Augustine of Hippo

How much power in any case can mortals have? Let mortals hold on to justice; power will be given them when they are immortal. Compared with this, the power of those people who are called powerful on earth is shown to be ridiculous weakness, and "a pit is dug for the sinner" in the very place where the wicked seem to be able to do most. The just person sings, "Happy is the one whom you instruct, Lord, and teach from your law, in order to comfort him in evil days, until a pit is dug for the sinners. For the Lord will not reject his people or forsake his inheritance, until justice turns into judgment, and those who have it are all of an upright heart." So in this time during which the power of the people of God is being deferred, God will not reject his people or forsake his inheritance, however bitter and humiliating the trials it suffers in its humility and weakness, until the justice that now belongs to the weakness of the godly turns into judgment, that is until it receives the authority to judge, which is being reserved for the just in the end, when power follows in its proper order on the justice that preceded it.