Augustine of Hippo
Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“"Lord, hear my voice. O let Your ears consider well the voice of my complaint" [Psalm 130:2]. Whence does he cry? From the deep. Who is it then who cries? A sinner. And with what hope does he cry? Because He who came to absolve from sins, gave hope even to the sinner down in the deep. What therefore follows after these words: "If Thou, Lord, will be extreme to mark what is amiss, O Lord, who may abide it?" [Psalm 130:3]. So, he has disclosed from what deep he cried out. For he cries beneath the weights and billows of his iniquities....He said not, I may not abide it: but, "who may abide it?" For he saw that near the whole of human life on every side was ever bayed at by its sins, that all consciences were accused by their thoughts, that a clean heart trusting in its own righteousness could not be found.”