for we are not disposed in the same way toward those that have come to us for use from others as toward those that have come from no one else. This also holds true for a house and for household goods; for we do not love a house given to us by another in the same way as one we have built ourselves; and among household goods, those that are newly made and receive their first use from us we keep with great frugality and care, while those that have come to us from others we do not fully welcome, but turn away from them so much that we often dispense with them. If, then, this affection happens to us regarding houses and garments and goods, consider how it is likely to occur with intensity in the case of a wife, than whom there is nothing more precious to men. For while we might share those other things with those who wish, as for her, it is not right for us to do so, and we would sooner be parted from our soul than endure such a thing. Thus, he approaches the virgin, as I said, being untouched and his own, having become no one else’s, with every eagerness; but he will not look upon one previously joined to another with the same friendship and goodwill.
B Nor should you say that these things happen rarely and once in a while, but that they are shown continuously in the nature of things. And it is not only for these reasons that she will enjoy greater boldness, but also for many others. For he could easily reproach her as being held in contempt by him, and bring forward as proof of this neglect the distrust which had arisen toward her on account of the former husband, and silence her, and regarding things that have happened, and also perhaps regarding things that will not even happen. For he who has gone, having been scorned, will persuade the living one to suspect these things regarding himself, even if they have not occurred. Nor will he alone be burdensome by constantly bringing these things before her, but also servants and handmaids, even if not openly, at least secretly murmuring, will cast countless taunts at her. And if it should happen that children of the deceased are left behind young, how will she rear them, and how will she preside over them? And for whose orphans is it not more difficult to live seeing as they do that their father's belongings, and servants, and house, and fields, and—the sum of all—their mother, belong to another? How will they be able to be disposed as toward a mother? And how will she be as toward children whom she is forced to be ashamed of and to blush before, and for whom she does not have all motherly affection, her mind being divided into the children of him?
What then, if the girl is very young, he says, and has enjoyed the husband for but a short time? For this is spoken by me to maidens, not to those who have grown old; for I shall not even discuss this with those who do so, for if long time and age and all other things did not persuade them to refrain from a second marriage, much less will we, for the discourse from us will not persuade them; but my whole discourse is toward these. What then, if she is a maiden, he says, and has lived with the first husband for only a year when she remarries C again? For what reason will you prefer her over one who has spent her twentieth and thirtieth year in marriage? Not I, but the blessed Paul; for he says, "But she is happier if she so remain." For what if she indeed lived for a long time with her husband, but with one and the same person and only him, to whom she was allotted from the beginning? But she has given herself to two, and that in a short time. "But she did not do it willingly," he says; "for if the first were living, she would not have loved another after him; but since he departed before the hour, she was joined to a second again by necessity." By what necessity? For I see another necessity greater than the one you speak of, sufficient to hold her to the deceased, namely, having enjoyed the bitter things of the world. For the one who has lived with them for a long time, and has been well sated, will touch upon the same things again as one who will obtain the same things; but she who has experienced such grievous preludes, with what resolve and hope will she come to the trial of the grievous? For not even if someone wishing to trade, before he gains anything, as soon as he leaves the harbor, encounters shipwreck, will he easily touch upon the business thereafter. Nor, with any reason, would one who has expected many pleasant things, before properly taking trial of them, love the things of the world having seen such mourning, unless she happens to be very incontinent. Rather, if she should be very much inclined toward them and be very attached to them, the aversion of the beginning is sufficient to quench all her desire for them. For we are accustomed to persevere in things most when we have experienced good preludes; but when from the beginning and from the very, as one might say, starting line we perceive grievous and difficult things, we are quickly turned back, our resolve being quenched for us. So that those who have endured untimely widowhoods, these might naturally refrain from a second marriage so as not to suffer the same things again. For she who remains in widowhood will have security, and will not suspect another such mourning again; but she who has engaged in a second marriage will be forced to expect this terrible thing. And besides, if widowhood is one thing, not all...
A shall receive the same rewards for it, but some will receive more, and others less. For those who have taken up the yoke in youth will enjoy more both of the honor and of the gift, but those who are at the very onset of old age will not be treated in the same way as they. Why is this? Because the former endured everything for the sake of the fear of God, when there were many obstacles, while the latter did not suffer even a small drop of sweat or any labor; for how could she, when there was no circumstance compelling her? Just as, therefore, she who has given herself to a second is inferior to her who keeps to one husband, so she who continues in widowhood during her very youth will be able to surpass by a great measure the one who lost her husband in old age. Although to both the husband has been one, yet this one has run the race of purity, while the other was left behind in many of the stadium's laps. Do not, therefore, look at the labor only, but also at the reward. For most of our good works seem difficult to us because, by constantly turning over their toil and sweat in our minds, we do not consider the rewards stored up B for them. But we should not do this; rather, we should consider the rewards together with the labors, and so they will appear easy to us, just as they truly are. For the soldier, having considered not the wounds alone, nor the falls, nor the death, but also the trophies and the victories and all the other honors, thus goes forward into the battle. And the farmer also, having set before his eyes not the plowing alone, nor the labor of digging, but also the threshing floor and the winepresses, thus applies himself to his work. In the same way, let us also lighten the toil of widowhood with good hopes, and let us do so much more than they; for whereas for them, many things often interrupted their expectation of what was not in their own control, for us, there is no one who will put our hopes to shame, unless we ourselves should wish it. Let us not, then, wish it, but considering that the widow is not far C behind the virgin (and there is even a case where she has surpassed her, when the virgin is entangled in affairs, while the widow, according to Paul, being left alone and hoping in God, devotes herself to supplications and prayers, and keeps herself from worldly affairs), let us take up this struggle, that we may attain to the crowns within it. These things have been said to you not because of necessity, nor, as I said, in order to condemn those who do not wish to remain widows—it is not for this that I have come to this exhortation—but to encourage and urge you not to be tied so much to the earth, but, having once been released, to remain free, and to seek the heaven, and to demonstrate the manner of life that is there, and, having been wedded to Christ, to do all things as befits those who have such a bridegroom. For to Him befits all glory, honor, and adoration, with the unoriginate Father D and His life-giving and holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.